Having cameras capturing events in all kinds of motor vehicles is very popular today. Social media uploads as well as media news stories are filled with all sorts of video captures of roadway hijinks as well as scary near-misses and tragic accidents on our roadways. Truckers are no exception here: dash cam footage shared on sites like Reddit demonstrate the dangers that these professional drivers face every day on the job.
Dash cams are found more and more in commercial motor vehicles moving through Illinois and Indiana, and they can be invaluable to those investigating the reasons for a catastrophic or deadly truck crash. Many may be shocked to learn that these “video event recorders” (VERs) are not mandated by federal regulation.
Legal Protections Regarding Dash Cams in Semi-Trucks
Today, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (“FMCSA”) does not require these gizmos to be installed in the semi-trucks, tractor-trailers, 18-wheelers, reefers, big rigs, tankers, etc. that rumble along our roadways. (FMCSA is pondering this: dash cams have appeared on the agency’s public docket in its data-gathering phase, so things may change in the future.)
Other federal regulations may impact the use of dash cams on large truck, though: regulations for things like windshield mounting so the trucker’s field of view is not obstructed (49 CFR §393.60) will impact their use by owners and operators of the rigs. There are driver training mandates, too. And if there is a dash cam installed on a commercial vehicle, then its footage may be reviewed by FMCSA in any regulatory investigation or enforcement action.
State laws are also involved in the use of dash cams in big rigs. State privacy protections in Illinois and Indiana, for instance, will apply to the placement of a VER that faces the cab interior and may capture either video or audio of the truck driver and any passengers. Privacy and wiretapping statutes will come into play, with Illinois being a “all-party consent” state (720 ILCS 5/14-2) and Indiana being a “one-party consent” jurisdiction (Ind. Code 35-33.5-5-5). Union contacts (collective bargaining agreements) may have their own protections for the trucker, too, and there may be specific requirements in some company policies.
Types of Semi-Truck Dash Cams
Since there is no mandatory dash cam regulation overseen by FMCSA, there are no national “FMCSA-Certified” models offered in the marketplace. Insurance carriers may have certain requirements for trucking liability coverage, of course, and companies may have their own preferences. Sophisticated dash cam systems used by fleets may have things like integrated GPS tracking; risk detection; driver scorecards; alerts; 360-degree coverage; and more. They can be affixed internally, or as exterior cameras on the vehicle.
Front Facing (Road View) Dash Cams
Dash cams recording the trip may be gathering video from the front (facing out toward the road). They may be coordinated with exterior cameras attached to the rear of the truck, or with interior cameras designed for cargo security. The placement of the front facing dash camera must meet FMCSA requirements (49 CFR §393.60), and be installed within a seven-inch square at the top of the passenger side of the windshield or a five-inch square on the driver’s side.
Driver Facing (or Dual Facing) Dash Cams
It is legal to place a dash cam into a truck cab where the footage records the truck driver, but those with possession, custody, and control of the rig and/or the camera must make sure to meet the privacy protections that the trucker has under the law. Drivers have a “reasonable expectation of privacy” but fleets are known to place these driver-facing dash cams into their vehicles along with written notification to the employee that they are there, and how their footage will be used. In Illinois, the trucker must agree to this monitoring under state privacy protections.
Some argue these not only help to make sure the trucker is complying with HOS regulations and other requirements, but that the dash cam footage of the driver’s operation of the vehicle can be vital to exonerating a trucker after a crash, showing the truck driver did nothing wrong and did not cause the crash.
For more on HOS (Hours of Service) regulations, read: Commercial Truck Safety and Truck Driver Fatigue: Fatal Truck Crashes, ELDs, and HOS Rules.
Locating and Safeguarding Evidence on Dash Cams
Footage may contain critical clues on the reasons for a truck crash, where all sorts of things may have contributed to the tragedy. Was there a brake failure, a tire blowout, a sudden gust of wind (our area is notorious for this hazard), unavoidable debris on the road?
If the footage is stored on a cloud platform, things are better for everyone. This is a reasonable and prudent manner of keeping track of dash cam video captures. However, dash cam footage may also be found on local SD cards or memory cards, or even unencrypted laptops. This increases the risk that the footage may be tampered with or even deleted.
How long the dash cam footage is stored is another concern. Many companies will have a thirty-day backup practice. There is no current federal regulation for how long dash cam footage must be stored after an accident.
Accordingly, it is imperative for all involved that investigations into the existence of dash cams on any and all of the vehicles involved in the truck crash be followed by fast efforts to obtain authenticated copies of the footage itself. Subpoenas approved by a judge may be needed quickly by private parties, while law enforcement and agency authorities may gain access by statute.
Legal teams will work with forensic experts to make sure the dash cam footage is real and valid (authenticated) and that it meets the legal requirements to serve as factual evidence (admissibility). See, EDRs and Black Box Recordings in Car Crashes: Technological Data as Evidence of Fault in Personal Injury Claims.
Truck Crash Victims and Dash Cam Footage
For truckers as well as rig occupants and those in other vehicles involved in a serious CMV crash, the footage from a dash cam on the rig as well as any found on any of the other trucks, cars, SUVs, etc. can be invaluable to those accident reconstruction experts who are combing through the details to discover all the reasons for what has happened. Insurance companies find this footage to be important to their claims processing, too, and often offer significant policy discounts for their use.
Alongside ELDs (electronic logging devices) and EDRs (event data recorders), the technological evidence provide by the dash cam may hold the key to determining causation. Details like parts failures or third-party activity can be revealed here that witnesses involved in the crash or at the accident site were not aware.
For more, read:
- Truck Crash Injury Claim Evidence: ELDs, EDRs, and FMCSA Regulations to Show Liability
- Black Box Data in Semi-Truck Crashes: The Importance of EDR Evidence
- Chicago Semi-Truck Crash: Common Causes, Greater Danger of Truck Accidents in Chicagoland
- Truck Crash Underride Accidents: Fatal Truck Crashes and Our Current Truck Guard Regulations
- Semi-Truck Crash: Evidence To Prove Injury Claims Using The Rig’s Electronic Logging Device (ELD)
- Federal FMCSA Regulations of Commercial Trucking: Impact on Truck Accident Claims.
Dash cam footage is important in the investigation of any commercial motor vehicle accident. Since more commercial trucks move through Illinois and Indiana than other parts of the country, the danger of a truck crash is greater here. Please be careful out there!
