What is Black Box in a Truck?

If you’ve been injured in a collision with a truck in Orange County, NY , you need an attorney with actual truck accident experience who understands how the trucking industry functions and what evidence to look for to prove your case.

Truck/car collisions frequently result in fatalities or catastrophic injuries to the car’s occupants, creating an immediate risk of multimillion-dollar damage awards against the truck driver, trucking company, and their insurers. Trucking industry members have teams of lawyers, investigators, and experts on speed dial who are dispatched to the accident scene while the vehicle occupants are still in the ambulance to collect evidence.

Both parties require data from the truck’s “black box,” which, like an airplane’s black box, records the truck’s movements before, during, and after the accident. With this information, an expert in accident reconstruction can testify about how the accident occurred and which driver(s) caused it. If the trucker’s attorneys possess this information and you do not, your case will be severely harmed. Having any ordinary personal injury attorney handle your case is insufficient for this reason alone.

You need Benjamin Greenwald.

The black box’s official name is “electronic control module” (ECM). It is an onboard computer that continuously monitors and logs the truck’s operation. Originally designed to aid truck manufacturers in defending against warranty claims by drivers, the black box captures some or all of the following information, which can be crucial in determining what transpired prior to, during, and after an accident:

 The truck’s speed prior to the collision.

 Any abrupt acceleration or deceleration If/when the brakes were applied

How frequently and for how long the truck exceeded the speed limit

 The truck’s daily activity, including operating hours and miles driven

Real-time GPS positional data

The black box operates differently than the airbag control module in passenger vehicles because it continuously collects data rather than being activated only in the event of an accident. The data captured and stored in the black box produced by one manufacturer may differ slightly from the data captured and stored in the black box produced by another manufacturer.

In addition, the recorded data is highly technical and must be meticulously accessed, downloaded, and interpreted by an expert in accident reconstruction. The truck driver and his employer will have their own expert who will use the same evidence to argue that the truck driver was not at fault, so you must be able to determine the truth.

Your Benjamin Greenwald attorney will notify the truck driver, truck owner, and all insurers of your claim as one of the initial steps. We will demand that they maintain the integrity of all accident-related evidence, especially the black box. Our attorneys will use this and other evidence (including police reports and witness statements) to demonstrate that the truck driver was at fault. By comparing the relative positions of the vehicle prior to, during, and immediately after impact, our expert witness will be able to, among other things:

Determine the estimated stopping distance between where the truck should have seen your vehicle for the first time and where the truck began to brake. Determine the actions the truck driver could have taken to avoid the collision. Demonstrate that your response to the truck’s motions was reasonable under the circumstances.

The black box also records less technical but nonetheless crucial information, such as the truck driver’s communications with the company. These communications may contain damaging statements from the driver admitting that he exceeded the maximum number of hours allowed during a specific time frame. They may also reveal the driver’s or the company’s knowledge of truck repairs that were delayed after the accident with you. This type of evidence can harm the company’s reputation and make it and its insurer more amenable to settling the case.

Remember that the truck’s black box evidence cannot assist you unless we obtain it before it is destroyed or disappears. Call or visit our website today to schedule a free consultation with one of our seasoned Orange County, NY truck accident lawyers. It is the initial step in obtaining the justice you deserve.