By Christopher T. McGrath, Esq.
It is an unfortunate fact of life that there are many car accidents in the New York City metropolitan area. Although drivers, passengers, bicyclists and pedestrians, injured by cars or trucks, routinely retain attorneys to represent them in lawsuits, skilled lawyers understand that there is little that is routine about a trial involving an accident.
A jury will frequently hear significant disputes among the witnesses and parties. For example: Was the light green or red? How many beers did the driver have before leaving the cookout? What speed was the Camaro racing when it went the wrong way down a one-way street?
What a trial lawyer does to address the contradictions in the factual record can literally make or break a case.
As with any trial, the keys to success include understanding the applicable law and thorough preparation. Knowing New York law, however, is not enough. A mastery of the facts of the car accident at issue is critical. This understanding comes through an attorney’s investigation.
Testimony of the injured party and the driver need to be secured, at what are known as depositions, well in advance of trial. Witnesses to the accident must be interviewed. Official police reports, records consisting of several pages and known in New York as MV-104s, need to be obtained. MV-104s contain information about witnesses and, importantly, the initial statements of injured parties and drivers immediately after the accident.
What many accident victims and the lawyers who pursue their cases do not know, however, is that, in serious cases, additional government records may be available that offer insight into the cause of a collision. These records can confirm a witness’ testimony or contradict it, often with dramatic results. A good attorney will take the extra steps needed to secure these important documents.
In New York City, a division of the Police Department known as the Accident Investigation Squad (“AIS”) completes exhaustive investigations when a fatality or potential fatality is involved. The New York State Police and specialized divisions of many municipalities conduct similar investigations. The information gathered by AIS and other units needs to be obtained by attorneys as it is often highly relevant to the claims made in personal injury or wrongful death lawsuits.
AIS begins its work by obtaining and reviewing all 911 tapes concerning the accident as well as records of dispatches of police units. AIS officers interview all eyewitnesses and responding law enforcement personnel, recording their statements. Forensic information, such as blood alcohol levels and other toxicology data, is secured and assessed. AIS personnel will scrutinize the accident location, measuring skid marks and distances between the resting place of vehicles and points of collision. Crush measurements will be taken from the vehicles involved. Armed with this data, AIS personnel can actually “reconstruct” pre-impact and impact speeds. Finally, the AIS will sketch an overview of the accident location, indicating the position and location of the vehicle(s) at different points before and during the accident.
Surveillance cameras, installed on the sides of buildings for security purposes, often record car accidents. AIS will canvass a neighborhood immediately after the collision to determine whether footage was recorded. Because many security cameras reuse videotape, recording over it on a regular basis, the tapes are secured quickly.
Many government and fleet vehicles, as well as an increasing number of civilian cars and trucks, are equipped with what are known as Event Data Recorders (“EDRs”). These computerized devices record speeds at impact and other activity, such as braking, shifting, and even usage of safety devices, such as seatbelts and the deployment of airbags. EDR print-outs can be several pages in length. AIS investigators will always determine whether a car involved in a crash was equipped with an EDR, taking additional steps to obtain the valuable data print-out.
Patience and diligence are sometimes required to obtain the AIS files of a major accident. If there is a criminal proceeding resulting from the incident, the AIS records cannot be released until the prosecution is concluded. The lawyer may need to make a special application for the files before the Court hearing the civil action.
Although it is tempting to thinking of AIS information as a sort of “one stop shopping” for the preparation of a trial, a capable attorney understands that it, alone, may not always serve as conclusive proof. Instead, the AIS reports and data should be thought of as an important building block in the official record to be presented to a jury.
When consulting with a New York lawyer about a car accident case, an injured victim should make sure that the lawyer is experienced in conducting exhaustive factual investigations before a lawsuit is even filed.
By: Christopher T. McGrath, Esq — New York motor vehicle accident lawyer