Personal Injury Law

Black Box Evidence and The Car or Truck Wreck Case

By George Fusner

A story in the Saturday October 10th Tennessean highlights the need to get an experienced car wreck or tractor trailer wreck attorney involved early in the case. The story is about a criminal case in Murfreesboro when a police officer hit a little girl and killed her. Speed had been alleged but not proven. As the story explains a black box records data immediately prior to an event (read wreck). In that case the car was going over 70 MPH right before the wreck and 62MPH at the time of impact, all in a 30 MPH speed zone. Clearly grossly negligent if not criminal.

In tractor trailer cases the data event recorders often hold a lot more information. However, if the vehicle is driven from the scene, sold, repaired, or destroyed that data is lost. An experienced lawyer will immediately obtain possession of the vehicle to preserve that evidence. The trucking companies know this and try to avoid your getting this information. They also do this with driver logs. The regulations only require them to preserve a drivers logs for 6 months. The trucking companies routinely destroy the logs after that time. When you hire an attorney 9 months after the wreck its long gone. However, if you hired an attorney a month after the wreck he could send a spoliation letter or even file suit to preserve the evidence and protect your rights.

Hire an experienced car wreck or tractor trailer wreck attorney sooner rather than later. You will be glad you did.

Full post as published by Nashville Personal Injury Lawyer on October 12, 2009 (boomark / email).