Evidence Preservation in Trucking Injury Cases Crafting Spoliation - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Presenting a live 90-minute webinar with interactive Q&A Evidence Preservation in Trucking Injury Cases Crafting Spoliation Letters, Securing Key Documentation, and Challenging Evidence Destruction TUES DAY, APRIL 1, 2014 1pm East ern | 12pm Cent ral | 11am Mount ain | 10am Pacific Today’s faculty features: Michael J. Leizerman, Managing Partner, EJ Leizerman & Associates LLC , Toledo, Ohio Eric J. D. Rogers, Attorney, Fried Rogers Goldberg LLC , Atlanta Elizabeth Jones S atterfield, Attorney, Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz PC , Atlanta The audio portion of the conference may be accessed via the telephone or by using your computer's speakers. Please refer to the instructions emailed to registrants for additional information. If you have any questions, please contact Customer Service at 1-800-926-7926 ext. 10 .

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• Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations • Document Retention Timelines • Department of Transportation • Multiple Defendants • Technology and Government Databases • Third Party Vendors 5

• Regulations that pertain to all Interstate motor carriers operating in the USA • State the minimum documents that a company must maintain in order to operate • State the minimum time specific documents must be kept • SIZE DOESN’T MATTER! 6

• Logs, daily inspection sheets: 6 Months • Maintenance records: 1 year • Driver Qualification File: 3 years after last date of employment • Qualcomm, GPS, ECM: None 7

 Driver  Broker  Motor Carrier  Shipper  Tractor Owner  Freight Forwarder  Trailer Owner  Consignee  3rd Party Maint./Repair  Logistics Company  Yard Owner  Insurer  Loader/unloader They Can All Have Independent Liability and Evidence 8

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 Get Safersys and CSA data early  Broker Liability – negligent retention of motor carrier. How does Safersys and CSA come into play? 21

• Eg.: QualComm, Log Audits, GPS Tracking, Fuel Monitoring, VORAD • Trucking companies use outside vendors to help run their companies • Information created by these vendors is not always stored on company servers • You don’t know who the trucking company uses, but they do. • No requirements to maintain this information by law 22

 Qualcomm  Blackbox – ECM and ABS  Vorad  EOBR – Electronic logging  Onboard Video  GPS  Combined Systems 23

 Most large truck engines have ECM responsible for monitoring and controlling important engine and vehicle parameters such as speed, throttle, and braking.  Most record data for rapid deceleration  Many can record speed, clutch & brake status, & throttle position  Some record “ last stop ” data  Depends on the engine make, model and year.  When in doubt, call dealer. 24

 Since 1987, the most popular engine for Class 8 trucks is the Detroit Diesel Series 60.  Fallen off a bit since 2001, but still very popular  Most Freightliner trucks  Prior to 1998 – DDEC III – did not store any data without add on module  Post 1998 – Data recorded  Gets better with each release  DDEC is most advanced ECM 25

 The last stop record - triggered when truck is stopped for more than x length of time – factory set at 15 secs.  When triggered, will record activity from 1 minute 45 seconds before the stop through 15 sec after stop.  When the vehicle is moved again, this data is overwritten and lost forever.  Do you want to move the vehicle after the crash? 26

 H ard brake report - triggered when tractor decelerates at or above a certain preprogrammed rate.  The factory default is 7 mph/second.  Once triggered, the ECM will record activity for 1 minute before and 15 seconds after the threshold is met.  Usually the last 2 hard brakes are recorded  Diagnostics and engine run time reports – Show serious faults 27

 How is this useful to you?  Last Stop and Hard Brake Reports capture the following data in 1 second intervals:  Wheel speed (mph)  Engine speed (rpm)  Engine load (percent)  Throttle position (percent)  Brake status (on/off)  Clutch status (on/off)  Cruise control status (on/off) 28

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FRIED ROGERS GOLDBERG LLC www.thetruckingattorneys.com 36

 Used in Peterbilt, Kenworth & International tractors.  Caterpillar engine ECMs have been able to record sudden decelerations ( “ quick stops ” ) since 1995, but the factory default is set to not record any such data.  no way to know if data is there without downloading the box  Starting in 2007 the engines started being shipped with “ quick stop ” function set to “ on. ”  Records 45 sec of data before trigger and 15 seconds of data after trigger. 37

 The Quick Stop records:  Wheel speed (mph)  Engine load (percent)  Service brake status (on/off)  Clutch status (on/off)  Cruise control status (on/off)  Other parameters defined by end-user  Snapshot Report – critical fault – 9 seconds before and 3 seconds after – good if mechanical issue is suspected 38

 Used in Peterbilt, Kenworth and International tractors.  Before late 2005, little data unless optional “ Road Relay ” module – Most did not have it  Now - must Cummins engines do contain EDR data as follows in 1 second intervals: Wheel speed (mph)  Engine speed (rpm)  Engine load (percent  Throttle position (percent)  Brake status (on/off)  Clutch status (on/off)  Cruise control status (on/off)  Lamp status (on/off)  39

 You need two separate software set ups to download a Cummins engine ECM.  Insight –downloads engine settings/maintenance data  Powerspec- downloads the sudden deceleration data  panic stop report - triggered when deceleration meets or exceeds a pre-set threshold.  The factory default is usually 9 mph/second.  Records 1 minute before and 15 seconds after trigger  Up to three panic stops can be recorded. 40

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 Makes own engines  Since 1998 EDR called V-Mack  Records 2 incidents  Threshold 10mph/sec decel  Late Model records one Braking and one Last Stop  Records 16 seconds before and after, usually in 0.2 second intervals. Speed is rounded to nearest mph.  42

 Mack incident report records:  Wheel speed (mph)  Engine speed (rpm)  Up to 8 switches usually including  Brake status (on/off)  Clutch status (on/off)  Cruise control status (on/off)  Key switch (on/off)  Mack has not made its software publically available. To obtain a download, the ECU must be removed and sent to one of two authorized third parties:  East Coast: Time Cheek, PE, www.deltavinc.com  West Coast: John Steiner, www.levaeng.com 43

 Makes own engines but sometimes uses Cummins  Before 2007 – no useful info  By some reports, engines built in 2007 have an incident report capabilities similar to those in Mack trucks, but this information has not been verified. 44