What Kind Of Evidence Is Important In Trucking Accidents?
Oct. 29, 2019
What Evidence At The Scene Is Important To Preserve And Collect In These Types Of Cases?
In most accident cases, you will see the police doing most of the investigative work. However, if the police are not on the scene yet, always remember to call for emergency medical care. You can do that by dialing 911.
If you can remember to jot all pertinent info as in license number of all involved vehicles that will assist the Police department on many levels. Another option is to take photos with your cell phone. You could exchange information. However, that rarely happens with a truck accident. Most emergency vehicles are on the scene within a matter of 10-15minutes, depending on the location of the accident
There are new laser devices that are used to take measurements very precisely when an involved accident. They also take witness statements. If any driver appears intoxicated, field sobriety tests are given right there on the scene, they may them to the hospital for blood and alcohol testing.
Usually, there is at least one member of the team who has advanced training and qualified as an accident reconstructionist. That person will prepare a report explaining the cause of the accident. Those reports are very detailed and they are very useful to the case and to the attorney.
How Important Are Witnesses In These Cases? How And Why Should Someone Obtain Witnesses?
In any accident, the investigative team will interview all potential witnesses. There is certainly no harm in making a few notes and asking for names and telephone numbers – that never hurts.
If you are a witness, involving an accident, we would hope that you would give information to the local police authorities, including passengers in your vehicle. For example, if this happens near an intersection and there is a gas station on the corner, it’s very likely that the gas station employees, who are almost always outside, have seen the accident. It’s definitely worthwhile walking over and getting their names and contact information.
In lieu of that, an attorney can send an investigator to the scene, generally, at the same time of day, to try to identify what the surrounding buildings are. Some places of employment are likely to have security cameras. Therefore, it’s very important to canvas the scene. This is generally done afterwards to see if there are any cameras that might have covered the area.
Sometimes, even trucks have dash-cams, so it is important to do an investigation at the scene and get a hold of whatever evidence you can.
How Often Is A Reenactment Used In These Types Of Cases?
Not very often. Reenactments are rare. Hiring an accident reconstructionist who has taken additional educational courses would be far more common. Through training and experience, they are qualified to determine the causes of an accident. For example, they can calculate the speed of a vehicle, truck , car or motorcycle based upon the skid marks at the scene and the appearance of those skid marks, they would be able to test the road if need be to see the variables in making those calculations.
They can do computer recreations. Those are being seen more often than the old-fashioned reenactment where someone would go out and simulate the accident with similar vehicles and take a video.. It’s far more effective today to use a reconstructionist who then works with a computer animator to prepare an animation showing how the accident occurred, without trying to recreate it with actors and facsimile vehicles.
The old reenactments that are commonly seen on TV where they use actors and simulate the whole incident are no longer a viable option. In this day of technology, computers, science, animation and videos are far more common where they demonstrate how the accident occurred.
If you need help Collecting And Preserving Evidence In Personal Injury Cases, call the law office of David Maran Esq. for a free initial consultation at (973) 622-5303 and get the information and legal answers you’re seeking.