Knowing Your Rights with Black Box Data and Truck Accident Injuries
Black Box Data and Its Evolving Role in Highway Safety
When a plane crash is reported the news quickly includes details on securing the black box to determine the details that might reveal what circumstances led up to the crash. You may not know this but the term black box dates to technology developed in World War II. In fact, the aviation black boxes are actually bright orange and are designed to survive extraordinary impact. Did you know that similar technology is now being applied in motor vehicles and in commercial trucking?
The Federal Motor Carrier Administration has made electronic monitoring devices (EMD) mandatory for most commercial carriers, but Event Data Recorders (EDR) are not yet universally required. Given the increase of fatalities and accidents involving tractor-trailers, there is a strong case to be made for mandating this technology. If you or a loved one has had the misfortune of being involved in a trucking accident injury, one of the first things you want to be sure to establish is whether or not the tractor-trailer had a functioning black box otherwise referred to in the industry as an Event Data Recorder.
The Trauma of a Tractor-Trailer Collision
You have seen and heard these stories on the news. Maybe you or a loved one has been a victim of such a tragedy. In 2023 large truck crashes resulted in 5,078 fatalities and 86,842 injuries in the United States and the vast majority of these accidents involved smaller vehicles like the one you drive every day. A truck accident injury is not like a collision with another motor vehicle.
A fully loaded 18-wheeler, tractor-trailer can weigh as much as 80,000 pounds, that’s 80 tons on wheels moving at 65 to 76 miles an hour. The average car is about 3000 pounds. If a fully loaded tractor trailer is behind your car traveling at 65 miles an hour, it needs approximately the length of 2 football fields to stop safely.
Anything less than that means, the car you’re driving bears the full impact of the truck needing to stop. If you and your family are in that car, your vehicle is being flipped, squashed or shoved with impact resulting in serious injuries and possibly death. Accidents sustained from collisions with tractor-trailers range from spinal cord injuries, amputations, traumatic brain injury, burns, fractures, internal bleeding and whiplash.
EDRs and Getting to the Root Cause of the Tractor-Trailer Accident
Although Illinois does not require commercial tractor-trailers to require electronic data recorders, it is becoming a best practice for commercial vehicles to have EDR’s. If you are involved in an accident with a tractor-trailer you will want to know if the vehicle had an EDR because the data collected at the moment of impact can be vital to establishing the root cause of the accident that resulted in severe injury and sometimes even death.
When you have been in an accident, there are many things you need to do to ensure your rights are protected and that you are compensated for the injuries you sustained and damages caused to you and your loved ones. Step one is securing an expert legal team that specialize in personal injury. Here in the Chicago and Burr Ridge area, the Vinkler Law team have a stellar record of representing their clients. If you have been in an accident involving a tractor trailer, there’s only one choice in the region the caring, local experts at Vinkler Law.
The good news is you get access to Vinkler’s legal experts to investigate and advocate for you at no charge. Vinkler Law focuses on one thing and one thing only – personal injury and they are the local advocates you want on your side. With a success rate that exceeds 95% for its clients right here in our community with a track record of more than 30 years in personal injury, Vinkler Law is your first choice.
Time Matters in a Tractor-Trailer Accident
Once you have been in an accident, it is essential to ensure you take as much information as possible at the time of impact. Things you need to do include photos of the impact; seek medical attention to have a physician examine you; note if there are witnesses you may need to call upon; reach out to Vinkler Law.
Time is of the essence once you have had an accident with a tractor trailer. Why? The EDR captures everything from the speed the vehicle was traveling, the drivers actions, the air bag release and more. In order for your attorney to access the EDR, something called a spoilation letter needs to be filed to avert the tractor trailer insurance company from destroying the EDR by repairing or scraping the truck cabin. Spoilation letter is a fancy legal term for requiring the trucking company to preserve ALL evidence relevant to any legal claim that might include an accident or injury. Without a document filed by Vinkler Law to halt the destruction of evidence the truth of what happened can be destroyed rendering the pursuit of justice that much harder.
This is an important next step. To ensure EDR data is not tampered with you want to ensure Vinkler Law access the EDR as quickly as is possible. This usually involves a spoilation letter followed by a court order and then a forensic engineer who extracts the data from the EDR. Accidents with tractor trailers usually include serious injury and sometimes death. When 80 tons of metal traveling 65 miles an hour barrel into 3000 pounds of plastic and steel it doesn’t end well for the 3000-pound vehicle. These collisions usually result in traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injuries, amputations, burns and more.
The sooner Vinkler Law accesses the data from the EDR the sooner they can have experts called telematic experts – they specialize in telecommunications data and GPS informatics. Telematics is a new and quickly evolving field. These experts can painstakingly piece together the details of what caused the accident. There have been incidents where EDR data has been the data that unequivocally established the cause of the collision and established the liability of the trucking company and or driver.
Once Vinkler Law has access to the data, they secure the necessary experts to decipher and piece together the sequencing of events that preceded the accident. This field has evolved rapidly, and telematics experts can piece together the past and recreate the accident from location, speed and even movement patterns. In today’s world telematic experts have been able to establish when truck drivers were fatigued, disregarded speed limits and more. Through painstaking work of reviewing the truck driver’s logs the telematic expert can piece together the ever-important profile of the truck driver revealing if the truck driver was observing the rules of safe motoring with the requisite hours of rest and driving. This is highly sophisticated work, and you need the most expert law firm in the region to ensure you get the best telematic experts in the field. You want Vinkler Law.
There is no reason to add even more suffering to the trauma you and your loved ones have experienced from a collision with a tractor-trailer. If you are in the Chicago region, there is only one firm dedicated to personal injury with the expertise to support you and listen with no charge. The compassionate legal experts at Vinkler Law have seen it all and they do not back down to expedite closing a case. They will see your adversaries in court to ensure justice is served and you are compensated for the damages and injuries you have sustained.
Don’t wait, if you have been involved in a tractor-trailer accident call Vinkler law today and schedule your no-charge appointment. Your peace of mind is just a phone call away.
