A victim injured in a collision involving a large truck bears the responsibility to prove that the commercial truck driver was negligent and caused the crash to win a personal injury claim. The idea sounds fairly straightforward. However, without three pieces of vital evidence, proving the negligence of a truck driver will be extraordinarily difficult, […]
A victim injured in a collision involving a large truck bears the responsibility to prove that the commercial truck driver was negligent and caused the crash to win a personal injury claim. The idea sounds fairly straightforward.
However, without three pieces of vital evidence, proving the negligence of a truck driver will be extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible.
The first critical piece of evidence the victim of a truck accident needs is the accident report from the Police Department. When the police arrive on the scene of an accident, they initially evaluate the scene for people who are injured. Once the officers rendered first aid and clear the area of victims in need of medical attention, then they turn their investigation to figuring out what happened and why.
The police officer will enter information into his or her crash narrative, such as the identities of the people involved, the make, model, and VIN of each vehicle involved, as well as each insurance company. The officer will also take down witness statements and might even take photographs as well. Crashes involving catastrophic injuries or deaths will require additional law enforcement investigation. In those instances, police departments typically call out their accident crash reconstruction units to perform a full analysis of the incident and draw a conclusion.
The Police Department also generates the next important piece of evidence the victim of a truck accident needs to obtain. Obtaining the 911 call and turret tapes, which are the calls between the dispatch center and the police cruisers as well as officer to officer communications, will help provide a full understanding of the police response. This information could also lead to the existence of other witnesses and other pieces of evidence, such as surveillance tapes, which were not recorded in the accident report.
Finally, expert opinion is generated by the Police Department, such as through accident reconstruction reports and analysis will also be valuable to the truck accident victim who is assembling a claim for damages. Accident reconstruction reports are drafted by law enforcement officers who will receive extensive training concerning the nature of a car accident and how to calculate speed, distances, at forces generated by each vehicle involved in the collision.