The role of law enforcement in accidents is to determine the cause, who is at fault and file criminal charges if necessary.
Deputies dispatched to accident scenes who are part of the investigation team must try to preserve the evidence long enough to get it recorded. That can be challenging when injuries are involved. Being former EMS I can tell you that the patient is priority and evidence sometimes gets disturbed while focusing on the patient. Sorry leo's!
Deputies will use a number of tools to help identify and capture evidence. Aerial shots are taken when possible. Photos are taken immediately. Things deputies look for include: tire marks, fluid trail, scrape marks, debris, etc. to try and determine direction of travel, speed, etc.
Diagrams are made. Sketching used to be the method but thanks to technology computers can now create animated diagrams to help reconstruct the accident.
Distracted driving is one of the biggest causes of accidents! Distracted driving is any activity that could divert a person's attention away from the primary task of driving. All distractions endanger driver, passenger, and bystander safety. These types of distractions include:
- Texting
- Using a cell phone or smartphone
- Eating and drinking
- Talking to passengers
- Grooming
- Reading, including maps
- Using a navigation system
- Watching a video
- Adjusting a radio, CD player, or MP3 player
Deputies showed a video of some amazing crashes. Some resulted in fatalities, some were non injury but all were an eye opener as to how easy it is to get in to an accident and how fortunate we are when no one gets hurt!
In 2009, 5,474 people were killed in crashes involving driver distraction, and an estimated 448,000 were injured. 16% of fatal crashes in 2009 involved reports of distracted driving. 20% of injury crashes in 2009 involved reports of distracted driving.
In Johnson County 13,039 accidents were reported in 2011. 3916 were determined to be caused by distracted driving compared to 50 caused by DUI. In unincorporated JC, 121 accidents were attributed to distracted driving compared to 48 caused by DUI.
Because text messaging requires visual, manual, and cognitive attention from the driver, it is by far the most alarming distraction. Texting is up 50% from 2009 (which means the likelihood of cause of accidents by distracted driving is much higher than 20% now). Sending or receiving a text takes a person's eyes off the road for approximately 4.6 seconds or the amount of time needed to drive the length of a football field if traveling at 55mph.
Using a cell phone while driving - whether it's hand-held or hands-free delays a driver's reactions as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent.
Distracted Drivers are 23x's more likely to have an accident than someone who is not trying to multitask while driving.
Need more reason to put the phone down while driving? View the videos here of people affected by Distracted Drivers. http://www.distraction.gov/content/faces/index.html.
The most dangerous intersections in Johnson County? 199th Street & 169, followed by I35 (south where the speed limit increases to 70) and then 175th Street & 169. Be careful on the roads!
A great resource for information about Distracted Driving including the stats sourced in this blog and ways to get involved to help reduce Distracted Driving is the Distraction.gov web page which can be found by following this link: http://www.distraction.gov/.
Remember earlier when I mentioned I am a cop magnet? Well, one of my traffic stops last year was for texting while driving. The trooper made a deal with me, no ticket if I would lock my phone in my glove box. I took the deal. Now I try to make a conscious effort to not text or read email, fb, twitter, etc while the car is moving. About the only thing I will do with my phone now while the car is moving is answer a phone call and even that I don't do unless it's an important call. It's just not worth the risk of getting involved in an accident...
Learning about accident investigation was the first time math actually made sense to me.
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