It's a smart move to consult a lawyer, but it's never a good idea to be completely uninformed. If you've been involved in an accident, but want to know what's being done (or not being done) on your behalf by investigators, it's important to know different angles of evidence gathering. As the world becomes increasingly more high-tech, take the time to understand how mobile devices, cameras and other tech systems could have valuable information for your side of the accident ordeal.

What Was The Other Driver Doing?

Careless driving has become a big topic in the news, with people texting, playing games and performing other careless antics while behind the wheel. As technology becomes more prevalent and the children who were raised on the technology enter the workforce, it's becoming easier to gather evidence in greater volume or more accuracy.

Knowing what your driver is doing can be an important piece of evidence if fault isn't clear. There could be an argument that you should have performed some sort of defensive driving or that the incident was a pure accident, but if you can catch your legal opponent in a careless, distracted driving situation, your side of the argument may get a lot stronger.

Unfortunately, it's easy for a driver to get rid of the more basic forms of evidence. Look deeper than the open apps or text records. If texts are deleted, an automobile accident lawyer can take legal steps to request call records, which can show the time of any calls, text messages or significant data usage.

There are also many different apps that have different time stamps or historical use records. A game may show the last time that a player logged in or performed an action, meaning that investigators need to look beyond the phone company and towards app designers and management companies to find evidence.

Did Someone Else See It With Their Tech?

Sometimes, it's the surrounding businesses and drivers that have the best information. It's not uncommon for a security camera at a business, hospital, home or other locations to record an incident just outside of its normal view.

Investigators should be surveying the surrounding area, but that doesn't mean you should assume that the job is being done perfectly. Keep an eye out for any cameras that have an angle pointing towards your accident area, and consider reaching out to the local news or social media for anyone who could have caught the accident on their own devices.

Passersby may have gotten the exact moment of the accident on their cameras, or at least the moments just after collision. This is helpful if you suspect that the scene of the crime was tampered with, but lack any evidence to bring your legal opponent down.

Contact an automobile accident lawyer to discuss investigation angles that could help your case, as well as any information that you could quickly gather before it's too late.