Deep cuts in a road surface caused by hard vehicle parts striking and scraping the pavement during a crash.

"Deep cuts" separates them from lighter scrape marks or ordinary skid marks. A gouge mark usually forms when metal undercarriage parts, a wheel rim, an axle, a suspension component, or cargo contacts asphalt or concrete with enough force to remove material. "Road surface" matters because investigators look for displaced pavement, exposed aggregate, and a measurable groove, not just paint transfer or rubber. "During a crash" matters because these marks often begin at or near the point of impact or at the spot where a vehicle drops, rolls, or breaks apart.

In accident reconstruction, gouge marks are treated as fixed physical evidence. Their location can help establish where contact happened, which lane a vehicle occupied, whether a vehicle rotated after impact, and where debris should be mapped. On heavily traveled freight routes connected to Maryland's Port of Baltimore, they can also show when a loaded truck component struck the roadway.

For an injury claim, gouge marks can support or contradict witness accounts, dash-camera footage, and police diagrams. In Maryland, that can be outcome-determinative because the state follows contributory negligence rather than comparative fault. If gouge marks show a claimant was outside the proper lane or crossed the center line, even slight fault may bar recovery under Maryland common law. They also help experts tie vehicle damage to crash mechanics and causation.