One bright spot is that technology is increasingly on the side of those hoping to hold drivers, carriers and truck owners responsible for negligent driving and truck maintenance.

Historically, Florida truck accident investigations were limited to photographs of crash scene, snapshots of vehicles and witness testimony. Expert witnesses helped to reconstruct the crash and fill in the details of what happened.

Pertinent information in a truck accident lawsuit includes:

• The area of impact in the road.
• The angles of the impact.
• Speed of the vehicles involved both prior to and at the point of impact.
• Determining motorist reactions to whatever occurred prior to the crash.

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Several technological advances are helping our Fort Lauderdale truck accident lawyers gain a more precise understanding of these factors.

More Electronic Computer Modules in All Vehicles

It’s not just commercial trucks that are increasingly equipped with technology that allows us to more easily reconstruct crashes. Most newer vehicles have a host of systems that help with crash avoidance, such as forward collision warning systems, rear cameras, pedestrian detection and more.

An increasingly standard feature on both trucks and passenger cars is something called electronic computer modules, or ECMs. These systems can save hard brake data (a decrease of speed at 7 mph per second), speed and braking/throttle input. While passenger vehicle ECMs record this information for about 8 seconds before airbag deploys, commercial truck ECMs record it for 90 seconds before the last hard stop or brake. ECMs can also tell us whether the driver braked, how hard they braked and whether they veered left, right or not at all.

In passenger cars, these data systems also record the change in speed a passenger car goes through as it is colliding with an object or other vehicle.

All of this can help your truck accident lawyer piece together what happened, making a stronger case for both liability and damages. It also has the potential to weaken any comparative fault argument the defense may raise. As noted in F.S. 768.81, comparative fault proportionately reduces the amount you are ultimately paid if the defense can show you were partly to blame for what happened.

Safety Sensors

Although some features are geared specifically toward truck accident reconstruction, others are designed more for crash prevention – but they can still be revealing when a crash is being reconstructed.

For instance, forward looking radars are designed to slow a large truck automatically when traffic ahead stops or slows unexpectedly. This is helpful in discouraging tailgating. There are also lane departure warning systems, tire pressure sensors and sensors that track alert to trailer sway.

If anyone of these features is activated, they are designed to automatically trigger the critical event recorder. This also alerts the trucker’s dispatcher to a possible on-the-road issue. Then if a crash does occur, that information is stored and can become very useful in the crash investigation to determine how and why the wreck happened.

Another potential gamechanger in the trucking industry are biometric sensors that truckers wear to help combat drowsy driving – something that accounts for a significant number of crashes. These sensors, which can be worn as caps, wrists, eye wear and wristbands, alert drivers to things like head and eyelid droops – letting them know they are tired perhaps before they even realize it. This data can also be recorded – and potentially quite useful for crash investigations.

Video Surveillance and Dash Cameras

The use of video has proven increasingly helpful in Florida truck accident lawsuits as well. Some trucking industry players are reticent to install onboard dashboard cameras on their fleet, but others are embracing these – as well as side and rear view cameras. These help with blind spots and they’ve also proven invaluable in Florida truck accident injury claims, particularly over the last five years.

So too have security cameras that are increasingly rolling at homes, businesses, roadways and intersections. All of these can be used to help more accurately piece together what happened.

Every shred of information in these cases is vital, and a single clip or piece of data can change the entire “how” of an accident. This is because firstly, witness testimony is perhaps one of the most unreliable forms of evidence. This is compounded in a truck accident case by the fact that those who were involved or saw it happened are often traumatized. Certain details can easily get overlooked in these situations. Video is superior evidence compared to eyewitness testimony – especially if there is footage from multiple angles.

It’s not uncommon for those involved in litigation to dispute things like who was in whose lane, how fast the vehicles involved were going and who was to blame. Truck accident reconstruction can cost $15,000 or more for each side, once expert witnesses have weighed in. Having this technology available to provide an accurate retelling allows for more efficient claims that are less time-consuming and costly.

If you are injured in a South Florida trucking accident, call Fort Lauderdale Injury Attorney Richard Ansara at (954) 761-4011. Serving Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. Additional Resources: Wearable Tech That Tells Drowsy Truckers It’s Time to Pull Over, Feb. 6, 2020, By Julie Weed, The New York Times

A federal judge has ordered the defendant in a Florida trucking accident lawsuit to turn over the electronic control module (ECM) data on the freight company vehicle involved in a crash that resulted in serious injury to the other driver.

The trucking company admitted fault/liability for the crash, but the question is how much defendant should pay to compensate the victim. As our Fort Lauderdale truck accident attorneys can explain, the question of victim compensation – formally referred to as “damages,” is often an issue of sharp contention in injury litigation and often the only reason some cases go to trial.

