The single most important thing that happens in a truck case often happens in the first few weeks, before a lawsuit is ever filed. The evidence that proves what the truck and the driver were doing is largely electronic, largely in the trucking company’s control, and largely allowed to disappear on a short federal schedule. Protecting it is the first job.
The black box and the electronic trail
Modern trucks are rolling data recorders. The engine control module, the truck’s black box, can capture speed, throttle, and hard braking around the time of a crash. The electronic logging device records the driver’s hours. Add the dispatch records, the bills of lading, the maintenance history, the driver qualification file, the drug and alcohol testing records, and any dashcam, and you have a near-complete picture of what happened and why. The problem is that almost all of it sits with the company you are suing.
The black box is the heart of a truck case, and reading that data is exactly the kind of work I built my career on. As an ACS-CHAL forensic lawyer-scientist who spent years defending DUI cases, I learned how the State assembles the technical proof of a crash and where it breaks under pressure, so I know how to read the engine control module, the speed and braking record, and the electronic logs a carrier would rather bury. That evidence starts disappearing within months, so I move fast to preserve it and I read the federal safety file line by line. I represent injured people, not insurance companies, and having come up as a public defender who tried numerous cases and cross-examined witnesses constantly, I am ready to put this proof in front of a jury when an insurer will not pay fair value. I handle your case personally, from the first call through trial. Learn more about my background.
What the truck itself recorded
Modern trucks are rolling data recorders, and that data is some of the best evidence a case can have. The electronic control module, the engine’s onboard computer often called the black box, can capture speed, throttle, brake application, and hard-braking and last-stop events in the moments before a crash, and the electronic logging device tracks the driver’s hours behind the wheel. Read together, these can show a jury exactly how fast the truck was going, whether the driver braked at all, and whether that driver had been on the road longer than the law allows. Numbers like these are far harder for a defense to explain away than testimony, which is precisely why getting to them matters so much. The catch is that this evidence is fragile. It can be overwritten as the truck keeps running, wiped when the systems are serviced, or lost when the truck is repaired and returned to the road, and none of that requires anyone to act in bad faith. Once it is gone, it is usually gone for good.
It is all on a short clock
Federal law does not require the carrier to keep this evidence forever. Far from it.
| Record | Required retention | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Driver logs and supporting documents | About 6 months | Hours of service and fatigue |
| Daily vehicle inspection reports | 3 months | Defects the carrier knew about |
| Annual inspection report | 14 months | A truck that should have been pulled from service |
| Driver qualification file | Employment plus 3 years | A driver who should never have been hired |
| Engine control module data | Until the truck is repaired or sold | Speed and braking at impact |
These windows are short on purpose. Once they pass, lawful destruction can wipe out the heart of your case, which is why the preservation letter cannot wait.
The preservation letter
The answer is a preservation letter, sometimes called a spoliation letter, sent to the trucking company and its insurer immediately. It identifies the specific evidence and demands that it be kept intact. Once the carrier is on notice, it can no longer quietly let the data lapse, and if it destroys evidence anyway, a court can impose serious penalties, including instructing the jury to assume the lost evidence was harmful to the company. Getting that letter out fast is often the difference between a provable case and a swearing contest.
A race the other side started first
The reason preservation is so urgent is that the carrier is already moving. Trucking companies and their insurers keep rapid-response teams ready to go, and after a serious crash they send investigators and reconstructionists to the scene fast, sometimes the same day, to document the wreck and secure the truck on their terms. Meanwhile the clock is running on the data, the physical evidence, and the scene itself. Meeting that requires acting just as quickly on your side, putting a formal preservation demand in the carrier’s hands that tells it, in writing, to keep the truck, the electronic data, the logs, and the records intact, and arranging an independent inspection and download before anything is altered. When a carrier destroys or loses evidence after being told to preserve it, that failure can itself become powerful proof at trial. This is a race, the other side has a head start, and moving immediately is how a victim keeps the evidence from being shaped entirely by the company that caused the harm.
The deadline
For a crash on or after March 24, 2023, Florida gives you two years to sue under Fla. Stat. 95.11(5)(a). In a truck case the clock that matters most is shorter: the carrier only has to keep some logs and inspection records for a matter of months, so the real deadline for protecting the evidence is measured in weeks, not years.
The best evidence in a truck case is often locked inside the truck itself, and it does not wait for anyone. I move immediately to demand preservation of the black box data, the logs, and the records, and to get an independent inspection before the truck is repaired and the numbers disappear. I represent injured people, not trucking companies, and I treat the first days after a crash as the race they are, because the side that secures the evidence first is usually the side that controls what the case becomes.
Common Questions
What is a truck's black box?
It is the engine control module, the truck's onboard computer. Depending on the truck, it records data such as speed, engine RPM, throttle position, and hard braking in the moments around a crash. Read alongside the electronic logs, it can show how fast the truck was going and whether the driver braked at all.
Why do I have to act so fast in a truck case?
Because the evidence is on a federal clock. The carrier is only required to keep some logs and supporting documents for about six months, daily inspection reports for three months, and other records for limited periods. Trucks get repaired or sold and data gets overwritten. A preservation letter has to go out within weeks, not months.
What is a spoliation or preservation letter?
It is a formal demand, sent to the trucking company and its insurer right away, requiring them to preserve specific evidence: the electronic logs, the engine control module data, the driver qualification file, the maintenance and inspection records, the dispatch records, and any dashcam footage. If they destroy evidence after getting it, a court can penalize them for it.
What evidence should be preserved?
The electronic logging device data, the engine control module download, the driver's qualification and training file, the drug and alcohol testing records, the vehicle maintenance and inspection history, the dispatch and trip records, the bills of lading, and any camera footage from the truck or nearby. Each one tells part of the story.
Can the trucking company really just erase the evidence?
Some of it, lawfully, if no one has demanded it be kept, because the retention rules are short. That is exactly why the preservation letter matters. Once the carrier is on notice to keep the evidence, destroying it can expose the company to serious consequences in the case.
Related: Truck accidents overview, Federal safety regulations, Driver fatigue and hours of service, Who is liable, and About Rory Safir.
This page is general information about Florida and federal law governing truck crashes, not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. The retention periods come from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (for example 49 C.F.R. Parts 395 and 396), and the duty to preserve evidence is enforced through Florida’s law on spoliation. Fla. Stat. 95.11(5)(a) sets the limitations period. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. The hiring of a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely on advertisements.
