Question
Mairi-Caite
I am at my wits end; I cannot for the life of me see how this makes any sense at all. If you could give me any insight at all, it would be greatly appereciated.
On February 5, 2010, our 15 year old daughter; M-C was struck and killed by an SUV driven by S D. The crash happened at approximately 7:20 pm. We did not know anything had happened until about 10pm, when a friend of our daughter’s sent a text that M-C had been hit by a car. We went to her friends’ house where she was supposed to be spending the night. When there was no one home, we called the friend that had texted us about the crash. She stated that they had gone to Five Guys, a hamburger restaurant. We headed to Five Guys; the manager informed us that he had seen them at about 7pm, but not since. We tried calling 911-and were given no information. We headed to the hospital, and came upon a Sheriff’s deputy at a road block. We decided to ask him if he knew of any pedestrian crashes-or if he could find any information for us. We pulled into the road behind the deputy-and he told us to wait there-he would call a supervisor to the head of the road. While waiting-I noticed a news crew setting up. I asked them what they were doing, and was informed they were covering the crash—some kid was hit and killed. This was about 11pm.
We have since found out:
1. S D had admitted that night to having taken HYDROCODONE
2. There was no drug/alcohol test done on S D, one was never even requested
3. S D did NOT call 911-instead he called his ATTORNEY
4. We have been told by co-workers and acquaintances of S D that he has a substance abuse problem, and has a reputation of “being on cocaine, and other drugs”
5. There was a passenger in the car with S D, this passenger was NOT mentioned or interviewed
6. Witnesses were allowed to leave the scene of the crash WITHOUT leaving contact information or statements
7. The woman who went to my daughter, was not interviewed, nor was her information taken. She was allowed to leave the scene when Trooper A arrived.
8. The ONLY witness statements taken were from my daughter’s friend, and a couple that was driving behind the woman that went to my daughter and made the eventual 911 call. SD refused to give any statement beyond his written statement, and told officer on scene he had to speak with his attorney first, they attempted to call him 11 days later-and left a message, SD did not call back, they made no further attempt at contact.
9. S D was permitted to leave the scene after giving a brief written statement. His statement read:
I WAS DRIVING ALONG AND I DID NOT THE GIRL
All capital letters, no punctuation. This is an exact quote from the police report.
10. S D was allowed to drive his car home that night, and he promptly had it in a repair shop the following morning—at the time, he was the body shop manager in Columbia.
11. Trooper A NEVER ran SD’s license, although he is heard on the dash-cam video requesting it. If his license had been run, it would have shown 12 speeding tickets in the last 10 yrs.
12. There was a Columbia City police officer on scene first—he lives behind the street where the crash took place. There is no mention of him in either report. He does not make a statement-and he is not interviewed.
13. The State Trooper that was in charge of the scene, Trooper M A is heard on his dash-cam yelling “Oh sh**, Oh sh**!! What am I going to do?” He has supposedly been a Trooper for 3 years-he was Forestry service prior to that.
14. We were told that he did not know what Hydrocodone was, let alone the fact that it is a controlled substance, and carries a warning NOT to drive while taking this medication. The effects of which are compared to Morphine and Heroin. Trooper A did not know how to fill out the crash report; something as elementary as the diagram was not done properly-he used the symbol for bike, moped or motorcycle instead of pedestrian. He was also unaware of the statutes for filling out a police report. They are found on the first pages of the manual used to fill out the report. He disregarded EVERY one of them.
56-5-3230: Drivers to exercise due care.
56-5-1230: Duty to give information and render aid
56-5-1260: Immediate report of accidents resulting in personal injury or death
56-5-1520: General rules as to MAXIMUM speed limits; lower speeds may be required
S.C. is an absolute speed law state. The speed limit on that road is 30 mph; SD stated he was driving about 35 mph. Trooper A erroneously wrote the speed of the road as 35 mph, as well as SD’s speed at 35 mph. They did correct Trooper A’s mistakes, after we requested a meeting with the Troopers—they changed the road speed to 30, and changed SD’s speed to 30-35 mph.
15. SD is on the dash-cam video chewing gum, and on the phone with his attorney, admitting to taking an opiate. It is never asked if it is a prescription, or what it is being taken for.
The MAIT team was called out that night because there was supposedly a question about SD’s speed. The MAIT report only has one speed calculated; my daughter’s. Their explanation was that they ALWAYS calculate the pedestrian’s speed—not the car. SD NEVER applied his brakes, and only stopped after he saw other cars coming towards the scene. That was over 110 feet after impact. The speed for my daughter was broken down as follows:
INPUTS: Acceleration Drag factor: 0.6000
Distance in feet: 72.0000
RESULTS: Min. pedestrian Speed (mph): 30.8378
Min. Pedestrian Velocity (fps): 45.2288
Max. Pedestrian speed (mph): 35.9627
Max. Pedestrian Velocity (fps): 52.7454
They determined that SD was traveling 30-35 mph. There was a small electrical box that was in the path that M-C followed. When asked if the box could have been hit by M-C, given the fact that she had landed perpendicular at the bottom of the hill from it, the Officer that had done the calculations was surprised to see it. He had NOT been out to the scene. Yet, it was summarily dismissed as a possibility. I am not an Accident Reconstructionist, but I am familiar with physics. The simple fact that there is no consideration given to secondary impacts, or friction is confusing to me. They calculated from impact to final landing. Based on the damage to the car, admittedly only visual, and from a picture, a retired LI, NY police captain had estimated the speed at between 40 and 50 mph—conservatively, but without seeing the car, and the absence of skid marks he said it was hard to give anything other than an educated guess.. The impact damage has been estimated at between 8 and 10 inches in depth. Given this rudimentary information, does 30-35 mph sound like the correct speed? Witnesses have stated that the impact sounded like an explosion. The Coroner’s investigator has told us that her injuries were similar to someone caught in an explosion. She was basically shattered.
16. My daughter and her friend were walking on the ONLY side of the road that is lit—there are NO SIDEWALKS on either side of this road, and it is only lit on the one side. My daughter’s friend was walking in the strip of grass, and my daughter was walking in the concrete gutter next to the curb. S D’S tires had to be approximately 8 inches from the curb in order to hit my daughter the way he did. This road is at least 3 lanes wide—pin straight and flat--it is the direct route into/out of two of the largest neighborhoods in this area-the draw for the people from this neighborhood is the mall, and innumerous shops, stores, restaurants, theatres and other enticements. This road is heavily travelled by pedestrians, runners and cyclists. Other people had seen the girls, and did not hit them.
17. Our daughter was NOT the first person to be hit on this road—on January 11, 2007 THREE women were hit just yards from where our daughter was killed, sending two of them to the hospital with serious injuries.
The Police have stated that the cause of this crash was the fact that my daughter was wearing a black and white sweatshirt. My daughter had light blue jeans and white and pink sneakers as well. Her friend was wearing a light colored sweatshirt. When we viewed the dash-cam video—my daughter’s friend, as well as the Trooper were clearly visible.
I am aware of the disadvantage you are at with the limited information, but, does this calculation of 30-35mph sound feasible?
Thank You for any information. Nicole
AnswerI send you my condolences.
This is a matter that should be addressed on hand with a traffic reconstructionist and not by my interpretation of the facts as sent to me by you.
If you have an attorney he may already know of a reconstructionist to help you. If not, go to http://www.accidentreconstruction.com/ and you can find a reconstructionist in your area. This case would need a complex review which is more than can be done in this forum
