A commercial truck accident can leave behind far more evidence than most passenger-vehicle crashes. Some of it is visible at the scene, but much of it is not. Electronic systems may record how the truck was being operated, while company files, video, dispatch information, cargo documents, and other records can help reconstruct what happened before the crash.
The trucking company or other businesses involved with the truck may control much of this information. Identifying the available evidence and understanding what it can show are important parts of investigating a serious Georgia truck accident.
What Evidence Can Help Prove a Truck Accident Claim?
The evidence needed depends on how the crash happened and which individuals or companies may have contributed. A truck accident investigation may involve:
- Electronic data from the truck and its onboard systems
- Electronic logging device (ELD) records
- GPS, telematics, and dispatch information
- Dashcam, traffic camera, or surveillance video
- Driver qualification and employment records
- Inspection, maintenance, and repair records
- Post-accident drug and alcohol testing records, when applicable
- Bills of lading, cargo records, and weight information
- Photographs and measurements from the crash scene
- Police and commercial vehicle inspection reports
- Witness statements
- Cell phone or other electronic records when distracted driving is at issue
No single piece of evidence proves every truck accident case. You may need to compare information from several sources to determine how the crash occurred and whether the truck driver, motor carrier, or another party contributed.
Electronic Evidence Can Reconstruct the Moments Before a Crash
Commercial trucks can generate electronic information that may provide a more detailed picture of what happened before an accident than witness recollections alone.
Depending on the vehicle and technology installed, an engine control module (ECM) or other onboard system may record information such as vehicle speed, engine RPM, throttle position, brake application, or other operating data. These systems are sometimes referred to generally as a truck’s “black box,” although the type and amount of information available varies by vehicle and system.
Many commercial fleets also use GPS and telematics systems to monitor vehicle location and operation. Depending on the system, those records may document a truck’s route, movement, stops, hard-braking events, or other information.
Dash cameras can provide another source of evidence. An outward-facing camera may capture traffic conditions or the collision itself, while other onboard camera systems may show what was happening inside or around the truck.
ELD Data May Help Establish the Driver’s Hours
Electronic logging devices serve a different purpose. ELD records document a driver’s duty status and may help establish how long the driver had been driving or on duty before a crash.
That information can become important when driver fatigue or compliance with federal hours-of-service (HOS) requirements is at issue.
Our guide to federal trucking regulations and truck accident claims explains HOS limits and other federal safety requirements in greater detail.
Company Records Can Reveal Problems Before a Truck Crash
Some evidence looks beyond the seconds immediately before impact. Records created days, weeks, or months earlier may provide information about the driver, the truck’s condition, or the cargo it was carrying.
Driver qualification records may contain information about a driver’s licensing, driving history, medical qualification, and other required qualifications. Depending on the issues in a particular case, employment, training, disciplinary, or safety records may also become relevant.
Maintenance, inspection, and repair records can be especially important when brakes, tires, steering components, lights, or other equipment may have contributed to the collision. Those records can be compared with post-crash inspections and the truck’s physical condition to determine whether a mechanical problem existed before the accident.
Bills of lading, weight tickets, loading records, and delivery documents may help establish what the truck was carrying and which companies transported or loaded it.
Federal regulations also require post-accident drug and alcohol testing in certain commercial vehicle crashes, although testing is not required after every accident. When testing is required or performed, the results and related records may become relevant to the investigation.
These records can also help determine whether someone other than the driver may bear responsibility. Our guide to who may be liable for a truck accident explains how responsibility may extend to a motor carrier or other businesses depending on what caused the collision.
Important Evidence May Come From Outside the Trucking Company
Not every important piece of evidence is within the motor carrier’s control. Traffic cameras, nearby businesses, homes, and other vehicles may have captured the accident or the truck’s movements before impact. Witnesses may also provide information about how the truck was being driven or events leading to the crash.
Photographs and video from the scene can document vehicle positions, tire marks, debris, roadway conditions, traffic controls, visibility, and vehicle damage before conditions change.
The vehicles themselves can also be evidence. When vehicle condition, component failure, impact forces, or electronic data are disputed, inspecting the truck, trailer, and other vehicles before they are repaired, altered, sold, or destroyed may be important.
Depending on the crash, a maintenance contractor, cargo loader, shipper, technology provider, towing company, or another business involved with the truck or its load may also hold relevant records.
How Long Is Truck Accident Evidence Kept?
No single retention period applies to truck accident evidence. Federal regulations require some records to be maintained for specific periods.
