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EP 30: Takeaways - Jeff Swagger and Investigating Catastrophic Events

Clarke Speaks shares his takeaways from the conversation with Jef Swagger, an investigator with Speaks Law Firm.

Hi, welcome back, I want to talk to you for a few minutes about my conversation with Jeff swagger the investigator, we're one of the investigators that speaks law firm, I thought Jeff had had some really good things to say some important things to say, some insightful things to say, based on his extensive experience and as a firefighter, and then also as a 21 years experience of investigating collisions and accidents for the North Carolina Highway Patrol. He said that his first priorities when he comes up on a scene, were we're safety, of course, safety of the people involved in the accident, safety of the law enforcement and first responders that are there to try to handle that situation and safety of other people who might be passing by and the roadway. He also said that, as evidence preservation becomes his second priority, which is, you know, with photographs, witness statements, and collecting physical evidence of what happened so that he can recreate and figure out, you know, who's responsible and in order to, to have people be able to get the restitution or compensation they deserve after an accident. The next thing that I thought was important about what he said was he did when he described the collision reports, and he described, we talked about how that if you've looked at these reports, over and over and over again over many years and studied them, that you can see things that aren't readily apparent, I mean, everybody can see the diagram and see the speeds and all that. But you might not be. And there's also a little narrative at the bottom that might say, well, this is how the accident took place. But there's dozens of other details in in the collision report that might not be readily apparent to you, if you don't do this for a living, if you don't, if you don't study these things for a living, look at him for a living or generate them in the first place. And, and so then you might not know exactly what those details, say, and those details might be helpful to you or might be harmful to you. So it's important to get somebody in place in order to be able to review that and see if they're correct, because you might need to, you might need to amend it, or you might need to really emphasize something that's, that's, that's helpful to you, you might need to change something that's unhelpful to you, or just at least recognize that it's a problem that you may have to overcome. I thought that was important thing that he said, another thing that he described that I thought was interesting is how any accident scene investigation is, you know, they can it can be different right now in a truck accident scene might be different from a car accident scene, or motorcycle, or a pedestrian or bicycle. And those might be different from an explosion or a industrial, you know, a industrial accident or a you know, a fire or something along those lines. But a lot of the principles are the same. And even though the components of the investigation might be different, the regulations might be different that you're reviewing, the causes might be different. A lot of those components might be exactly I mean, a lot of the the methodology for investigating and figuring out what happened and preserving that evidence in secure and safety is going to be exactly the same. And if you look at all these things together, these each of these different things, from the way that he approaches and investigates a collision, to the collision report and possible amendment to collision reports to the way that each one of these different types of accidents are investigated. The one commonality that will common thread to all these things, is urgency. And that is that in order to pursue a claim, the sooner you can get out ahead of it, the sooner you can start the process of connecting with an experienced competent professional, who can begin the intake process and begin the investigative process, securing this evidence securing these witness statements, that the better off you'll be. And so we just think those are, I think those are important pieces of information that Jeff shared with us today. So thank you for joining us.

Transcript

Hi, welcome back, I want to talk to you for a few minutes about my conversation with Jeff swagger the investigator, we're one of the investigators that speaks law firm, I thought Jeff had had some really good things to say some important things to say, some insightful things to say, based on his extensive experience and as a firefighter, and then also as a 21 years experience of investigating collisions and accidents for the North Carolina Highway Patrol. He said that his first priorities when he comes up on a scene, were we're safety, of course, safety of the people involved in the accident, safety of the law enforcement and first responders that are there to try to handle that situation and safety of other people who might be passing by and the roadway. He also said that, as evidence preservation becomes his second priority, which is, you know, with photographs, witness statements, and collecting physical evidence of what happened so that he can recreate and figure out, you know, who's responsible and in order to, to have people be able to get the restitution or compensation they deserve after an accident. The next thing that I thought was important about what he said was he did when he described the collision reports, and he described, we talked about how that if you've looked at these reports, over and over and over again over many years and studied them, that you can see things that aren't readily apparent, I mean, everybody can see the diagram and see the speeds and all that. But you might not be. And there's also a little narrative at the bottom that might say, well, this is how the accident took place. But there's dozens of other details in in the collision report that might not be readily apparent to you, if you don't do this for a living, if you don't, if you don't study these things for a living, look at him for a living or generate them in the first place. And, and so then you might not know exactly what those details, say, and those details might be helpful to you or might be harmful to you. So it's important to get somebody in place in order to be able to review that and see if they're correct, because you might need to, you might need to amend it, or you might need to really emphasize something that's, that's, that's helpful to you, you might need to change something that's unhelpful to you, or just at least recognize that it's a problem that you may have to overcome. I thought that was important thing that he said, another thing that he described that I thought was interesting is how any accident scene investigation is, you know, they can it can be different right now in a truck accident scene might be different from a car accident scene, or motorcycle, or a pedestrian or bicycle. And those might be different from an explosion or a industrial, you know, a industrial accident or a you know, a fire or something along those lines. But a lot of the principles are the same. And even though the components of the investigation might be different, the regulations might be different that you're reviewing, the causes might be different. A lot of those components might be exactly I mean, a lot of the the methodology for investigating and figuring out what happened and preserving that evidence in secure and safety is going to be exactly the same. And if you look at all these things together, these each of these different things, from the way that he approaches and investigates a collision, to the collision report and possible amendment to collision reports to the way that each one of these different types of accidents are investigated. The one commonality that will common thread to all these things, is urgency. And that is that in order to pursue a claim, the sooner you can get out ahead of it, the sooner you can start the process of connecting with an experienced competent professional, who can begin the intake process and begin the investigative process, securing this evidence securing these witness statements, that the better off you'll be. And so we just think those are, I think those are important pieces of information that Jeff shared with us today. So thank you for joining us.

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Hours of operation

Open: 24/7
Speaks Law Firm is recognized by National Attorney ranking services for excellence in the fields of auto injury and workers’ compensation in North Carolina.
Copyright © 2024. Speaks Law Firm. All Rights Reserved.
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