Ohio gives you two years to bring a lawsuit for a truck crash injury. Not two years from when you found a lawyer, and not two years from when the insurance company stopped returning calls — two years from the date of the crash.
The statute is short and worth reading in its own words:
“An action based on a product liability claim and an action for bodily injury or injuring personal property shall be brought within two years after the cause of action accrues.” — Ohio Revised Code § 2305.10(A)
When the clock starts
“Accrues” usually means the date of the injury — the day of the crash. That is the default, and it is the one that catches people out, because nothing about a crash feels like a deadline.
Where it gets less simple
Wrongful death runs under a different section. If the crash killed someone, the claim belongs to the family and runs under R.C. 2125.02(D), which is also two years — but it starts from the date of death, and the estate has to exist before it can sue.
Minors. A child’s claim generally does not start running on the day of the crash the way an adult’s does. The clock is tied to reaching the age of majority. This is not a reason to wait: evidence and witnesses do not wait with it.
The discovery rule. In limited situations — a latent injury, or harm that could not reasonably be known at the time — the start date can move. It is narrow, it is litigated case by case, and it is not something to plan around.
Why the deadline is not the real deadline
Two years is the outer limit for filing. It is not the deadline that decides most truck cases.
The evidence deadline is much shorter. A carrier’s electronic logging data, dashcam footage and maintenance records are overwritten on rolling cycles — often measured in weeks. By the time a claim is filed, the records that would show the driver had been on duty too long may simply not exist.
That is why the practical advice after a commercial-vehicle crash is not “call a lawyer within two years”. It is: preserve the evidence now, then argue about the claim.
If the two years have nearly run out
Filing suit is the thing that stops the clock. A demand letter does not. An insurance adjuster’s assurance that “the claim is open” does not. If the deadline is close, the only question that matters is whether a complaint has been filed.