Carl F. Thelin

WHO WAS THE DRIVER IN A BAD CRASH?  

There are cases where that is the question. Even without eyewitness accounts, a Crash Scene Investigator may be able to tell. First of all, assume that no one in the car wants to assume responsibility for the crash and injuries. If the collision was severe some of the occupants will be dead or unable to speak. There are two boys who might have been driving. Assume that the families of both boys have liability insurance. Which insurance company must pay? Who was the driver? Sometimes, but not always, the pattern of injuries tells.

A frequent example goes like this. A driver attempts a left turn into a cross street. He is in the path of another car with the right‑of‑way. He misjudges the speed of the oncoming car, and attempts a left turn that he cannot complete. Imagine the hard impact on the passenger door by a stiff "bullet" vehicle such as a pickup truck. Despite the stiffening beam built into the door, the door caves in. The bottom edge of the passenger door overrides the car‑body rocker sill, which allows much more inward deformation. The passenger is thrown away from the door with great force and speed by the direct impact of the crushed door ‑ almost as if the bullet car had struck him directly. He is like the baseball after it is struck by the swinging bat. Milliseconds later the intruding vehicle stops against the crushed front seat and car‑frame. Now the exchange of moment is fully imple­ment­ed, and the struck car begins to accelerate laterally to the left.

From a viewpoint inside the car, it would appear that the driver is thrown to the right; actually the car was pushed leftward under him. Nevertheless, it the passenger is pushed leftward while the driver moves rightward as nearly the same instant. If there was considerable forward motion of the target car when it is struck, the side intrusion will effectively snag and arrest the forward motion and probably impart rotation. Thus, the two front seat occupants will be thrust forward as their car deceler­ates. The driver may impact the surface of the steering wheel and slide to the right, while the passenger may be thrown ahead into the center of the instrument panel, and possibly against the gear shift lever, whether it be a floor shift or a column‑mounted shifter. In more than one of my cases, someone driving much too fast for right curve, slides a bit off the road, returns too quickly and spins into the path of an oncoming vehicle moving at highway speed.

But if there isn't much forward speed of the struck car, or if it is hit hard on the passenger door hinges with a force coming from 1 or 2 o'clock (not directly on the side at 3 o’clock) the passenger could be thrown over a collapsing seat back and be found in the left rear, while the driver would be found in the right front area.

WHO WAS THE DRIVER IN THIS BAD CRASH?

This car crashed alone by attempting a highway curve at high speed. It went off the road, down into a gully and slammed the passenger side into a stout tree. Then it overturned, with a lot of post‑crash motion and deformation. The driver side door opened when the car body bent around the tree. There were two unre­strained occupants, and both of them were ejected. I had this case with a crash anomaly which created the appearance that the two persons on the front seat might have exchanged places during a severe impact on the right side door.

The car in this case belonged to another person, who was in a following car and saw what happened from a distance. He was unable to say that he knew which of his friends was driving.

I looked at the evidence – medical descriptions of the injuries, and photos of the wreck. The witness had a vague description of the path of the car and the location of the boys.

The person who was the driver is likely to have injuries on his right side such as broken legs from hitting a floor shifter and console and probably depressed head injuries from hitting the instrument panel and windshield pillar. The driver might have the distinctive marks of the steering wheel rim on his torso.

The passenger will have severe injuries on his right side from the high‑force direct impact, and lesser injuries on the left from flying into contact with the left interior of the car. The passenger might have some granular glass pressed into his clothing and flesh by the impact of the tempered glass passenger door window. Either person might have slashes and slivers of embedded glass from contact with the windshield. Because of the violent ejection, none of this was so clear.

I was working for of the lawyer who represented one of the families that sued the other and State Farm. I appeared at a deposition in mid-Iowa, attended by lawyers for both families and for State Farm Insurance. Using some scene diagrams, and photos of the interior and exterior of two vehicles as exhibits, I told the above story. I was careful to keep the conclusions as “probably-but-not-certain”.

At the end, I asked for permission to speak off the record. I noted that I knew that both families had State Farm insurance, and both had a teen age son that was brain-injured so as to require life-time care. The boys had been best friends. The families had also been very close.

“This is awful. Why do we need this lawsuit to determine which family will collect a fortune from the other’s policy? Please just stop. Drop the lawsuit - pay off the lawyers, pool the available funds and share the responsibility for caring for both boys.”

I was surprised. No one got angry with me for saying that.