Quick Answer

After a serious truck accident, electronic evidence from the semi can be extremely important. Black box data, onboard cameras and other electronic records may help establish speed, braking and what happened before a crash.

But experienced truck accident attorneys know the investigation shouldn't stop with digital evidence.

Physical evidence at the accident scene and on the vehicles can tell an important part of the story. Skid marks, vehicle debris, damaged guardrails, paint transfers and even the location of a broken taillight may help investigators understand how a crash occurred.

Sometimes the most important evidence is something you have to go out and find.

Don't Let Digital Evidence Replace an Investigation

Technology has changed truck accident investigations.

Commercial trucks may contain electronic systems capable of providing detailed information about what happened before and during a collision. Cameras may provide another perspective. Preserving this evidence can be an important early step in investigating a serious truck crash.

But there is a potential mistake in relying too heavily on electronic evidence:

You can miss what's sitting right in front of you.

A serious truck accident leaves behind physical evidence. To understand what happened, sometimes you need to actually go to the accident scene and examine the vehicles involved. And the sooner you do it, the better.

Why Do Police Spend So Much Time at an Accident Scene?

There's a reason state troopers and local police may close a roadway after a serious crash.

Investigators photograph the scene. They examine the roadway. They locate and preserve physical evidence. They document where vehicles and debris came to rest.

One important piece of an accident investigation is determining the point of impact, sometimes referred to by investigators as the POI.

Where did the vehicles actually make contact?

The answer may help investigators reconstruct how the collision occurred.

Electronic information can be valuable, but it may not tell the entire story. Sometimes you have to put on a coat and safety vest and go look at the scene yourself.

What Physical Evidence Can Be Found After a Truck Accident?

A crash scene may contain evidence that never appears in an electronic data report.

An investigator might find:

• A broken taillight lying in a particular location on the roadway
• Skid marks that provide information about braking
• Paint transferred onto another vehicle, the roadway or a nearby structure
• Damage to a guardrail hundreds of feet from the primary crash scene
• A damaged light pole or road sign
• Vehicle parts or other debris scattered across the roadway
• Objects in a ditch that may become relevant to the investigation

Each piece by itself may seem insignificant.

Put together, however, physical evidence can help answer larger questions about the sequence of events.

Why was the guardrail damaged?

Where did the vehicles first make contact?

What do the skid marks indicate about braking?

Did all of the truck's brakes appear to engage?

What does the location of the debris tell us?

These are questions that may require someone to physically examine the scene rather than simply review a report from an office.

Physical Evidence Doesn't End at the Roadway

The vehicles themselves can be another important source of evidence.

Photographs are valuable, and in some cases there may be hundreds or even thousands of photographs documenting a seriously damaged vehicle.

But photographs don't always capture everything.

Our attorneys recently investigated a serious truck accident involving a semi that had rear-ended our client's vehicle in West Des Moines, IA.  There were thousands of photographs of the truck.

They were excellent photographs.

But we still went to see the truck ourselves.

During that physical inspection, we discovered something that was easy to miss in all those photographs:

Our client's license plate was embedded in a crease in the damaged front end of the semi.

We reached in and removed it.

That license plate was a physical piece of evidence connecting the two vehicles and helping demonstrate who hit the client’s car.

It wasn't something we discovered by sitting at a computer reviewing digital information.

We found it because we went to the truck and looked.

When Should a Truck Accident Be Investigated?

As early as possible.

Police understand the importance of examining a scene while the evidence is still there. The same principle can matter when investigating a civil case involving serious injuries.

Roads reopen.

Vehicles are repaired, sold or destroyed.

Debris gets removed.

Skid marks disappear.

Weather changes a scene.

Memories fade.

The passage of time can make certain evidence more difficult, and sometimes impossible, to recover.

That's why an early investigation can be important after a serious truck crash.

Sometimes Investigation Is About More Than Building a Case

There is another side of investigating serious accidents that doesn't show up in a police report.

In another truck accident investigation, our attorneys were examining our injured client's vehicle.

Inside were personal belongings.

Those items weren't particularly important to determining who caused the crash, and they probably weren't important to the police investigation.

But they were important to our client.

Because we physically examined the vehicle, we were able to recover those belongings and return them to someone who thought they had been lost.

That is also part of representing an injured person.

Why Experience Matters in a Serious Truck Accident Investigation

A strong truck accident investigation shouldn't depend upon one source of information.

Electronic data matters.

Photographs matter.

Police reports matter.

Witnesses matter.

And physical evidence matters.

The challenge is knowing what to look for, where to look for it and recognizing when something that initially appears insignificant may help explain what actually happened.

At Lawyer Lawyer Dutton Drake & Conklin LLP, our attorneys investigate serious truck accidents rather than simply waiting for the insurance company to tell us what happened.

Sometimes that means analyzing electronic information.

And sometimes it means putting on a safety vest, walking the roadway and looking in the ditch.

Because evidence doesn't always arrive in a report.

Sometimes you have to go find it.

Talk With an Iowa Truck Accident Attorney

If you or someone you love has been seriously injured in a semi or commercial truck accident in Iowa, an early investigation may help preserve important evidence.

Lawyer Lawyer Dutton Drake & Conklin LLP only represents the injured, never insurance companies or trucking companies.

The call is ALWAYS FREE, and there is no fee unless we win.

We're On Your Side.