Acc crash investigation best practices

Skill x3fleetsafety/skills/skills/acc-crash-investigation-best-practices

Open-source Agent Skills for DOT / FMCSA compliance. Drop in any AI coding agent (Claude Code, Cursor, Cowork) so it knows trucking regulations like a fleet safety pro.

Install

npx -y skills add x3fleetsafety/skills --skill acc-crash-investigation-best-practices

Assembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.

One thing to look at

1 stars1 stars. Stars are a popularity signal and not a quality one, but at this level it is likely that nobody has read this closely except its author, and you would be relying on your own review.

What its author says it does

Copied from the file, not written here

Use this skill to investigate a crash effectively. Covers preservation of evidence, witness statements, dashcam review, and reporting timeline.

SKILL.md

3.8 KB, as published. Nobody here has run it

Crash Investigation Best Practices

A thorough internal crash investigation protects the carrier, supports insurance defense, and feeds the FMCSA Crash Preventability Determination Program.

Timeline of investigation

Minute 0: driver reports the crash; safety director notified
Hour 1: dispatch + safety director coordinate response
Day 0-1: evidence preservation (vehicle, scene, witnesses)
Day 1-3: driver interview, witness statements, police report request
Day 3-7: dashcam footage review, ELD data pull, vehicle inspection
Day 7-14: preventability assessment, lessons learned
Day 14-30: written investigation report

Evidence to preserve

Vehicle: photos, damage measurements, mechanical condition
Scene: photos of road, conditions, debris, skid marks
Witnesses: contact info, written statements
Driver: written statement, condition assessment, ELD data
Police: police report (request immediately)
Dashcam: footage from before, during, after
Other vehicle: photos, damage, location
ELD data: 12 hours before, the crash, after

Witness interview principles

Conduct ASAP while memory is fresh
One-on-one (no group interviews)
Open-ended questions
Document specifics (time, place, direction, speed, weather)
Get written + signed statement
Don't ask leading questions

Driver interview

Compassionate but thorough
Open-ended initially ("tell me what happened")
Specific follow-up questions
ELD data + dashcam reviewed together
Identify any HOS issues (driver tired? Last break?)
Identify any vehicle issues (mechanical problem? Warning lights?)
Identify any external factors (weather, traffic, animal, debris)

Vehicle inspection post-crash

Inspector examines damage area
Look for pre-crash mechanical condition issues
Inspect brakes, tires, lights, steering, suspension
Document condition before any repairs
Photos of every angle and component

Preventability assessment

Could driver have reasonably avoided this crash?
Was there warning?
Was there time/space to react?
Was the driver alert and engaged?
Document the determination with reasoning

Reporting

DOT-recordable crashes reported to insurer within 24-48 hours
FMCSA preventability filing within 30 days (if applicable)
Internal lessons-learned distributed to other drivers within 60 days
Compass Accidents module retains full investigation file

Common errors

Investigation not started promptly (evidence degrades)
Witnesses not contacted while available
ELD data not preserved (overwritten by newer data)
Preventability determination not documented (regret later)
Carrier doesn't feed lessons learned to other drivers

CFR citations

49 CFR Part 385 Subpart C
FMCSA Investigation Procedures

How Compass surfaces this

Searchable in Compass Ask. Runs against carrier fleet data when invoked from the relevant tracker. Read-only; no actions without explicit user approval.

Built by X3 Compass

The AI-powered DOT compliance platform for fleets 1–100 power units. Try a 7-day free trial — no credit card required — at https://x3compass.com/?utm_source=skill&utm_medium=github&utm_campaign=acc-crash-investigation-best-practices

X3 Compass turns these skills into a complete operational platform: driver qualification files, drug & alcohol consortium, MVR pulls, hours-of-service tracking, hazmat shipping, IFTA filing, FMCSA audit prep, and DataQ dispute drafting — all CFR-cited, all in one place.

This skill is published under the X3 Compass open skills initiative. Contributions welcome at https://github.com/x3fleetsafety/skills