Not only may your collision with a commercial truck leave you with greater injuries and damages, but it may also involve a more complex investigation than if you had crashed with a standard motor vehicle. This is because commercial truck drivers are held to strict employment and legal standards, and any violations of these may indicate their fault in the matter. Simply put, driver logs and black boxes may be two tools that shed light on this. That said, please continue reading to learn the role they can potentially contribute to your accident claim, and how an experienced Miami truck accident lawyer at the Law Offices of Gonzalo Funes, PA, can help you put these materials together to present a strong case for compensation.
What is the purpose of driver logs and black boxes?
Firstly, truck driver logs, more formally known as electronic logging devices (ELDs), may be used to track how long a driver has been on duty, driving, and resting. These are critical data as they are held to federal Hours of Service (HOS) regulations. So, this digital diary may reveal that a driver did not take a 30-minute break in the more than eight hours of duty immediately before your reported accident. Therefore, in your truck accident claim, you may claim that they were negligent in driving while fatigued.
Secondly, black boxes, or event data recorders (EDRs), may be utilized to capture technical statistics, such as a driver’s speed, braking, sudden movements, and engine performance. You may need to hire an accident reconstruction expert or commercial vehicle forensic specialist on your legal team to interpret this data. Then, they may testify in your truck accident claim proceedings on how a truck driver was operating the commercial vehicle recklessly in the moments leading up to your collision (i.e., speeding, sudden lane changes, etc).
How long will this information be preserved for?
You may have up to two years to bring forward your truck accident claim, but this does not necessarily mean that you should take all this time to prepare your case. This is because you do not want to lose access to driver logs and black box data. Namely, federal retention requirements for driver logs may be set at a minimum of six months. This is while black box data may be overwritten within 30 days or fewer. For these reasons alone, you must ask your lawyer to send formal preservation letters almost immediately after your truck accident event.
Even if you act quickly and in a timely fashion, you may find that a trucking company is denying you access to this essential evidence. In a worst-case scenario, they may be purposefully destroying or altering these data points. To overcome this spoliation of your truck accident claim, you must employ the legal services of a skilled Miami auto accident lawyer from the Law Offices of Gonzalo Funes, PA. We may uncover falsified logs or make up for lost records through acquiring GPS data, fuel receipts, toll records, and more. So please call us today.
