We deal with car accidents quite often here at the office. Since our office is located off of a major interstate highway, we encounter many accidents that involve freight trucks. Whether or not it involved cars or trucks, there are a lot of intricacies when it comes to finding the truth of the accident. Even with eyewitness testimonies, there are a lot of unseen factors and possibilities that can go unnoticed by the investigators. Maybe there is a lack of evidence. Maybe there is more than one negligent party. Maybe some witness testimonies don’t add up. All of these can be illuminated with a reconstruction expert.
In many cases, an accident reconstructionist is hired to help fill in the gaps of knowledge, especially when a truck is involved. Today, I want to help shed light on what a reconstructionist does, but very specifically, I want to examine what they would do for an accident that involves a truck.
So why do we need accident reconstructionist experts and what do they do? Reconstruction experts help us to figure out what happened during a collision and determine where legal responsibility lies. They can do that with a few different processes to collect evidence.
Experts will visit the scene and examine the vehicles in the collision for any dents or clear mechanical failures, like faulty brake lines or improperly loaded cargo. They’ll examine tire treads and skid marks to determine the speed and trajectory of the vehicles as they collided. At the scene, experts can analyze environmental hazards that could affect the drivers. They’ll even interview eye witnesses on their own to get a better understanding of their testimonies. By doing all this and more, experts can help determine and evaluate human error.
In addition to physical, concrete evidence, experts can examine an Event Data Recorder (EDR). Sometimes known as the “black box”, EDRs store data about a truck’s speed, braking, and the actions a driver was performing prior to the collision.
After collecting as much data as possible, experts will use software (such as SmartDraw, Virtual CRASH, etc.) to recreate the accident with visual aids to help visualize the accident and boost their overall testimony. With simulations, animations, and video analysis, the software can help shed light on all details of the accident so that even a non-expert can see what happened, according to evidence.
Most importantly, experts will be expected to testify on their findings in the case. In some cases, the defense or insurance companies may try to minimize the fault of the truck driver in question. An expert’s testimony is one of the strongest answers to this, as the scientific evidence compiled can be stronger than eyewitness testimonies that make up a lot of a police report. The science can help prove if the liability not only lies with a driver, but also if a trucking company or manufacturer is at fault. Sometimes, the truck itself is faulty, which means the liability cannot rest solely on the driver. Insurance companies and truck manufacturers may not be forthcoming with data on their own vehicles, so it’s an expert’s responsibility to understand the details of these vehicles and point out any less than obvious pieces of evidence that the liable parties may not acknowledge.
If you find yourself as a victim of one of these truck accidents, it’s to your benefit to seek out an attorney that handles trucking cases and cooperate with an accident reconstruction expert. Their evidence and testimony will help get you a fair settlement, as a lot of the evidence can be damning against a liable party, and they would rather that information not be documented at trial. If the case were to go to trial, the jury would find the evidence very educational, and could help determine a verdict in your favor. While an expert’s involvement can help you seek higher damages and speed up the legal process, it can also help provide closure and peace of mind to you, as the evidence can help illuminate the truth of what truly happened.
That’s all for today! We hope this information will help you if you or a loved one has been involved in a trucking accident. If that’s the case, don’t hesitate to connect with us here at Bollwerk & Associates. We’ll gladly help steer you in the right direction.
