San Diego’s busy freeways, such as SR-163, I-8, and I-5, connect with several daily commuters, and accidents do happen. The ‘California Office of Traffic Safety’ states that San Diego County witnesses several thousand crashes annually. Most of them lead to severe disputes and injury to the guilty person.
In such situations, the police reports have a crucial role to play. The sad part is that these reports aren’t always accurate. One mistake or assumption made by a police officer can disturb the victim’s insurance claims and the entire legal outcome. Here, it is necessary to consult a car accident lawyer who can reconstruct the truth and arrive at a correct decision.
The concern with faulty police reports
Police document the damage seen after the crash- and what they are told by either the involved parties or witnesses. However, the details often provided are incomplete, emotional at times, or contradictory. In many cases, they miss essential information, such as examining the impact angle, identifying mechanical failures, or determining if a driver was distracted. The officer might even be wrong about which direction a vehicle was traveling, the degree of impact, or some other detail that can weigh significantly in the assessment of blame.
If a police report is vague in describing what happened, the victim may not get compensation or may be blamed for the crash. This is why it might be beneficial to consult one of the best car accidents attorneys in San Diego.
How do lawyers recreate the truth?
An expert lawyer doesn’t just depend on the police report to develop a legal case. Rather, they make use of the crash reconstruction procedures to derive the truth. Here’s how they go about it:
- Collecting proof other than the report
Lawyers get video from surveillance cameras, dashcams, GPS data, and black box (EDR) data from the cars that were in the crash. These objective sources sometimes disagree with or explain what was said in the police report.
- Connecting with forensic professionals
An accident reconstructionist looks at tire marks, debris patterns, road conditions, and points of impact to figure out the speed, direction, and time of the crash. This forensic evidence can show whether the driver was speeding, not paying attention, or following too closely.
- Reconnecting with witnesses
Most of the time, police reports don’t go into much detail when they talk to witnesses. Lawyers will often talk to witnesses again to look for inconsistencies or to get more information that the police may have missed.
- Assessing medical and technical data
Lawyers use medical reports to show how the injuries are connected to the physics of the car crash. For example, clearly showing that a witness who was hurt in a side-impact accident could not have gotten that injury in the way that the police said they did.
Finally, misleading or wrong police reports are not uncommon. The National Motorists Association published a study indicating that 20% of accident reports contain factual or interpretive errors. Contesting those errors requires legal know-how, effective negotiation skills, and expert resources that lawyers have access to. To know more about how a car accident lawyer in such a situation, you can check out hhjtrialattorneys.com.
Summing it up
Car crash victims in San Diego join hands with an expert car accident attorney for legal help. Other than getting their claim, it is also about restoring the truth. Hence, by reconstructing a crash scene methodically and sharing the proofs strategically, car accident lawyers in San Diego ensure that the victims don’t face penalties for errors they didn’t make. Instead, they should receive the compensation they deserve.
