The two most important considerations in any accident are whether anyone was hurt and who is to blame. It’s vital to seek medical attention right away, even for the slightest injury.
There’s no telling what that might turn into. Determining fault is equally important because it determines who will be responsible for any damages. That’s where things could get a bit complicated, especially if your accident involved any type of commercial vehicle.
Being assigned fault means your insurer pays the injured party’s damages up to your policy limits. However, that can mean a significant increase in your insurance premiums. An accident involving a truck can expose the trucking company to liability because they are responsible in some part for the actions of their drivers and the maintenance of their trucks.
The only way to prove who is at fault is through strong evidence. What happens if accident evidence is lost or deleted? That can certainly work against your claim. This is why you want to reach out to an experienced Cherry Hill truck accident attorney as soon as possible.
They will be in the best position to help you preserve that crucial evidence that will determine who is responsible for your accident.
Common Types of Evidence That Frequently Go Missing
Nothing lasts forever. That is especially true with crash evidence. The most common types of evidence in any collision would be the photos that you take at the accident scene on your cell phone. Those are types of evidence that you’re in charge of and would only be deleted by you.
In a truck accident, there is much more potential evidence that could be lost or deleted. That evidence can include the following:
- Electronic logging device (ELD) records: The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) requires most commercial truck drivers to log their driving hours and rest periods in an electronic logging device. These records can be purged or altered during routine carrier updates.
- Black box (ECM) data: Much like an airplane, a truck will have a black box that can record vital information such as speed, braking, and engine status. It is typical for trucking companies to overwrite this information after a few days or weeks to make room for new data.
- Dashcam footage: You’ve probably seen dashcam footage from other cars of accidents. What you might not know is that most trucking companies require both inward and outward dashcams. That can clearly establish what the driver was doing at the time of the accident. Unfortunately, these video files often play on a short loop and are deleted automatically if not saved right away.
- Skid marks and road debris: Skid marks can help establish how the accident played out. Those marks can fade or get washed away by road crews within hours of the crash. That is why you want to get photos and videos of the entire accident scene.
- The damaged vehicles: In the race to “move on” after an accident, wrecked semi-trucks and cars are often repaired, salvaged, or crushed before an independent expert can inspect for mechanical defects.
- Surveillance and traffic video: Traffic and surveillance cameras are prevalent throughout Cherry Hill. There could be several nearby businesses or traffic cameras that have footage of your accident. Typically, these businesses record over their footage on a short multi-day retention cycle.
- Post-accident drug and alcohol tests: Federal rules require drug and alcohol testing after certain serious truck accidents, generally within eight hours for alcohol and 32 hours for drugs. The longer testing is delayed, the less reliable the results become.
- Dispatch logs and text messages: Drivers and carriers communicate constantly, and those messages can reveal pressure to meet deadlines and cut corners. That data can be purged, too.
When it comes time to decide who’s responsible, all of this evidence needs to be on the table.
The Legal Definition of Spoliation of Evidence
The harsh reality is that evidence disappears, and the odds of it disappearing rise when it might prove liability. That’s why your attorney needs to issue a spoliation letter as soon as possible to everyone who controls that evidence.
In legal terms, spoliation of evidence is the intentional, reckless, or negligent destruction, alteration, hiding, or failure to preserve physical objects, documents, or electronic data relevant to an ongoing or reasonably anticipated legal proceeding.
The moment you file a claim, your attorney can issue a spoliation letter to lock down the evidence, and the same letter goes out when a lawsuit is filed. If evidence is destroyed, a judge can instruct the jury to assume the missing evidence would have hurt the party that got rid of it. In extreme cases, the court can strike the offending party’s pleadings altogether.
Immediate Steps to Prevent Evidence Destruction
Despite what a trucking company might tell you, they will have instant access to all the data collected on the truck. Whether they want to be forthcoming with that evidence is another question. That is why you need to get an experienced truck accident lawyer involved as quickly as possible.
The team at Folkman Law has worked with many Cherry Hill residents involved in truck accidents. We recognize the importance of acting quickly to preserve the evidence. Whether it will prove to be helpful is not the immediate issue. It’s about having the opportunity to review the data as part of our independent investigation.
Once we have all the evidence, we’ll be able to determine the merits of the claim and decide the best option for moving forward.
If you’ve been involved in an accident with a truck, we want to hear what happened.
You’ll feel better knowing what should happen next.
