$100,000.00 (2000) Auto/truck collision. A southbound truck pulled out
of a side road onto Highway 50 into the path of a westbound car near
Christmas, Florida killing the driver.
The Highway Patrol Officer who arrived on the scene wrote down the
names of four witnesses, but only wrote down the account of the
negligent truck driver (who said the deceased was speeding) and a
similar account of a woman who later admitted to “road rage” and to
playing “highway games” with the deceased minutes before the accident
occurred. The Highway Patrol found an alcohol container in the driver’s
car, and the deceased victim was not alive to tell his story. As a
result, the Highway Patrol charged the deceased car driver with causing
the accident.
Days later, an eyewitness to the accident saw the victim’s family
placing flowers and a cross at the scene of the accident and stopped to
offer his condolences. The eyewitness said he was driving in front of
the deceased at the time of the accident and was “almost killed” when
the truck driver negligently pulled out into the highway into the path
of the deceased’s car and two other cars (the drivers of which swerved
to successfully avoid the truck). The eyewitnesses said he left the
scene because the other witnesses promised to stay until the Highway
Patrol arrived (which they did but, the Highway Patrol officer did not
seek or record their account of the accident). When the victim’s family
told the eyewitness that the decedent has actually been charged with
causing the accident, the witness became enraged and offered to testify.
When finally interviewed, the remaining eyewitnesses (both drivers
of the other two cars backed up the account of the first eyewitness
(that the truck driver negligently pulled out into the path of the
deceased’s car, his car, and two others). The eyewitness also testified
that because the deceased was immediately behind them on highway 50 for
several miles, and because they themselves were not speeding, then the
deceased was not speeding either. As a result, the truck driver was
proven to have mostly been at fault (despite no testimony for the
deceased who was not alive to testify, despite the presence of the
alcohol container in the deceased’s car, and despite that the deceased
was originally charged with causing the accident).