This Florida trucking crash lawsuit is noteworthy for the fact that federal safety regulations now require electronic data monitoring devices in large trucks to ensure compliance of hours-of-service regulations from the U.S. Department of Transportation, designed to prevent truckers from driving fatigued.more

In the case of Torres-Torres v. KW International Inc., while the trucking company defendant argued the records plaintiff requested gleaned from the electronic box on the 18-wheeler driven by the company’s employee were privileged “work product,” protected from discovery in litigation and further not relevant to plaintiff’s argument for damages anyway. Defense asserted that unless plaintiff could show undue hardship of being unable to glean relevant information elsewhere, plaintiff’s request should be denied.

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida overruled those objections. The judge found the defense’s work product argument unconvincing considering plaintiff was seeking information gleaned in the normal course of the truck’s day-to-day operations and was not seeking any interpretation of data.

The court also rejected the defense’s assertion that the data was protected because the defendant was the only entity that had the special equipment required to download that information.

Why Truck’s Electronic Data Might Matter When It Comes to Damages

One question we’ve heard arise on this case is why a person injured in a truck accident might need data about how the crash happened when the parties aren’t arguing whether the trucker was negligent, only how much plaintiff will be paid.

As noted in the 1999 U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruling in Cortes v. American Airlines Inc., when calculating damages specific to pain and suffering endured by a particular plaintiff, evidence that offers a full description of crash details is “logically relevant and admissible, even where liability has been admitted.” The reason is to ascertain in the appropriate context the extent of injuries sustained by the plaintiff as well as the amount of pain the person suffered.

In the Torres-Torres case, plaintiff sought information as to the collision’s contributing factors as well as how it could have been prevented. These, the court ruled, are relevant to plaintiff’s claim to pain and suffering.

These kinds of arguments, taking place during the discovery phase, often determine the outcome of a case. This is why it is essential that you work with a criminal personal injury lawyer who can be trusted to be eagle-eyed when it comes to arguing for admission of evidence in your favor and suppression of evidence that isn’t.

Call Fort Lauderdale Injury Attorney Richard Ansara at (954) 761-4011. Serving Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

Additional Resources:

Torres-Torres v. KW International Inc., April 29, 2019, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida

Now, a recent report by The New York Times explores how those figures may soon be significantly reduced – with the prospect of self-driving trucks. The report cites a CB Insights log detailing the fact that companies and investors have put more than $1 billion into self-driving technologies for trucks, which was 10 times what was being invested in just three years ago. Further, auto manufacturer Tesla is slated soon to unveil an electric truck that has a number of self-driving abilities. Meanwhile, a California start-up announced it’s been testing self-driving truck technology in partnership with a truck leasing firm and a large appliance company.

Most in the industry agree self-driving trucks will be reality, but there is disagreement as to exactly when we can expect it. However, there is strong speculation it will happen a lot faster than fully self-driving passenger cars.

The reason is because while passenger cars routinely must navigate urban streets that are often chaotic, most large trucks spend most of the time operating on a straight trajectory across sparse highway landscapes. Additionally, while self-driving cars have to contend with fickle consumers, companies interested in logistics are mostly unemotional about allowing upgrades if it makes financial sense. There is also speculation self-driving trucks will be on the road long before self-driving taxis.

Self-driving trucks could mean big changes for the $700 billion-a-year industry, which affects virtually all consumer products, natural resources and development. The sheer size of the injury creates an incentive for efficiency, which is why automation makes sense. In fact, a number of companies are racing to develop the technology and get these advanced vehicles on the road so that they can start turning higher profits.

Already, many large trucks have a number of self-driving features. For example, the 7,000 trucks owned by US Xpress are all equipped with collision avoidance systems and autonomous breaking. Automated lane-steering features are expected to be incorporated into the fleet next year.

Still, beyond whatever technical hurdles that may exist, there may be regulatory ones as well. And we can’t discount the shock and perhaps wariness some other motorists might feel seeing a truck operating down the road with no driver. It’s inevitable too that one of these trucks will at some point be involved in a collision, and if fault is found with the self-driving truck, that raises a host of legal liability and regulatory issues to grapple with. That could slow the process down too.

There is no doubt, however, that the financial ripples of expanding self-driving technology is going to affect everything from insurance premiums to road design. One downside, of course, is that career truck drivers may be out of a job. Some in the tech industry say this could be resolved by having the trucks operate autonomously on long highways, but still require a driver to navigate stops and the end of the trip details.

Truck accidents result in billions of dollars of economic impact each year, not to mention the devastating toll on individuals and families. These are complex personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits, and require an attorney with extensive experience.

Call Fort Lauderdale Injury Attorney Richard Ansara at (954) 761-4011. Serving Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

Additional Resources:

Self-Driving Trucks May Be Closer Than They Appear, Nov. 13, 2017, By Conor Dougherty, The New York Times

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Pizza Deliver Crash Raises Questions of Employer Liability, Nov. 14, 2017, Fort Lauderdale Truck Accident Lawyer Blog