How to Win Trucking Cases with Telematics and Electronic Data

Christopher M. Drury, Attorney | Drury Law Firm

Chris focuses his practice on the prosecution of serious personal injury cases, as well as complex business and commercial disputes, including class actions. Chris speaks Spanish and German fluently.

• Education & Credentials

Christopher M. Drury graduated with honors from both Davidson College and the University of Miami School of Law. Chris is a member of The Florida Bar, the South Carolina Bar, and the Law Society of England and Wales.

• Recognition & Leadership

Chris is a Life Member in the “Multi-Million-Dollar Advocates Forum”. Chris has been named to the Florida Super Lawyers list by Super Lawyers every year since 2021. Upon invitation Chris became a member of “The National Trial Lawyers: Top 100 Civil Plaintiff” in 2017.

• Professional Involvement

Chris served as President of the Miami-Dade Trial Lawyers Association in 2022.

• Experience

Chris has handled complex personal injury and commercial cases in state and federal court in multiple jurisdictions. Chris has helped clients obtain multi-million-dollar settlements and jury verdicts in personal injury and wrongful death cases, business litigation, and securities litigation. Chris has prosecuted multiple catastrophic personal injury cases resulting in 8-figure recoveries.

Thomas E. Green | Dynamic Safety, LLC

Tom founded Dynamic Safety in 1997. With a degree in mechanical engineering and extensive hands-on experience in automotive systems analysis, diagnosis and repair, he has more than 40 years of experience investigating and reconstructing collisions.

• Education & Credentials

He has obtained a Class A CDL with air brake, tanker, and double/triple endorsements. He is also an ACTAR accredited crash reconstructionist.

• Recognition & Leadership

He holds a patent for a Safety Vehicular Fuel System and has spoken at numerous conferences to attorneys and other crash reconstructionists. Plus, Tom has written an SAE technical paper and coauthored two chapters on the use of EDR data in the Northwestern University Center for Public Safety textbook “Traffic Crash Reconstruction.”

• Professional Involvement

He was also an adjunct faculty instructor at the Northwestern University Center for Public Safety where he taught crash reconstruction courses to police officers and engineers from around the world.

• Experience

During that time, he has disassembled, inspected, tested, and analyzed virtually every vehicle system in hundreds of crashed vehicles ranging from passenger cars to heavy vehicles to ATVs. Tom and his partners at Dynamic Safety LLC routinely investigate and reconstruct crashes across North America, employing the latest technology, including 3D laser scanners and UAV’s (drones). Dynamic Safety personnel also are involved in collecting all type of vehicle EDR (Event Data Recorder) data, including from heavy truck engine ECM’s, heavy truck ABS systems, telematics systems, passenger vehicle Airbag Control Modules, GPS units and infotainment systems.

Michael K. Napier, II, CDS | TruckingExpert.com, Inc.

Mike Napier, II, is a Certified Director of Safety (CDS) in the trucking industry who provides analysis, consultation, and when necessary, expert testimony, through his firm, TruckingExpert.com, Inc. Mike’s technical expertise in the field of truckingtransportation affords a unique skillset and robust background for applying relevant standards of care for safety to issues related to the trucking industry.

• Education & Credentials

Along with his active certification through the North American Transportation Safety Institute (NATMI), a degree in Business & Information Technology, education as a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) holder, certification as a Defensive Driving Course Instructor (DDCI), and experience spanning nearly all aspects of the Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) operations and safety, he has developed a comprehensive background for investigating crashes and applying the standards for industry related claims. He has extensive training and experience with C.F.R Title 49 – Transportation, Subtitle B, Chapter III, Subchapter B, known as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (FMCSR), including first-hand training from the USDOT’s Transportation Safety Institute (TSI) and Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).

• Recognition & Leadership

He has worked with and for multiple industry stakeholders, including managerial experience with one of the nation’s largest motor carriers, which also had a sizeable property brokerage and logistics operation.

• Professional Involvement

He continues this experience by actively working with and alongside industry stakeholders, sitting on advisory boards for industry curriculum, mentoring applicants for certification, and investigating crashes and incidents related to CMV driver and motor carrier operations.

• Experience

Mike’s specialized knowledge, education, and hands-on industry experience enable him to be conversant with transportation methods, roles, customs, and practices, used by those in the CMV industry for risk management, safety, and compliance. His specialized education and experience in motor carrier operations and safety management, driver training, and third-party logistics (3PL)/brokerage operations are well documented. His hands-on experience has included various roles and responsibilities relating to fleet safety, compliance, training, systems management, dispatch, customer service, yard/asset management, maintenance, and capacity procurement.

SESSION 1 – What Electronic Data Systems Exist in the Trucking Industry and What Data They Provide | 11:00am – 12:00pm

This session examines what electronic data systems exist in the trucking industry and the data available through such electronic data systems.

BREAK | 12:00pm – 12:10pm

SESSION 2 – Crash Reconstruction and Proving Standard of Care Violations Through Electronic Data | 12:10pm – 1:10pm

This session covers how crash reconstruction works with or without such electronic data, and how to show violations of the trucking standards of care (or the absence thereof) through such electronic data (or lack thereof).

BREAK | 1:10pm – 1:20pm

SESSION 3 – Expert Opinions, Evidence Preservation, and Winning with the Whole Universe of Available Data | 1:20pm – 2:20pm

This session addresses how expert opinions regarding causation or preventability of a truck crash can depend on such electronic data (or lack thereof), the importance for attorneys to ensure the preservation of such evidence, especially for the viability and credibility of their experts’ testimony, and how to use electronic data together with other information and non-electronic data to win trucking cases.