Legal Question in Personal Injury in Oklahoma

The police department I work for discourages us from saying who is, "at fault." The reason being fault, which goes to negligence not criminal intent, is technically a civil matter not a criminal one. Officers investigate accidents for the purpose of establishing criminal charges ("beyond a reasonable doubt") usually related to traffic violations.

I do not know if your accident was an intersection accident, but those are usually the most difficult for everyone involved, including lawyers and insurance adjusters alike, in establishing fault. That is because Oklahoma is a, "comparative negligence" state whereby any negligence of both drivers is compared to the other driver's to establish by a "preponderance of the evidence" (over 50%) which driver had the most negligence in contributing to the accident.

The officer likely did the only job the officer could do with moved vehicles. You both were there, he was not. It is not the officer's fault that both of you followed the fairly new state law (last few years) that mandates that drivers move their vehicles off of the roadway after an accident, when and where possible, for safety reasons. This simply makes it harder for officers to establish exact measurements from skid lengths and points of impact.

Points of impact, often inaccurately solely estimated by roadway debri, is not dispositive of which driver had the green light. Remember that, often in the past, prior to anti-lock brake systems, officers were more accurate in determining speeds and points of impact because non-anti-lock systems leave skid marks, when anti-locks sometimes now leave some light marks but not full skid marks. That is why, in many circumstances, we hesitate writing citations to either driver in questionable cases, when there might be some negligence on both drivers, or with moved vehicles, with no for sure way to be exact on who committed the criminal violation outside of our presence. Often people are mad at me when I refuse to write a citation without other independent witnesses to support drivers' claims of fault. But even when citations are written, they are generally not admissible in court and consitute inadmissible hearsay evidence, since officers are not present when the crashes occur.

I'm not defending the officer's actions over responding to your question. I'm merely making you aware of the practical difficulties that you may or may not have been aware of that I have detailed in this response which may or may not satisfy your inquiry. They are not my opinion, but my street experience from working traffic accidents in Oklahoma under policy and law.

Unknowns and descrepancies can in fact hinder both lawyers and adjusters from easily settling accident cases. Most officers are not accident experts. Therefore, both insurance companies and lawyers often hire expert accident reconstructionists in order to uncover and provide more scientific details regarding a given accident. However, both lawyers and insurance companies might not expend funds to pay expert reconstructionists to investigate further due to the expense of using them, especially in cases where neither personal injury nor extensive property damage occured.

Thank you very much for taking the time to post your question instead of just retaining a negative perception about the officer who investigated your accident. It shows a great maturity on your part to remain open to a further explanation or varying viewpoint. Most of us try to do our best to serve you under the policy restrictions and legal conditions we encounter. Simply, officers' duties are primarily for gathering evidence sufficient to establish a criminal violation beyond a reasonable doubt for the purpose of criminal enforcement; officers are concerned about your loss, but not to the extent insurance adjusters or lawyers have to be, working together to establish primary negligence and a reasonable value to damage claims.

My suggestion would be to shift your concern from the officer to consulting with your attorney you trust. Even if they do not have an expertise in personal injury, that attorney will still have an interest in ensuring that your legal interests are protected, possessing sufficient legal experience to guide your access to quality representation.

-Rob Stratton

AttorneyCop.com