If you’ve been injured in an Orange County truck accident, you may have a right to financial compensation. But first, you need to prove that another party, such as the truck driver or the trucking company, was at fault.
The problem is that proving fault in trucking accident claims can be difficult. To strengthen your case, your truck accident attorney may team up with a truck accident reconstruction expert. Read on to learn how accident reconstruction works and how it could benefit your case.
What Is Accident Reconstruction?
Accident reconstruction, also known as collision reconstruction, is the study of colliding objects. This process uses various scientific methods to investigate vehicle collisions and recreate what happened with a high degree of accuracy.
By employing accident reconstruction methods, we can find out how fast the truck was going at impact, how much it slowed, at what angles the two vehicles collided, and much more.
Who Can Be an Accident Reconstructionist?
Accident reconstructionists are experts with extensive training and experience. They have a working knowledge of various disciplines, including:
- Physics
- Mathematics
- Engineering
- Forensics
- Law enforcement
- Vehicle dynamics
- Photogrammetry
- Simulation or modeling software
How Can Truck Accident Reconstruction Support Your Claim?
Accident reconstruction can make or break your claim. Oftentimes, the testimony of an accident reconstructionist is what helps prove fault in truck accident cases in California.
Determining liability in truck accidents can be challenging for a number of reasons. Heavy trucks are more likely to cause large-scale property damage, catastrophic injuries, and death than passenger cars.
Generally, the greater the losses, the larger the compensation. As you can imagine, neither trucking nor insurance companies are eager to admit fault and make substantial payouts to accident victims — especially if the evidence is inconclusive or insufficient.
That’s where truck accident reconstruction experts come in. By recreating the crash, they can shed light on what happened, why it happened, and who was at fault.
Your truck accident attorney may include the reconstruction details in the demand letter they will send as part of the settlement negotiations. If you don’t settle and your case goes to trial, the accident reconstruction expert can also testify in court.
Accident Reconstruction Techniques
Accident reconstructionists use a wide range of methods and technologies. The choice of method or methods largely depends on the amount and type of evidence available.
Physical Inspection
Where possible, accident reconstruction experts will almost always inspect the vehicles and the accident scene in person.
Photographs and video evidence are also essential and can show the skid marks, the vehicle angles and final positions, and other information, they are often vague or omit certain details.
More specifically, a physical inspection can confirm ground contact to the vehicle undercarriage. Upon impact, vehicles often pitch downward, causing undercarriage components to create a gouge on the roadway. Gouge marks provide critical insights into the position and direction of a vehicle at the time of impact.
In-person inspection can also confirm the presence of grass trapped in door openings. This, in turn, can prove that the door came open upon impact. Likewise, the presence of grass or dirt between the wheel rim and the tire bead can indicate tire separation upon impact as opposed to after the tire goes flat during storage.
Photogrammetry
Photogrammetry is a technique that uses photographs and specialized software to establish the location and relative size of physical evidence at accident scenes.
High-quality photographs are essential for optimal accuracy. The accident reconstruction expert will likely require several views from different angles of each object. The more photographs and reference points, the more accurate the analysis will be.
Document Analysis
Your attorney will collect various documentary evidence and provide it to the accident reconstructionist for further analysis, including:
- The traffic collision report
- Medical records
- Autopsy reports
- Emergency personnel run-sheets
- Repair estimates
- Crash test reports
- Vehicle specifications
- The truck driver’s logbook
- The truck’s black box data
- GPS tracking system data
- Anti-lock brake system data
- Airbag control module data
- Information about the cargo contents, dimensions, and weight
- Scientific research and literature
- Witness testimony
- Information about the weather and road conditions
- Reports about the personal injuries and property damage
Witness Interviews
Eyewitness testimony can often bridge the gap between photographic and video evidence and the police accident report. To that end, reconstruction experts may analyze witness statements and deposition transcripts or interview witnesses themselves.
Momentum Analysis
Momentum analysis uses information such as skid marks, impact points, vehicle mass, and vehicle direction and rest positions to determine the speed of the vehicles before the collision.
Computer Reconstruction
There are many reconstruction and simulation programs that enable reconstruction experts to carry out a large number of calculations over small periods of time throughout the collision event — much quicker than when doing calculations by hand.
Do You Need a Truck Accident Reconstruction Expert?
Not all truck crash cases will require an accident reconstruction expert. If liability is clear or not contested, there is usually no point in incurring additional expenses by hiring external specialists.
However, your attorney will likely seek the input of a crash reconstruction expert if:
- The available evidence is vague, insufficient, or conflicting
- The accident is especially complex from a technical point of view
- There is more than one potentially liable party
In such cases, hiring a truck accident reconstruction expert can strengthen your case and help you prove liability.
Were You Injured in an Orange County Truck Accident? We Can Help.
Accidents involving commercial vehicles present unique legal challenges. To maximize your potential payout, you want to work with an experienced truck accident attorney with a proven track record.
At Khalil Law Group, our legal team has many years of experience successfully handling truck accident cases. We can analyze your case and recommend next steps, including hiring a truck accident reconstruction expert. If you choose to seek compensation, we’ll guide you at every turn.
Call (714) 617-5189 or contact us online to book your free consultation with a skilled truck accident attorney in Orange County, CA.