What Evidence Exists in a Trucking Case

Attorney Jason Itkin explains how the evidence available in trucking cases has changed dramatically in the last 5 to 10 years, and why getting to it fast decides cases.

From Chalk Marks to Data

Trucking investigations used to mean chalk marks on pavement and paper log books: reconstructing speeds and angles from physical evidence, and reading a driver’s handwriting to figure out how long he had been awake. Some of that work still matters. But a modern truck generates a continuous record of its own behavior, and so does its driver. Our truck accident lawyers build cases from GPS tracking, speed monitors, driver-facing cameras, and phone data showing exactly when a driver last sent a text or started streaming video.

“These things have changed the type of evidence that is available in trucking cases just dramatically in the last 5 to 10 years.”

The Evidence Companies Would Rather You Never Ask For

The other shift is where the evidence lives. Beyond the truck and the driver, there are the company’s own internal communications: text messages, emails, Slack, Signal, and WhatsApp chats where dispatch pressure and known problems get discussed in plain language. Those are also the places evidence gets hidden or made to disappear, which is why preservation demands and a relentless investigation team matter more than ever. The black box is the clearest example: the data is definitive, and it can be cleared.

“It’s important to download it, get it before someone inadvertently, or on purpose, clears the black box.”

Full Transcript

These things have changed the type of evidence that is available in trucking cases just dramatically in the last 5 to 10 years. Because in the old days, you’d have chalk marks, and you’d be trying to figure out what the different speeds were and what the different angles were. And you’d look at manual log books to see how long the driver had been up.

And some of that stuff still happens today, but there’s also so much more evidence that’s out there. We’ve got GPS tracking of trucks. We’ve got speed monitors on trucks. There’s driver-facing video cameras, so you can see the impact of the truck and how the driver was doing. There’s ways that you can monitor how often the drivers check the speedometer. You can look at their phone and see when’s the last time they sent a text message or how much data were they using, or streaming something when they weren’t supposed to be.

There is video cameras that are up all over the place, or people that drive by that take cell phone videos, not to mention the company’s internal text messages and emails and Slack, Signal chats and WhatsApp chats, and all different things that you’ve gotta be aware of, of where people try to hide evidence or make evidence disappear.

I mean, you also have the black box in the truck that can tell you the speeds and different things about how the truck was functioning, and it’s important to download it, get it before someone inadvertently, or on purpose, clears the black box.

You gotta really be willing to sort of turn over all sorts of rocks, and it’s working with a really great investigation team. But it really requires old-fashioned investigation work, even in today’s information age.

And sometimes it can get really dicey when somebody tries to destroy a cell phone. It was destroyed in the crash. It was this. It was never recovered. It was off. I got a new phone. And then you gotta figure out, “how do I get the backups?” And so you’ve gotta be relentless in trying to find witnesses, trying to find information, and not taking no for an answer until you know exactly what went wrong and why it went wrong. Call us, email us, text us. We’ll respond and hold the people who did it accountable and make sure that your family’s taken care of.