If you want to hold a trucking agency or its affiliates responsible for a recent collision, you need to find enough evidence to prove that the at-fault party owed you a duty of care and then violated that duty through avoidable negligence. This gets easier to do when you have a black box and its data on hand.
All commercial trucks have black boxes inside them that track a truck’s condition and a driver’s behavior. You can work with one of our experienced truck accident lawyers at Dominguez Law to secure a truck’s black box after an accident, interpret its data, and use your findings to build a case for accident compensation.
What Is a Black Box?
Trucking agencies also refer to a truck’s black box as its event data recorder. Black boxes log a truck’s behavior while it is on the road. A black box can specifically help investigators determine a truck’s:
- Miles per hour at the time of an accident
- Braking and acceleration habits
- Wheel turning patterns
- Sudden changes in direction
- Airbag deployment
- Cruise control status
- GPA location
- Driver seat belt usage
Most black boxes also account for a truck’s mechanical problems. While a black box cannot diagnose undetected issues within the vehicle, investigators can determine whether or not a truck driver had received an alert about a truck’s low tire pressure, engine damage, or similar damage.
How Can You Use a Truck’s Black Box Data?
You and your lawyer can use the data available in a truck’s black box to reconstruct an accident after it happens. Black boxes provide you with an intimate understanding of how a truck driver acted in the minutes and seconds before your collision. While you have to analyze your findings, that analysis can reveal negligence that may entitle you to compensation.
However, your lawyer can do more than reconstruct your accident. Black boxes will also give you a perspective on driver fatigue and corporate negligence. If an analysis of available data reveals that the truck driver was not taking their mandatory breaks, you may have the right to blame a trucking agency for employee mistreatment and accident-caused negligence.
Moreover, you can refer to a truck’s black box data if an insurance or trucking company tries to blame you for a driver’s accident.
What Obstacles Might Prevent You From Accessing a Truck’s Black Box?
Unfortunately, both insurance and trucking companies can send representatives to the scene of an accident faster than ambulance drivers in an effort to remove a truck’s black box from the scene.
Once a black box is back in the hands of its company, it can prove challenging for an accident victim to gain access to the data therein. Most of the time, your attorney will have to get a court order to force the trucking company to share their findings. Even then, the company may destroy a truck’s black box or claim that the box was too damaged to use.
Fortunately, there are specialists our team can work with to restore a truck’s damaged black box. Once we get a court order to access the damaged goods, we can connect with experts to initiate a reconstructive effort. We can subsequently strengthen any case you intend to bring against the driver or trucking company responsible for your losses.
Dominguez Law Is Here to Help Make Trucking Companies Take Your Losses Seriously
Unfortunately, trucking and insurance companies rarely want to offer accident survivors the financial support they need to recover from devastating accidents. These parties may go so far as to hide a truck’s black box or deny you access to the data. You do not have to let these bad-faith tactics prevent you from recovering, though.
You can instead ask for representation from a compassionate and aggressive truck accident lawyer. We can make a trucking company turn over a truck’s black box data, then interpret that data on your behalf. Are you ready to learn more? You can book a free truck accident case consultation with our staff by calling us at (505) 850-5854 or contacting us online.
