Semi-Truck Black Boxes: Crucial Truck Accident Evidence

Attorney Montana Thompson | 800-260-0800 | Free Consult

Did you know that large semi-trucks have black boxes like the ones found in airplanes?

Montana Thompson is a personal injury attorney with Phillips Law Group in Phoenix, Arizona. He focuses his practice on helping those affected by personal injury and wrongful death, including victims of car accidents, truck accidents, slip and falls, and many more. He is also fluent in Spanish.

In this Quick Question, he explains that semi-truck black boxes are vital for truck accident attorneys in piecing together the details of the accident.

To learn more, contact the attorney directly by calling 800-260-0800 or by submitting a contact form on this page. The consultation is free and confidential, and you owe no out-of-pocket attorney fees.

The “black box” in large trucks store important electronic information.

You may have seen or heard black boxes referenced in movies. A black box is a control module that records electronic data in a vehicle including data such as speeds of travel at different times, driver reactions, and more. Even in a crash, the black box is typically protected.

This is good news for anyone who finds themselves involved in an accident with a large truck or 18-wheeler. Someone with the right equipment can take the black box and gather the data off of it in order to determine information such as how fast the truck was going immediately before the crash, whether the brake was being pushed at the time of the collision, how many RPMs the engine was running at, whether the seat belt was on, and more. The black box is a vital piece of technology designed to record the conditions before, during, and after an accident and can make or break a successful truck accident claim.

Information contained in a black box can be vital to proving how a wreck occurred.

A black box is an unbiased piece of technology containing factual data that can help piece together when, how, and why an accident occurred. The difficulty regarding utilizing the information in a black box for a successful truck accident case is that the average person is unlikely to be able to obtain it, much less download and interpret the data contained therein.

This is one of several reasons why it is particularly important to contact a lawyer after being involved in an accident with a semi-truck. Truck accident attorneys have access to expert resources who know not only how to obtain the black box, but also how to interpret the data contained therein as well. Additionally, truck accident attorneys can begin investigating the situation right away, preventing important evidence from being lost or destroyed. If hiring an attorney does not seem feasible, it may help to note that these attorneys generally offer free consultations and work on a contingency fee basis, meaning you don’t pay unless and until they obtain compensation for you.

To learn more, contact Montana Thompson directly by calling 800-260-0800 or by submitting a contact form on this page. The consultation is free and confidential, and you owe no out-of-pocket attorney fees.

Video Transcript:

Rob Rosenthal:

Do you know what the black box is on an 18 wheeler and why it's important in a crash case? We ask Arizona attorney Montana Thompson in this AskTheLawyers Quick Question.

Montana Thompson:

The black box is basically what you see on TV and movies. It's an electronic system control module that stores electronic information, a lot more information than you might think. It's normally undamaged because it's protected in a crash, and so somebody with the right equipment is able to go download the information from the black box, and we're able to see important information like how fast the truck was going right before the crash, whether the brake was being pushed, how many RPMs the engine was going, whether the seat belt was on, and a lot of similar data like that.

Disclaimer: This video is for informational purposes only. In some states, this video may be deemed Attorney Advertising. The choice of lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely on advertisements.