How Fitness Tracker Data May Help Your Auto Accident Case
You might be surprised by the wide variety of evidence available to you after a car accident. Of course, there are the usual suspects—photos, video footage, and your own recounting of the event. However, there are others that may surprise you. Security video footage from nearby stores, dashcam footage from an uninvolved driver that stops to help, skid marks on the road, and fitness tracker data.
Yes, your fitness watch could be a great source of evidence during your personal injury claim. Want to learn more? Call Reeves & Mestayer at 228-300-2754 to set up a consultation right now.
What Data Does Your Watch Collect?
To start, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the wide range of data your watch gathers. It includes:
- Location
- Heart rate
- Calorie burning and metabolism
- Sleep quality
- Exercise duration, intensity, and habits
- General activity level
- Temperature and other body measurements
If you use your imagination, you can see how a lot of these would be useful in a car crash claim. Your attorney will be able to examine the data on your watch and determine how to use it.
Your Data May Show Your Injuries or Illness
How will your watch data show an injury caused by a crash? While your watch cannot prove anything on its own, it can be used as supporting evidence. To start, your watch provides a baseline for your activity and health level.
Assuming you wear it daily, it shows your average steps, workout time, workout intensity, and calories burned. Any significant change in any of those metrics will be visible on a chart produced by the app, and on some watches, major changes in trends even warrant a notification.
Imagine this scenario. A marathon runner with a demanding physical job is hurt in a car crash. The insurance company isn’t interested in paying any more than a pitifully low settlement, claiming that the victim is exaggerating their injuries to secure a bigger payout.
The victim’s attorney provides an analysis of the watch data. It shows that in the weeks since the accident, their average step count has dropped from 14,000 per day to less than 6,000. The victim runs about 50% less often than they used to, and when they do, it is at a slower pace for less time. Additionally, the victim’s resting heart rate has increased, indicating an overall decrease in health.
The attorney points out days that have less than 1,000 steps, noting that those days correlate with the days that the victim missed work due to their pain levels. That evidence just made it much harder for the insurance company to ignore the victim’s claim.
Sleep quality and temperature are also useful metrics in an accident claim. Pain and limited mobility can cause a drop in sleep quality, which weakens your immune system and overall quality of life.
If your sleep tracker identifies a major change in your sleep patterns and an overall decrease in sleep quality, that may be useful evidence. If you suffered an infection from the road rash you got in the accident, your tracker may show an overall increase in body temperature for several days or weeks as your body attempts to fight off the infection.
Remember That Your Evidence Can Also Be Used Against You
As is the case with any other piece of evidence, your fitness tracker data can also be used against you. The other side’s insurance company could say that your daily steps have decreased, but that they’re still above the national average, showing that you must not be too badly injured.
They could also claim that you intentionally decreased your activity level in an effort to turn the case in your favor. If there are any metrics that remained normal after the crash, they may latch onto those measurements and try to use them as proof that you aren’t injured. This is why it’s important to work with an attorney. They can weigh the advantages and disadvantages, then help you make the right choice for your case.
Contact Reeves & Mestayer Now—We’re Ready to Work on Your Case
The sooner you begin your personal injury claim, the more time your attorney has to fight for you. We’re ready to talk when you are. Just call us at 228-300-2754 or fill out our contact form.
