How the “Black Box” Preserves Data in a Trucking Accident

After a truck accident, you may wonder how you will prove your claim. Every year, thousands of people are injured in truck accidents with these much larger vehicles that weigh up to an astounding 80,000 pounds! This is why most of these accidents cause catastrophic injuries to the drivers and passengers within. Attorneys know exactly where to turn after these accidents take place: to a special little piece of equipment that has been around since the 1990s.

The “Black Box”

Most trucks that have been manufactured in the U.S. since the 90s have been installed with an Electronic Control Module (ECM) that is referred to today as the truck’s “Black Box.” The ECM is designed to capture data based on the truck driver’s journey, such as the overall average speed they used, highest speed in general, time driven, amount of time spent driving over 65 miles per hour, seat belt use, air bag performance, and more. As you can see, this data could be very useful for a variety of reasons, and especially when a truck accident occurs – as it serves as a way for attorneys to obtain useful information that could show a truck driver is actually liable in an accident.

ECM’s have come a long way from their original intent. At first, they were intended to counter invalid engine claims resulting from purchaser abuse, but now they have become a useful tool for victims in accident cases. For instance, if it is suspected that speeding was a factor in your truck accident, the black box will be able to show exactly how fast the driver was going when he rear-ended your vehicle and so forth. However, there are some adverse elements involved in these cases:

Time Limitations: A black box is known to only carry information for up to 30 days, which means that previous data can be recorded over when these time limits are up. This means that you have to act quickly if you want to discover preserved data.

Data Destruction: Another issue in many of these cases is that the truck driver or the trucking company itself may destroy the data on these pieces of technology rather quickly, knowing that it could be used against them in a case. If the ECM is subject to a court restraining order, it can be obtained before the trucking company can erase essential tools for use in your case.

Showing Evidence in Your Case

In the past, trucking companies stored all data through logbooks, which were put in place as a regulation to show how many hours truck drivers spent on the roads every week. Many trucking companies push their drivers to their limits, keeping them on the roads for abnormally long times even though it is illegal to do so. Black boxes eliminate a company’s ability to cheat on these rules. And, though black boxes have reduced the number of accidents on our roadways, we still experience truck accidents on a daily basis.

If you have been a victim of truck driver negligence on our roadways, you may need an understanding attorney on your side who has experience in these cases. At the Los Angeles Injury Group, we understand that your case means everything to you and want to help you be compensated for your injuries. Call us today for a free consultation at 310-954-7248, where we can answer all of your questions regarding truck accidents.

Sources:

https://www.hg.org/article.asp?id=42670

https://www.losangelesinjurygroup.com/