Truck Accident Statute of Limitations in Kentucky (2026)

Your deadlines in Kentucky, calculated

Enter the date of your crash and the tool below will work out both clocks — the legal filing deadline and the much shorter window before the proof can be destroyed. Kentucky is already selected. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.

What makes Kentucky different

Kentucky has one of the shortest injury deadlines in the country — one year. There is a well-known extension for motor vehicle claims tied to no-fault (PIP) benefit payments, which can give two years from the last payment, but it depends on PIP actually having been paid and should never be assumed. Kentucky's wrongful death clock is stranger still: it runs from the appointment of the estate's personal representative, capped at two years from death, so delay in opening the estate does not buy time.

The four Kentucky deadlines that matter

On the injury period: Kentucky's baseline is one of the shortest in the country. A separate no-fault provision, KRS § 304.39-230(6), often gives a motor vehicle claimant two years from the last basic reparation (PIP) payment — but that extension depends on PIP having been paid, so it should never be assumed.

On the wrongful death period: Measured from appointment of the personal representative, subject to an outer limit of two years from the date of death. Delay in opening the estate does not buy unlimited time.

Claims against a government entity in Kentucky

The shortest government notice window found for Kentucky — 1 year (Board of Claims) (KRS § 49.140). This is the deadline that quietly ends claims: it comes due long before the ordinary filing deadline, it is a precondition to suing rather than a suggestion, and missing it usually bars the claim entirely no matter how strong the case is.

Negligence claims against the Commonwealth go to the Kentucky Claims Commission. Counties and cities have their own notice and immunity rules — confirm the specific entity immediately.

Public fleets you could realistically be hit by in Kentucky: Kentucky Transportation Cabinet maintenance trucks, county road department equipment, TARC buses in Louisville, LexTran in Lexington, and school district buses. If you are not certain whether the vehicle that hit you was one of these, work to the shorter deadline until somebody confirms otherwise. The downside is not symmetrical.

If the injured person was a minor

Tolled to age 18 in Kentucky under KRS § 413.170 — the clock generally does not start until the injured person turns 18.

That pause applies to the court deadline. It does not apply to the evidence. A carrier is entitled to destroy a driver's logs six months after the crash whether the injured person is 8 or 38, and in many states a government notice deadline is not tolled for a child either. A tolled filing deadline and an untouched evidence deadline is the most dangerous combination on this page.

When the Kentucky clock starts

Limited. Kentucky applies the discovery rule mainly to latent injuries and professional negligence.

Why the evidence clock in Kentucky is much shorter

Kentucky's filing deadline is 1 year. The federal retention rules that govern the trucking company are measured in weeks and months:

• Dashcam and telematics video — often 30 days or less. No federal retention requirement — vendor and carrier policy only.
• ECM / black box data — overwritten as the tractor keeps running, and routinely lost when it is repaired or resold.
• Driver logs and records of duty status — six months (49 CFR § 395.8(k)(1)).
• Maintenance and repair records — one year while the vehicle is in the carrier's control (49 CFR § 396.3(c)).
• Annual inspection report — 14 months (49 CFR § 396.21(b)(1)).

The way to stop those clocks is a preservation letter to the carrier — a written demand that specific evidence be kept. Until it arrives, destroying records at the end of a retention period is routine and lawful. Our FMCSA regulations and evidence guide explains what each of these records contains.

Truck traffic in Kentucky

Louisville is a global air-cargo hub, which puts an enormous volume of time-critical ground freight on I-65 and I-64 overnight. Eastern Kentucky adds heavy coal and aggregate haulage on mountain two-lanes.

The corridors where these crashes concentrate: I-65 (Louisville–Bowling Green–Tennessee), I-75 (Cincinnati–Lexington–Knoxville), I-64 (Louisville–Lexington–West Virginia), I-71 and the Western Kentucky Parkway and US-23 through the eastern coalfields.

Neighbouring states have different clocks

A crash a few miles across a state line can be governed by a completely different deadline. If you are not certain which state your crash happened in — near a border, on a bridge, or on an interstate you were travelling at speed — check both.

Or use the filing deadline calculator to compare any state, and the full state index for all 50 states and D.C.

What to do next in Kentucky

1. Get a preservation letter to the carrier. This is the most time-critical step and the one almost nobody hears about.
2. Confirm whether a government entity was involved. That answer can replace your 1 year deadline with a far shorter notice window — 1 year (Board of Claims).
3. Do not give a recorded statement to the trucking company's insurer.
4. Request the Kentucky crash report, which identifies the carrier, the DOT number and the insurer.
5. Have a lawyer licensed in Kentucky confirm the dates above against the current statute.