The records that are associated with a semitruck crash are often important when the victim of the accident chooses to seek compensation for the damages of the crash. One thing that might come into the picture is the record from a report to the Department of Transportation (DOT).
Not all accidents are DOT-recordable crashes. There are three things that can require an accident to be recordable. If the accident is fatal, if one of the vehicles has to be towed or if an injury requires immediate medical attention, the accident has to be reported to the DOT.
When the report is made with the DOT, fault is not considered. This means that a report has to be made even if the driver of the vehicle that wasn’t a semitruck was at fault.
The DOT record is used to track the safety record of a carrier. Even though the record only contains very basic information like the location of the accident, the results of the record might be important. The safety record of a carrier might be able to come into the picture when you decide to seek compensation.
By making these accidents recordable, the DOT is able to record what happens across state lines. This isn’t possible if the reporting was left to a state-by-state system.
For people who are injured in semitruck crashes, it is possible that the injuries that result could be very serious. This can be a life-changing event that can be hard to overcome. You might decide that you need to seek compensation so that you are able to recover some of the costs of the crash.
Source: FindLaw, “What is a DOT-Recordable Accident?,” accessed Sep. 29, 2017
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