For example, motor carriers generally must retain drivers’ ELD records of duty status and supporting documents for six months. Certain required vehicle inspection, repair, and maintenance records generally must be retained for one year while the vehicle remains under the motor carrier’s control and for six months after the vehicle leaves the carrier’s control.
Motor carriers must also maintain an accident register for certain qualifying commercial vehicle crashes. Motor carriers generally must retain required accident-register information for three years after the accident.
Those periods do not mean every potentially useful piece of evidence will remain available for that long. Other evidence may have different retention requirements or no specific federal retention period. Video may be overwritten, vehicles may be repaired, and businesses outside the motor carrier may follow their own record-retention practices.
Preservation Letters Can Help Protect Evidence
When a trucking company or another business controls potentially relevant evidence, an attorney may send a preservation letter, sometimes called a spoliation letter, identifying material that shouldn’t be destroyed, altered, overwritten, or discarded.
The scope depends on the crash. A preservation notice may identify the truck and trailer, electronic vehicle data, ELD records, dashcam footage, GPS or telematics information, driver files, inspection and maintenance records, dispatch communications, cargo documents, photographs, and other relevant material.
Under Georgia law, a party may have a duty to preserve relevant evidence when litigation is reasonably foreseeable. A preservation letter puts the trucking company or another party on written notice of a potential claim and identifies evidence that should be protected from destruction, alteration, or loss.
Preservation responsibilities are not limited to trucking companies. Once litigation is reasonably foreseeable, injured people should also avoid destroying, altering, or disposing of potentially relevant evidence within their control.
What Happens When Truck Accident Evidence Is Destroyed?
The destruction, alteration, or loss of evidence relevant to pending or reasonably foreseeable litigation is commonly called spoliation.
Whether spoliation occurred and what consequences may follow depend on the circumstances. Georgia courts consider factors such as whether the party controlling the evidence had a duty to preserve it and the importance of the lost evidence.
A court may impose remedies or sanctions when evidence that should have been preserved is lost or destroyed. The appropriate response depends on the circumstances, including the nature of the evidence, why it was lost, and how its loss affects the case.
How Attorneys Obtain Truck Accident Evidence
Knowing evidence exists doesn’t necessarily mean an injured person can access it. An investigation can begin by identifying the truck, driver, motor carrier, trailer, and other businesses involved, and determining what evidence each may have.
Attorneys can also investigate independent sources such as witnesses, government records, video, and companies that service, store, or load the truck.
If a lawsuit is filed, the discovery process can be used to seek documents, electronically stored information, testimony, and other evidence. Subpoenas may also be available to obtain relevant information from third parties.
Depending on the issues involved, experts may inspect vehicles, analyze electronic data, reconstruct the collision, or evaluate mechanical and other technical evidence.
The purpose is to piece together evidence from different sources to answer the case’s central questions: what happened, why it happened, who may be responsible, and how the crash affected the people involved.
Talk to a Georgia Truck Accident Attorney About Preserving Evidence
After a serious truck accident, your immediate focus should be on medical care and recovery. You shouldn’t be expected to know which electronic systems are installed on a commercial truck, which companies possess relevant records, or how long those records may remain available.
The Georgia truck accident attorneys at Childers, Schlueter & Smith investigate serious commercial vehicle crashes and work to identify, obtain, and preserve evidence that may be important to a claim.
If you or a family member was seriously injured in a commercial truck accident in Georgia, contact Childers, Schlueter & Smith for a free case review, or call 1-800-641-0098 for more information.
Frequently Asked Questions About Truck Accident Evidence
The black box, or electronic control module, is a device on most commercial trucks that records data around a crash, such as speed, throttle, and braking. It can confirm how fast the truck was traveling or show whether the driver braked. Because the data can be overwritten when the truck is driven or repaired, it needs to be preserved quickly.
A spoliation letter, also called a preservation letter, is a notice a lawyer sends the trucking company telling it to preserve the black box data, driver logs, maintenance records, and the truck itself. Once a company receives it, destroying that evidence can lead to court penalties, which is why sending it early is so important.
As soon as possible. Black box data can be overwritten within days, electronic logs cycle out, and a damaged truck can be repaired before anyone inspects it. The sooner a lawyer sends a preservation letter and moves to secure the data, the more of the key evidence survives to support your case.
Through the legal process, a trucking company can be required to produce the driver qualification file, hours-of-service and ELD data, maintenance and inspection records, post-crash drug and alcohol tests, and cargo documents. These records often reveal the cause of the crash and help identify every party responsible.
