August 7, 2024 | Truck Accidents
Were you involved in a bad accident with a semi-truck? If so, you may have a lot of questions about your rights and your options—including your ability to hold the trucking company liable and seek financial compensation. You may be wondering: Do I need to get the truck’s black box data to bring a claim? The short answer is while black box data is not strictly necessary in every case, it can be a valuable form of evidence. Within this article, our Edmond semi-truck accident lawyer explains the key things to know about black box data and tractor-trailer crash claims in Oklahoma.
What is a Black Box?
A truck’s black box is often known as an Electronic Control Module (ECM) or Event Data Recorder (EDR). The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) explains that the device is similar to flight recorders on airplanes. Many more people are familiar with the term “black box” from commercial airliners. The black box records various operational data about the vehicle. In commercial truck accident claims, this information can be crucial for understanding the vehicle’s actions before, during, and after a collision.
An Overview of Information That May Be Included on the Truck’s Black Box
What will you actually find out through a commercial truck black box? It depends on a wide range of different incident-specific factors. Notably, the black box on the truck contains a lot of information. You may find out relevant details about some or all of the following:
- Speed and Braking Data: The black box records the truck’s speed and any braking. It can show how fast the truck was traveling at any given time—and whether the brakes were applied before an accident. The data is essential as it can provide insights into the driver’s response time and whether excessive speed or abrupt braking contributed to a crash.
- Engine Performance: Parameters such as RPM, fuel consumption, and engine temperature are logged continuously. The data helps in diagnosing mechanical issues and can also be used to assess whether the truck was being operated within safe engine performance limits.
- Driver’s Hours of Service: The ECM tracks how long the truck has been in operation to ensure compliance with regulations on driver working hours. Fatigued driving by a truck driver is extremely dangerous. Black box data can help to verify that the driver was not exceeding the legal limit for service hours within a given time period.
- GPS Location: Modern black boxes are often equipped with GPS. It is data that provides precise location data. Among other things, the GPSd data can be used to trace the route taken by the truck and analyze any deviations from planned routes or detect if the truck was in a specific location on the roadway that might have contributed to an accident.
The Bottom Line: All of the available data has the potential to matter in a commercial truck accident claim. Indeed, the information from a truck’s black box is invaluable in reconstructing events leading to a serious crash. Although you do not necessarily need to get it in every semi-truck accident injury claim, it is absolutely a best practice to do so after a major wreck.
How an Edmond Truck Accident Lawyer Can Help You Seek Black Box Data
It would be great if the trucking company—and its commercial liability insurer—would simply turn over the black box data after a major crash. Sadly, that does not typically happen. Instead, truck companies like to resolve cases without sharing this type of data. An Edmond truck accident lawyer can help you take legal action to obtain any black box data. Indeed, an experienced attorney will understand the legal procedures necessary to secure this data promptly and ensure that it is neither tampered with nor destroyed after an accident. By leveraging their knowledge of federal and state regulations regarding trucking and data retrieval, an Edmond truck accident lawyer can file the necessary motions to access this data. Your lawyer can also work with forensic experts to analyze the information, interpret the technical data, and present it effectively in court.
Get Help From Our Edmond, OK Semi-Truck Accident Attorney Today
At McGuire Law Firm, our Edmond, OK commercial truck accident lawyer is devoted to putting the rights and interests of injured victims first. Have questions about black box data and truck accident cases? We can help. Contact us now for your free case review. From our office in Edmond, we handle semi-truck accident claims in Oklahoma County and all across the wider region.