Birmingham Injury Blog

The Chicago Personal Injury Blog has posted an article that discusses the use an Engine Control Module (ECM), or "black box", can play in determining the details of a truck wreck.

ECMs typically monitor engine performance, evidence of hard braking and clutch use, but some of the newer models can monitor things like driver fatigue and keep track of vehicles that may be in a driver's blind spot.

However, because not all trucks have the same type of information it is important to find out what sort of data is available. In order to determine whether or not a truck is equipped with an ECM, refer to the vehicle’s “line sheet” or “build sheets” which identify all the equipment on the tractor when it was delivered from its manufacturer.

To be useful, the ECM information must be accessed as soon as after the crash as possible so that

...the data found on the ECM can be used by experts to reconstruct the accident, the scene, and different versions of the trucking crash as given by the different drivers and witnesses.