A truck’s electronic data can often provide a different perspective than what is reported after a crash. Depending on the system installed in the vehicle, investigators may access information regarding the truck’s speed, braking, acceleration, and the events that occurred just before the impact. This data can be invaluable in situations where conflicting accounts of the collision exist.
Take a sideswipe truck accident as an example. The damage might establish that the truck moved into another vehicle, but it may leave an unanswered question about what happened seconds earlier. Electronic records can sometimes help answer those questions when the physical evidence alone cannot.
The important thing is that this data is evidence, rather than a complete explanation of the crash. It needs to be read alongside photographs, vehicle damage, witness accounts, driver records, and other evidence from the scene.
How Can Black Box Data Help Prove a Truck Accident Claim?
Here are some of the ways black box data can actually help prove your truck accident claim:
It Can Show What the Truck Was Doing Before the Crash
An event data recorder, often called an EDR, can capture certain information from the vehicle around a crash. Federal rules describe EDR data as information about vehicle dynamics and safety systems, rather than a recording of everything happening inside the cab.
Depending on the vehicle and equipment, recorded information can include vehicle speed, accelerator use, braking, and changes in speed during the crash. That can matter when the question is whether the truck was speeding, whether the driver braked, or how severe the impact was.
It Can Be Compared with the Driver’s Version of Events
Suppose a driver says they were traveling slowly and had already stopped before impact. If the available vehicle data shows something different, that discrepancy could become important evidence.
Black box information is not automatically a complete answer, though. It has to be interpreted alongside photographs, vehicle damage, witness accounts, crash reconstruction, and other evidence. EDRs also record only particular types of information and are not designed to provide audio or video of the crash.
It May Help Show Whether Fatigue or Hours-Of-Service Violations Were Involved
Truck cases can involve another type of electronic record that is sometimes confused with the black box. An electronic logging device, or ELD, tracks a commercial driver’s hours-of-service records and driving time.
Federal regulations require drivers and carriers covered by the rule to maintain records of duty status, and the regulations prohibit tampering with an ELD so that it does not accurately record or retain required information.
An ELD will not tell you exactly how a collision happened, but it may help establish how long the driver had been working or driving before the crash. That can become relevant if fatigue is suspected.
What Should You Do If the Truck’s Black Box Contains Important Evidence?
This is one of the more important steps after a serious truck collision. Electronic information can be overwritten, lost, or become harder to retrieve as the vehicle continues operating.
A lawyer can send a preservation letter to the trucking company and other parties involved, asking them to preserve the truck, EDR data, ELD records, maintenance records, and other potentially relevant information.
Federal EDR rules specifically address the retrieval of crash data and require manufacturers covered by the regulation to make tools or methods available for retrieving it.
Can Black Box Data Prove the Whole Truck Accident Claim?
Usually, no single piece of evidence proves an entire case. Black box information can answer some very useful questions, but it still needs to fit with the rest of the evidence.
A lawyer may compare the electronic data with the police report, photographs, skid marks, vehicle damage, witness statements, medical records, and the driver’s logs. When those pieces tell the same story, the overall claim can become much stronger.
Key Takeaways
- A truck’s electronic records may show what the vehicle was doing shortly before a collision, including its speed and braking activity.
- EDRs and ELDs are not the same thing. An EDR is associated with crash and vehicle data, while an ELD records a commercial driver’s hours of service.
- Electronic records can become especially useful when the driver’s account does not fit the physical evidence from the crash.
- ELD records may raise questions about how long a driver had been working or driving before the collision, particularly when fatigue is suspected.
- Getting the relevant electronic information preserved early can matter because some records may not remain available indefinitely.
