Rarely would a personal injury attorney with extensive experience in accident investigation and wrongful death litigation seek to denigrate or otherwise disparage the work done by police officers that becomes the basis of their accident report following a car crash or other motor vehicle accident.

Questioning that report, though, and adding significant value to it, is another matter altogether. A practiced wrongful death attorney knows that an accident report provides a good-faith summary of what an officer has seen and noted following an accident. The attorney also knows, though, that police officers are busy and that other work awaits them; that they have limited resources to conduct an investigation; that many elements of an accident are still unclear as the report is being written; and that many officers have not received any specialized training in crash investigation or accident reconstruction.

The implications of those limiting factors are quite clear in many instances, especially when a person dies and surviving family members are on a quest for truth, healing and a proper apportionment of any negligence or wrongdoing that contributed directly to their loved one's death.

We have noted elsewhere a recent Ohio truck accident in which a trucker hit and killed a woman crossing a highway on foot. State troopers told a media outlet that excessive speed was apparently not a factor in the fatality and that there appeared to be nothing the driver could have done to avoid striking the woman.

That might or might not have been true, but an attorney experienced in crash investigations would have considered and followed through on a host of possibilities before responding, including examination of the following:

• Were the truck's lights on? Were they working?
• Were the hazard lights on in the car the woman vacated prior to getting hit? Did the driver see them?
• Was the driver sufficiently rested prior to driving? Does the driver's log shed any light on this?
• What condition were the truck's brakes in? Should they be tested? Were they applied?
• Was the truck running on an empty load? A too-heavy load? An improperly balanced load?
• Is there any evidence that the driver was distracted? Do cell phone records reveal anything? Were drugs found in the rig? Was the driver drinking?

A deadly accident seldom yields quick and easy answers, and a police report often provides less than a full accounting of what really happened. Family members of accident victims who have continuing questions and concerns might reasonably seek to secure the services of an attorney with extensive experience in accident investigation and wrongful death litigation.

Related Resource: www.24-7pressrelease.com "Examining the Causes of a Deadly Ohio Truck/Pedestrian Accident" September 13, 2010