Your vehicle was just destroyed by a commercial truck, your insurance company is already calling, and the repair shop has an opening this week. Moving quickly may feel like the right call, but it isn't — at least not yet. Repairing or disposing of a damaged vehicle before consulting an attorney can eliminate key truck crash evidence. Below, our experienced Kansas City truck accident lawyers share important information you need to know before you repair your vehicle after a truck accident.
Why Your Damaged Vehicle Is Key Evidence
In a truck accident case, a damaged car is a three-dimensional record of what happened. The location, depth, and pattern of damage tell an experienced attorney and accident reconstruction professional a great deal about how the crash unfolded, in a way that photographs alone cannot fully capture.
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Vehicle damage documentation, including detailed photographs and an expert inspection, provides evidence about impact angles, speeds, and the environmental factors that contributed to the accident.
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Crush patterns, door frame deformation, undercarriage damage, and airbag deployment data can all be analyzed to reconstruct the physics of a collision. These findings speak directly to who was at fault.
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When your attorney is able to physically examine your vehicle, they can identify which parts absorbed force, where the first point of contact occurred, and whether the damage is consistent with the truck driver's account of events.
Since trucking companies frequently dispute the severity and direction of impact after a crash, physical evidence from your vehicle gives your legal team concrete, difficult-to-refute data to work with. Once repairs are made, that data is gone permanently.
Important Steps to Preserve Key Truck Crash Evidence
After a truck accident, it’s important to avoid making critical mistakes. Following the steps below will help you protect your ability to secure the damages you deserve.
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Do not authorize vehicle repairs before consulting a lawyer. Even cosmetic repairs can alter the damage patterns, potentially interfering with an inspector's ability to properly evaluate impact force and angles. A brief conversation with a Kansas City truck accident lawyer before contacting a body shop costs nothing and protects your options.
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Take photographs immediately and from multiple angles. At the accident scene, it’s important to document visible damage to all vehicles from multiple angles. You should also record skid marks, debris, road conditions, and nearby traffic signs. These photos supplement, but do not replace, a physical inspection of the actual damage to your vehicle.
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Do not agree to have the vehicle moved to a facility under the other party's control. If the trucking company or its insurer offers to arrange to store or inspect your vehicle before your attorney has examined the vehicle, do not accept their offer. If you do, your access may become restricted.
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Do not post photos or commentary about the crash on social media. Posting on social media about a truck accident that you were involved in is not in your best interests. Defendants or insurers may use this material to defend against a claim.
How a Lawyer Will Help Preserve Key Evidence
Your vehicle is one piece of a larger evidentiary picture in a truck accident case. While physical inspection of your car is underway, an experienced Kansas City truck accident lawyer will take additional action to preserve critical evidence before it can be lost or destroyed.
While your car is being evaluated, your lawyer will send spoliation letters to relevant parties to ensure they maintain other evidence that may be critical to your case. A spoliation letter is a legal notice that prohibits the other party from destroying evidence that could be relevant to your claim. Your attorney can send this to the trucking company to protect other critical evidence — maintenance records, driver logs, black box data — at the same time your vehicle is being documented.
Seek Justice With a Powerful Combination of Evidence
The combination of your vehicle's physical damage record, the truck's electronic data, and the trucking company's maintenance and driver records gives your legal team a complete and corroborated account of what happened — one that is far harder to challenge than any single piece of evidence standing alone.
This is why it’s so important to hold off on getting your care repaired following a truck crash until after you speak with an experienced truck accident lawyer who is knowledgeable about Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulations. Doing so will allow your attorney to have access to the information they need to build a solid case and help you fight for the compensation you deserve.