Trucking companies, as corporations, can only act though people. In trucking cases companies will often hire experts that give the company the answer they want (That the company isn’t responsible and it is the truck accident victims fault) rather than the truth. In many cases evidence is also allowed to be destroyed, even when the company knows that the evidence is critical to proving how a wreck happened.

In a 2003 decision, in a typical case, Bulkmatic’s expert, Stephen Chewing,  was found to have failed to "preserve the black box data [which] exhibited willfulness and bad faith that prejudiced [the victim of the truck wreck.]" The black box data would have shown the truck’s speed, when the driver braked, and other significant items that would have assisted the victim’s accident reconstructionist in the case against Bulkmatic. The full opinion of the court can be read HERE

Destruction of evidence is a common problem in trucking cases. Don’t wait to hire a lawyer while evidence in your case is being destroyed. While the insurance company is stringing you along with promises that everything will be "fine", the trucking company is getting rid of the proof you need to make a full recovery in your case. Whether you hire my firm or another, a competent truck accident law firm will immediately have a letter out to the trucking company and its driver telling them to save all the critical evidence.

A sample letter requesting evidence to be saved, and not destroyed (or "spoliated" as we say in the legal world), can be found in my prior blogs under "SPOLIATION."