THE CHANCES OF BEING INJURED IN A PENNSYLVANIA TRUCK ACCIDENT: REALITIES OF THE ROAD AND MODERN SCIENCE (THE TRUCK STOPS HERE PART III)
What is the chance of your being injured in a Philadelphia or Pennsylvania car accident involving a truck? While the percentage for your involvement is not exact, the formula is simple: the more trucks, the greater number of accidents. Statistics from the American trucking industry as of 2009, indicate that 71% of the total volume of freight transported in the United States is attributable to the trucking industry. The U.S. Department of Transportation projects that the volume of freight will double by the year 2035.
According to the DOT, each year about 400,000 trucks are involved in motor vehicle accidents. New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware are main thoroughfares with Major Turnpikes and account for a substantial percentage of these crashes. Unfortunately, but predictably, very often serious and catastrophic injuries occur when such accidents occur (see DOT Table below).
Our Philadelphia car and truck accident lawyers have the experience and knowledge to protect the injured and their families by securing the necessary information to obtain the winning verdicts and settlements on their behalf throughout the Philadelphia metropolitan area as well as the entire Delaware Valley.
If you or a family member is injured in a car accident, there is much that goes into proving your case. This may often call for counsel experienced in retrieving, analyzing and utilizing the vast electronic information available to prove a contested case.
The short list of Electronic Data Recorders that our Philadelphia injury attorneys are adept at and skilled in securing and using to the advantage of our clients, includes: “ECM” Engine Control Modules, ACM Airbag Control Modules, ABS Computers (the ones you have in your car), The Eaton Vorad System (Vehicle Onboard RADar system). As discussed in our last blog, it is imperative to secure this information quickly but sometimes there is no “Electronic Data” or its been destroyed.
In those cases, there is one last hope that our firm has used and that is Photogrammetry (“PGMY”), i.e., the reconstruction of a serious accident by photographs. The photos and the demarcations in the photos (today almost all are digital) can be used to reconstruct the scene once the right expert is secured. By using multiple pictures and computer technology, experts have been able to determine data such as crash severity, vehicle crush measurements, skid mark length, vehicle rest positions and even speed prior to a vehicle coming to rest.
The trick is choosing the right law firm with the expertise to find these kinds of valuable pieces of evidence and then use courtroom skills and years of experience to ensure their admissibility. The Philadelphia injury attorneys at Pomerantz Perlberger & Lewis have over 120 years of combined experience making us the firm to choose for representation in the cases of catastrophic injury such as loss of limbs, brain damage, quadriplegia or death in a Philadelphia or Pennsylvania car or truck accident.
