How a GPS black box can prove the truck accident case

 by Steven M. Gursten

Video tip 6 for truck accident lawyers

This is the sixth tip from my series of 13 videos for truck accident lawyers on how to handle truck lawsuits. This video is from a past American Association for Justice truck accident attorney seminar. I’m discussing the importance of GPS black boxes (also called on-board hours of service devices).
https://www.youtube.com/embed/ibIeiWlxHt8?feature=oembed&rel=0&modestbranding=1&showinfo=0

The takeaway: It’s often very important that truck accident lawyers look at what information is on these devices after a serious truck crash or a death caused by a truck accident. Why? A truck accident attorney can use the black box data to cross-check the truck driver log books, and find inconsistencies with how that truck driver testifies or reports how the crash occurred, proving not only that the driver is negligent, but often that he or she is lying about the speed, hours of service or other critical details before the injury or death occurred.

The ECM or black box data recorders on trucks become another source of fact-checking a driver’s habits.

As I say in the video, there’s also major spoliation issue here, because again, if the black box is requested in a timely manner, and the trucking company fails to produce (they might say that it got lost, or destroyed…), know that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration requires that back-up data be kept in a separate location and updated once a month in addition to being kept on the truck.

This is according to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Rule 395.15.