After a truck accident, a lawyer helps you by immediately sending legal notices to the trucking company to stop them from destroying records, securing the digital data from the truck’s onboard computer, and hiring professionals to document the scene before it changes. Because trucking companies often dispose of records after a few weeks, having a legal representative take these steps quickly is the most effective way to protect your rights to fair compensation.
When a large vehicle, like a coal truck or tri-axle truck, is involved in a collision, the amount of evidence generated is significant. Evidence is simply the body of facts or information that indicates whether a claim is true or valid. In the world of legal claims, it is the foundation of your case. Without it, a claim becomes a matter of one person’s word against another’s, which is a difficult position for an injured person.
Trucking companies are businesses that are often prepared for accidents. They may have teams that arrive at a scene shortly after a crash to begin their own investigation. This means that while you are focused on healing at a hospital in Johnstown or State College, the other side is already working to protect its interests.
A lawyer acts as your advocate to ensure that the “playing field” is level by securing the same information the trucking company is gathering.
There are many different types of evidence that may be relevant to a truck accident claim:
By identifying these items immediately, a legal representative ensures that no one can claim they “lost” the records later. These pieces of information work together to tell the story of the accident and help determine who was responsible for the harm caused.
One of the first things a lawyer does is draft and send a spoliation letter. “Spoliation” is a legal term that refers to the withholding, hiding, altering, or destroying of evidence. In the trucking industry, companies are often allowed to destroy certain records after a specific amount of time has passed under federal law. For example, some logs only need to be kept for six months under federal motor carrier safety regulations.
A spoliation letter is a formal notice sent to the trucking company and its insurance provider. It tells them that a claim is pending and that they have a legal duty to preserve every piece of evidence related to the truck, the driver, and the trip they were making.
If a company destroys evidence after receiving this letter, a court may penalize them, which can be very helpful for your claim. This letter is a powerful tool because it puts the company on notice that it is being watched.
The letter usually demands the preservation of:
Once this letter is delivered, the trucking company is legally obligated to stop its routine document destruction processes. This ensures that the evidence remains available for your lawyer and their team of investigators to review in the coming months.
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Most modern tractor-trailers and tri-axle trucks moving through DuBois and Indiana are equipped with an Engine Control Module (ECM), often called a “black box.” This device is similar to the flight recorders used in airplanes. It records what the truck was doing in the seconds leading up to a collision. This data is objective, meaning it does not have a bias and does not forget details like a human witness might.
Your lawyer will work with a mechanical professional to “download” this data. This must be done carefully using specialized software to ensure the data is not corrupted. This information can reveal if the driver tried to slam on the brakes, if they were using cruise control, or if they were traveling above the speed limit on a dangerous curve like those found near the Horseshoe Curve in Altoona.
In addition to the ECM, trucks use Electronic Logging Devices (ELD). These devices are required by law to track a driver’s “Hours of Service.” This is a rule that limits how many hours a driver can be behind the wheel to prevent fatigue. Driving a heavy coal truck while tired is a major safety risk. By preserving the ELD data, your lawyer can see if the driver was violating these safety laws at the time of the crash.
The combination of ECM and ELD data provides a digital “fingerprint” of the accident. This data is often the most convincing evidence in a truck accident claim because it is very difficult for a trucking company to argue against its own vehicle’s computer records.
A tractor-trailer is a complex machine with thousands of parts that must work perfectly to stay safe. When a lawyer preserves evidence, they do not just look at the crash itself; they look at the history of the truck. This involves a physical inspection of the vehicle and a deep dive into its maintenance files.
Pennsylvania has specific rules regarding vehicle equipment, found in the Pennsylvania Vehicle Code. For instance, trucks must have working brakes and tires with a certain amount of tread. If a coal truck coming from a local mine has worn-down brakes, it may not be able to stop in time for a red light in downtown Indiana or Johnstown. Your lawyer will hire a mechanic to inspect the wreckage for these types of mechanical failures.
