Protecting your Interests after a Traffic Collision
Traffic accidents are the elephant in the room nobody likes to mention. It is human nature to believe that our vehicle will not be the one lying at the bottom of a deep ravine, or sitting on a flatbed truck in a heap of twisted metal. Unfortunately, statistics suggest it is likely that you, a family member, or a close friend will be injured or killed in a traffic accident during your driving lifetime. It is even more likely that you will become involved as a plaintiff or defendant in a civil or criminal action arising from a car accident. Accidents happen to be sure, but if you find yourself in a serious one, do not hesitate to hire the best attorney you can afford, and preserve as much evidence as you can. Every driver should understand a little about what kind of evidence is useful to professional accident reconstructionists, if only to protect their own interests in the aftermath of a terrible collision.
Usually the first evidentiary item that becomes available after a serious accident is the traffic collision report (TCR), as it is called in California. This official police document represents their investigation of an accident, and it usually provides most of the factual information about the scene. Although some accidents are more thoroughly investigated by law enforcement than others, most reports accurately identify the involved parties and their vehicles, provide witness, and offer some description of the accident scene as it was upon arrival of the investigating officer, and may contain some measurements and/or diagrams that describe the locations of the physical evidence. The investigation might also include photographs, which are critical to future accident reconstruction efforts. Unfortunately, it is at the officers' discretion that scene photographs are included with their report, and if they are unfamiliar with accident reconstruction, they are less likely to take useful photographs. Photographs can preserve evidence that was not collected at the scene of the crash, or memorialize temporary conditions such as poorly placed construction signs or temporary barricades.
It is very important, therefore, that independent photographs are taken of an accident scene as soon as possible. A disposable film camera is cheap and can be easily stored in the trunk or glove compartment with the hope that it will never need to be used. Buy a camera that has a flash, and has as many exposures as possible. If you cannot take photographs yourself due to injury or arrest, have someone else visit the site and take photographs as soon as they can. Even after the scene has been cleared and the vehicles have been towed away, it is important to take photographs of any remaining tire marks, dirt furrows, guardrail damage, roadway gouges, and anything else you think could be related to your crash. Try to align your views with permanent objects in the background, like utility poles or traffic signals, to provide references that can be used to reconstruct the locations of the temporary artifacts in the photographs.
In my experience, it is sound advice that you do not provide a verbal statement to the police at the scene of a crash. This may annoy and even anger some police officers, but it is always in your best interest to provide a written statement at a later time. Immediately following an accident, emotions are high and a person might say inaccurate things because they feel guilty or feel bad for another party who was hurt. A written statement gives you a chance to collect your thoughts and calmly record the circumstances that you believe to be most important. A verbal statement is dangerous because an interviewer might not paraphrase your statement perfectly, and with the correct emphasis on the points you believe led to the accident. Once the officer has filed his report, your statement cannot be taken back, so choose your words very carefully and write them down so they are less likely to be misinterpreted.
Inspecting the vehicles can provide clues to the severity of the impact, the occupant motion, the crashworthiness of the vehicle, seatbelt usage, airbag performance, and may implicate the vehicle itself in the cause of the accident (e.g. tire puncture/blowout, electrical fire, brake failure). Like the scene evidence, this information can sometimes be preserved by the owner of the vehicle through photographs. Any time you are involved in a traffic accident, you should take as many photographs of your vehicle as possible before it is destroyed or sold for parts. If you have access to the other vehicles, make sure you photograph those too. Photographs of the vehicles you do not own are most important, because you may not be able to see the other vehicles again. The value of vehicle photographs cannot be overstated, and one should not rely on 6, 8, or even 12 photographs to tell the story. It begins to sound redundant, but if you are physically able to do so, do not hesitate to take one-hundred or more photographs of the crashed vehicles.
Once there is sufficient information, a case can proceed with an accident reconstruction. Usually this begins by creating a diagram of the accident site based upon a topographic survey, roadway plans, the police measurements, and photographs of the scene. Included on the diagram is a plot of the vehicles at their respective points of rest, and if possible, their points of impact. This is where the police investigation becomes critical and its shortcomings and strengths will become apparent. Since it is very rare for civilian accident reconstructionists to visit accident scenes, we rely upon the police investigation and their photographs for our accident scene data. Thorough police investigations are critical to our work, but usually traffic accidents are given low priority by most police agencies. It is hard for the uninitiated to believe, but an officer cannot be held responsible for errors, mistakes, or flat-out wrong information in their accident reports, unless it can be proven to be intentional misreporting. Sadly, deficient accident reports offering unqualified opinions are deemed acceptable by most police agencies because they do not have the funding to train all of their officers to be accident investigators and reconstructionists. This is not to say that there are not very good, well documented, and excellent police investigations; but it is unfortunate to accident victims that competent accident reporting requires years of experience, and lots of specialized training, which is an investment most agencies cannot afford to make for traffic collisions.
Usually a reconstruction involves determining the vehicle approach speeds before an impact, but this is not always possible from the data provided. Some of the methods that are typically used to estimate speeds include the theory of the conservation of momentum, conservation of energy, energy models using crash test data from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, and the myriad forms of Newton's formulas for uniform motion. Sometimes, due to a lack of the appropriate data, there is no way to estimate a vehicle's preimpact speed other than to consider the witness statements in the police report, or review the available deposition transcripts of percipient witnesses, and arrive at an estimate based upon the entire pool of knowledge one develops only through experience in crash investigation. This again emphasizes the critical importance of providing a clear and accurate written statement to the police.
Once all of the data has been brought together and thoroughly examined, an accident reconstructionist presents their opinions and recapitulates the facts that are most important to their analysis. This is probably where most reconstructionists will have disagreements between them. Depending on the hierarchy of facts, two analyses of the same accident may draw widely different conclusions. If more weight is given to witness testimony and less to the police measurements, one conclusion may be presented. If the opposite is considered, another conclusion can be opined. It is not uncommon for the ultimate hierarchy of facts to be determined by a judge or a jury. Few of these individuals are scientists, and even fewer are accident reconstructionists or highway engineers. They rely on the opinions and conclusions presented by experts on both sides of a case and must weigh which represents a more reasonable reconstruction of the events in a traffic accident. The obvious conclusion is that accuracy is critical and precision is important, but clarity and simplicity have their place in assembling the hierarchy of facts that will ultimately be presented in court.
Sadly, it should be mentioned that there are reconstructionists and engineers, driven by notoriety or money, that sacrifice their scientific integrity to achieve selfish ends. Sometimes accident reconstructionists are victim to the otherwise altruistic desire to do the best job possible for our clients, which can obscure the true hierarchy of facts. Other times, inaccurate or disingenuous conclusions are presented by experts who would rather not be bothered by the truth when it conflicts with the claims made by their "side" in a legal action. This is why you must protect yourself after a traffic accident, and do everything you can to help your attorney's experts by preserving evidence.
Most accidents are the result of countless unrelated circumstances, which converge at a particular time, in a particular place, and ultimately result in a serious traffic collision. Knowing what is important to a future accident study is an important first step in preserving the evidence and protecting your interests in the aftermath of a terrible crash.
