The Importance of Preserving Evidence in Truck Accident Cases

Were you involved in a truck accident? If so, you will likely face mounting medical bills, lost wages, and painful symptoms. Understandably, preserving evidence is the last thing on your mind. However, evidence is crucial to building a strong compensation claim.

An experienced truck accident attorney from Craig, Kelley & Faultless LLC can handle gathering evidence for your case so you can focus on healing from your injuries. This blog post explains the types of evidence frequently used in truck accident cases and what you can do to preserve evidence while protecting your rights.

Examples of Key Types of Evidence

Truck accidents are often more complicated than other accidents because there are frequently more types of complex evidence to collect. Our skilled truck accident attorneys can gather and preserve crucial evidence to build a robust case.

Some examples of critical types of evidence include:

• Data from the truck’s black box or electronic data recorder
• The truck driver’s logs
• The driver’s safety records
• Results of any testing for impairment
• Medical records
• Cellular phone records
• Safety inspection records
• Photographs and videos of the crash scene
• Surveillance camera footage 
• Dashcam videos 
• Witness statements and contact information
• Information from the police report
• Physical debris from the accident scene

Some of this evidence you might be able to gather yourself if you’re able, like photos and videos of the crash scene. However, collecting other types of evidence typically requires help from an experienced lawyer – for example, black box data, driver’s logs, and safety records. Information like that is often the trucking company’s property, and they are not likely to turn it over to you just because you asked politely. Gathering and preserving vital evidence usually takes immediate intervention from an experienced Indiana semi-truck accident attorney before the data is lost or destroyed.

How to Collect Evidence at the Scene of the Trucking Accident

Collecting evidence at the scene of the trucking accident is crucial to building a solid case. If you are physically able, get the contact information of witnesses at the scene. Your next step should be to document the scene as thoroughly as possible. Photograph damage to your vehicle and the semi-truck from multiple angles. If skid marks or debris are on the road, take photographs and videos of them. You should also take pictures of your injuries as best you can.

Consider backing up your photographs and videos to the cloud or a secure hard drive to preserve your evidence from the scene. You want copies in multiple secure locations so your photos cannot be lost or erased accidentally. However, do not upload photographs of the accident on social media. Keep your records private and secure.

You will also want to keep paper copies of the police report, medical records, and medical bills in a safe location, separate from your other bills or documents. You can also scan or take pictures of these documents and keep them on the same hard drive or cloud service as your scene photos.

Let Our Skilled Truck Accident Lawyers Help You

Are you feeling overwhelmed about collecting and preserving truck accident evidence alone? The legal team at Craig, Kelley & Faultless LLC can help. Our aggressive team can immediately help you recover and preserve crucial evidence before it is lost forever.

Contact our office today for more information in a free consultation.