The first call many people make after an auto accident is to their insurance company. If you are in the hospital, your friend or spouse might be making that call for you. However, you are looking at car repairs, medical bills and lost wages, so that call is going to be made and promptly.
Your insurance company listens to your version of the accident intently and then in a calm voice they ask the usual question. Do you have an accident report number? You pause, and give out the number the officer gave you on the back his card.
A couple of days go by, and you have been busy obtaining estimates of damage to your vehicle. You have also been experiencing low back pain and stiffness, so your doctor refers you to an orthopedic specialist. You are convinced the accident was not your fault, but you really did not get much time to talk to the police because the passenger in the other vehicle was bleeding from the head and needed medical attention.
In your mind, the accident was clearly the other drivers fault.The light at the intersection just turned yellow as you were going through it and the other driver made a left turn right in front of you. Because Michigan is a No Fault Insurance state you know your car will fixed and your company will cover it. But, you need to talk to your agent because you have a $1,000 deductible. You want the other driver’s insurance to cover that under the Michigan Mini Tort law.
So you call the agent. The agent tells you the bad news. The officer coded you at fault for disobeying the signal. In the accident report the officer quotes the other driver as saying he was in the process of making his turn when you speed up to try to beat the light just after it turned red. The other driver’s passenger agreed with that version. The report also lists the names of two disinterested witnesses, but gives no statement or information for those people.
This accident report is upsetting news to you for three reasons. The first is you do not want a ticket and the points. The second is that you do not want to be sued by that passenger that was injured. The third reason is that you are experiencing back pain and you have no idea what treatment you will need down the road. So, you would like to preserve your right to sue.
Under Michigan law, MCL 257.624, the traffic crash report shall not be available for use in a court action. The crash report is clearly not admissible as evidence. This is a great law. I can tell you based on over 30 years of experience that these crash reports often contain erroneous and unreliable information. For instance, take the individual that hits their head on the dash board. The officer may ask the person if they were knocked unconscious. In most cases the person will have no recollection of the event. So, their response is not reliable.
In the case we have been discussing, the driver could contact or subpoena the other witnesses listed on the report to ask about the status of the light at the time of the accident. Clearly if that person can verify that the light was yellow and the other car turned in front of him, it seriously hurts the credibility of the crash report. So, the crash report is not evidence.
The officer taking a crash report can choose to do a thorough investigation or simply write up a report and let the chips fall where they may. The bottom line is that some crash reports are completely wrong. The best way to tackle a crash report is to use it as a starting point to conduct your own investigation. One way to do that is to hire an investigator to interview and obtain statements from the witnesses. Then, if causation is a problem you will need to consider hiring an accident reconstruction expert to make conclusions based on scientific evidence. Either way the crash report is not admissible.
