Truck Accident Lawyers in Pennsylvania: Why These Cases Are Not Car Cases

The evidence starts disappearing immediately

In a car crash the evidence is largely fixed: two vehicles, a police report, some photographs. In a truck crash most of what decides the case sits inside a company that has no reason to keep it.

• Electronic logging device data, showing hours driven and rest taken. Retention is limited and older records roll off.
• The engine control module, the truck’s black box, which records speed, braking and throttle in the seconds before impact. It can be overwritten by continued driving, or lost when the tractor is repaired or sold.
• Driver qualification files, drug and alcohol testing records, maintenance and inspection records. Federal retention periods vary and several are measured in months.
• Dispatch records and the bill of lading, which show the schedule the driver was being held to.

A spoliation letter, sent to the carrier and its insurer within days, puts them on formal notice to preserve all of it. Sent early it protects the case. Sent three months later it often documents what has already gone.

Usually more than one defendant

People assume the claim is against the driver. It is frequently against several parties at once, and that matters because it changes how much insurance is available.

• The driver, for the driving itself.
• The motor carrier, both for the driver’s conduct in the course of employment and directly for negligent hiring, training, supervision or scheduling.
• The broker or shipper, where the delivery schedule made compliance with hours of service rules effectively impossible.
• The maintenance contractor, where a brake or tire failure traces to work someone else performed.
• The cargo loader, where an improperly secured or overweight load contributed.

Interstate carriers are required to carry substantially higher minimum liability coverage than private motorists, commonly starting at 750,000 dollars and considerably higher for hazardous materials. The difference between identifying one defendant and four is often the difference between a policy that covers the injury and one that does not.

The rules the carrier has to follow

Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations govern hours of service, vehicle inspection and maintenance, driver qualification and drug testing. A violation is not just a fine. It is evidence of negligence, and sometimes evidence that the company’s own system produced the crash rather than one tired driver.

Hours of service violations are the most common finding, and they usually point upward: a driver running out of legal hours is very often a driver being dispatched to a schedule that could not be met legally.

The rapid response team

Large carriers dispatch investigators to serious crash scenes within hours, sometimes before the road reopens. They photograph, measure, interview and secure the vehicle. That is their right, and it is also why the injured person’s side needs to move quickly rather than waiting to feel well enough to make phone calls.

What to do

1. Get treated, and make sure the record says a commercial vehicle was involved.
2. Photograph the tractor and trailer, including the door placards, the DOT number and the company name.
3. Get the police report number, and the names of any witnesses.
4. Do not give a recorded statement to the carrier’s insurer.
5. Call quickly, so a preservation letter goes out while the data still exists.