If you’ve been in an accident with a truck, you were probably lucky to survive it!
However, you’re probably also facing months (or years) of painful recovery. A lawsuit is more than likely going to be necessary to preserve your rights and get you the benefits that you need in order to live.
That makes it very important to hire an attorney as soon as possible because you need someone to act quickly on your behalf to make certain that evidence is preserved for your case. Otherwise, that evidence might be gone forever.
Here are the types of evidence that your attorney should automatically seek to preserve through the appropriate court orders:
1. The truck’s electronic control module (ECM), which is essentially similar to the “black box” that you hear about on airplanes. ECMs can capture everything from how often a trucker exceeded the speed limit over the last several weeks to how often he or she used the seat belt.
2. Statements from witnesses that were on the scene and first responders. Paramedics, police officers, firemen and even good Samaritans who were on hand shortly after the accident need to be interviewed while their memories are fresh. They may remember off-hand comments now that they’ll forget later — but those comments could be evidence that a trucker was distracted or overly-tired when the accident happened.
3. The trucker’s logs need to be collected before any pages are “lost” or there’s any time for information to be scrubbed from them. While most companies are honest and will turn over the books without any changes, some supervisors or company owners may give into temptation when they’re facing a hefty insurance claim by someone with serious injuries — especially if they’re worried that they’ve violated any federal regulations regarding the number of hours their driver was on the road.
If you’ve been in a truck accident recently, contact a personal injury attorney for advice as soon as possible.
Source: FindLaw, “Preserving the “Black Box” After a Truck Accident,” accessed Sept. 1, 2017