The maintenance logs are equally important. These logs should show:
If the records show that the company knew about a mechanical problem but chose not to fix it, this can be a key factor in your claim. It shows that the company prioritized profits over the safety of other people on the road. This type of evidence is essential for holding the company accountable for its choices.
While digital data is important, the physical world also holds many clues. A lawyer will often send a private investigator or an accident reconstruction specialist to the site of the collision. This is especially important on busy roads like I-99 or Route 422, where the road surface can change quickly due to weather or heavy traffic.
Evidence at the scene can include skid marks, which tell a story about how fast a vehicle was going and when the driver first noticed danger. Debris patterns—the way glass and metal are scattered—can help show the point of impact. The investigator will also look for “sightline” issues, such as overgrown bushes or poorly placed signs, and check if any nearby businesses had security cameras that might have captured the incident.
Talking to witnesses is another critical step. People who saw the accident occur often have a unique perspective. However, people’s memories fade quickly. A lawyer will move fast to:
Having these statements recorded early prevents witnesses from forgetting small but important details later on. This thorough approach to gathering facts ensures that your side of the story is supported by multiple sources of information.
Sometimes, the cause of a truck accident is not just a mistake on the road, but a mistake made in the trucking company’s office. Trucking companies are responsible for hiring safe drivers and making sure they are properly trained.
Your lawyer will request the driver’s “qualification file.” This is a folder that every trucking company must keep for every driver they employ. This file contains the driver’s medical certificates, their road test results, and their annual driving record. If the company didn’t check the driver’s background properly, your lawyer will find out by reviewing these preserved documents.
Training is also a factor. Different types of trucks require different skills. Driving a tri-axle truck loaded with coal requires a different approach than driving a standard tractor-trailer on the highway. If the driver was not trained to handle the specific vehicle they were driving through the hills of Western Pennsylvania, that lack of training is a piece of evidence that belongs in your claim.
Reviewing these records allows your legal team to see if there is a pattern of unsafe behavior at the company. Often, a single accident is the result of many small safety shortcuts taken by the employer over a long period. Bringing these shortcuts to light is a major part of seeking justice.
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Once all the evidence is preserved—the black box data, the witness statements, the photos, and the maintenance logs—it must be put together. This is where accident reconstruction comes in. These professionals are often engineers or former law enforcement officers who use physics and math to recreate the accident.
They can use the preserved evidence to create a 3D animation or a detailed map of the crash. This helps show:
This process turns a pile of documents and data into a clear, easy-to-understand story. When an insurance company sees a high-quality reconstruction of the accident, they are often more willing to settle the claim fairly because they see that the facts are not in their favor. This professional analysis is only possible if the lawyer took the steps to preserve the evidence immediately after the accident occurred.
Because truck accidents involve many moving parts and complex laws, it is natural to have questions about how the process works and what happens to the information gathered.
You should start as soon as you are safely home and able to make a phone call. While the statute of limitations in Pennsylvania generally allows two years to file a lawsuit, the evidence itself can disappear in days or weeks. The trucking company can legally destroy many records after six months if no one tells them otherwise.
It is very difficult for an individual to get this information. Trucking companies are not required to give their internal files or “black box” data to a driver just because they ask. A lawyer has the legal tools, such as the spoliation letter and the power of “discovery” in a lawsuit, to force the company to hand over these items.
If a company destroys evidence after it knew a claim was possible, a lawyer can ask the judge for a “spoliation instruction.” This tells the jury that they should assume the destroyed evidence would have been bad for the trucking company. This can be a very powerful way to help an injured person’s case.
Moving through the legal process after a collision with a tractor-trailer or coal truck is a major undertaking. At Marcus & Mack, we believe that doing what is right means doing whatever it takes to protect our neighbors in Indiana, State College, DuBois, Altoona, and Johnstown.
With over 100 years of combined legal experience, our attorneys know how to stand up to large trucking companies and their insurance providers. We are brave and strong in our pursuit of justice because we know how much a fair recovery matters to your future.
Don’t let vital evidence disappear while you focus on your recovery. Call Marcus & Mack today for your free consultation and learn how we can help you hold the responsible parties accountable. Helping injured people is not just what we do—it is all we do.
