Woman charged in fatal 370z crash caught on dash cam

JC-Nismo

Ok let me be clear, THE VIDEO IS BLURRY AS HELL!!! All I see is a car that seems to hit another vehicle that seems to pull out into traffic!!! Is that what I'm seeing???

kenchan

yah, im kinda wondering too how they came up with 30mph..?

sorry to both families.

Magic Bus

Do both of you honestly feel that if you were to drive 60 mph in a 25 mph zone and you hit a car coming out of cross street or a pedestrian crossing a street that you'd have no liability?

The police did not prosecute her earlier because even though they did have the video evidence of her speeding, they can't be exact and factual about her speed. This in itself may not be strong enough to convict the driver. However you combine this video evidence with the fact that she was on her cell phone, now the prosecuting attorney's office has a strong case against her.

1087

I absolutely agree with you.
Without the video this case will fall into the right of way for the 370Z.
But the video clearly shows that the speed the Z was carrying did not allowed the other party crossing the intersection to realize how fast the Z driver was going.
Quite simple if the Z driver was travelling at the posted speed there will be no accident.
This is quite simple to understand, also the police will not prosecute without that evidence.
The Family of the deceased person has a very strong case, this is not your typical 50-50 case.

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JDubya

I'll begin by noting that I have 0 idea how Texas state laws work with regard to T-bone accidents/right-of-way/side collisions, etc.

But do know that in some states it is entirely on the yielding driver to cross the intersection safely. It doesn't matter how fast the hitting driver is going. If that's the state of Texas, you're going to see a not guilty verdict.

You say if the driver wasn't speeding, the accident wouldn't have occurred. A lawyer says if the crossing driver would have properly yielded to oncoming traffic, the accident wouldn't have occurred. Lawyer says the crossing driver didn't come to a complete stop before crossing, or that he was speeding while crossing the intersection, which caused the collision. While these seem like obnoxious claims, they are the type of things lawyers will look for.

Some states have exceptions to laws regarding yielding the right-of-way which will charge the hitting driver at fault if they are determined to be speeding/reckless driving/etc (name your offense).

Anyway, this is just a little devil's advocate on my part. I am not trying to be insensitive toward the deceased driver, as this is a horrible and unfortunate event that happened. I just wanted to throw it out there that, unfortunately in the US legal system, it is not this simple.

On a personal (and emotional) note, I hope she gets convicted because it's painfully obvious she is driving like a reckless idiot, and she contributed to someone losing their life. Regardless of if it is determined that the crossing driver did anything wrong, it doesn't change the fact that the Z driver contributed to that loss of life.

JC-Nismo

Of course there's liability, reckless driving and speeding and in which cannot be proven even with this video in regards to speeding unless they can magically compute speed from a dash cam video. 3rd or 4th degree Reckless or Involuntary Manslaughter is what they'll get at the most and she won't serve a day in prison especially at 21 and she has no priors, Just My Opinion.

MacCool

You're a little fuzzy on the details of accident reconstruction aren't you?

JC-Nismo

Not at all, just saying I've seen these type of accidents before and I'm willing to bet it all that the Manslaughter charge won't hold water and this young lady at the young age of 21 won't see a day in prison.

MacCool

I don't know what charges will stick, nor what sentence she'll get...I'm not a lawyer (are you?). I do know that from the accident reconstruction (laser scanner was shown in the video) they have all they need to prosecute the case -- the dashcam is just icing on the cake. Something to get the jury all emotionally worked up in addition to the demonstrated facts of the accident.


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37zeroZ

You have zero understanding just in your first sentence alone. This was not a 25 mph zone, but a 35 mph zone. It was noted that she was speeding 30 mph over the speed limit, not by your math of 35 mph. Nonetheless, it's all speculation on how fast she was driving. Also, it's not against the law to drive and talk on your cell phone.

Who's to say that the other woman didn't completely stop at the stop sign and obey the right of way law. This is all an emotionally driven charge.

1087

You fail to see that the other woman was almost finishing to crossing the intersection when the accident occurred, look at the video few times, the Z tried to swerve to the right to avoid the van.
Updated: Mother of three dies after major auto wreck in Harlingen : News : ValleyCentral.com

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37zeroZ

It kinda looks like there was another car in front of the 370Z driving in the middle lane. The Z veered to the left to pass the car on it's left side. That's when the van crossed in front of oncoming traffic. The van looks like it was going kinda fast crossing the street from a dead stop or the van driver didn't completely stop at the stop sign and misjudged crossing the three lanes into oncoming traffic.

Magic Bus

Please read my post again.

My question using the speeding numbers were not meant do depict the actual case. The question was used as an example to ask a question of two fellow forum members if someone is speeding, do they have liability in an accident.

Also I never said that use of a cellphone was illegal in Texas. But it will make the prosecutions case stronger showing that the driver was not 100% focused on driving.

Magic Bus

JC, I appreciate the fact that you agree with me that someone who is speeding has liability in an accident.

Here's what you and 37zero may have overlooked. While the dash cam video itself cannot determine the speed of the Z, the data that it recorded can be analyzed to determine the speed of the Z with very good accuracy. Here's how.

Authorities will pick a landmark starting point for the Z from the video. From that landmark point, they will then measure the distance to the point of impact for the 2 cars. Review the video again to determine the amount of time it took the Z to travel the distance between these 2 points. Input these factors in a time and distance calculator and your mph will be calculated.

Let's use 1087's link of this video (1st video for accident) for me to explain. Right at the 3 second mark in the video (bottom time on screen) the Z overtakes the video cam car on the left. It passes a small street and a white sign on the left of it, lets use that sign as the landmark starting point. At right around the 9 second mark, we see the collision then hear the driver say "boom".

So 6 seconds from landmark starting point to collision point. Now if this distance was 220 yards (1/8 mile), her speed was 75 mph. If 250 yards, speed is 85 mph. Obviously, the shorter the distance, the slower her speed.

I think this should explain it pretty clearly and in the other video where the police said she was over 30 mph above the speed limit, indicates to me that they have already done their preliminary calculations. Then include the fact that she was on her cell phone, gives the prosecuting attorney a solid case.

Magic Bus

Just thought I'd add some concrete information to this debate. Using the information that I shared with all of you earlier (shown above). I was able, using google maps distance feature to determine the distance, from the landmark white sign to the point of impact. It is 820 feet or 273 yards used in calculator.

After reviewing the video on my large screen monitor at work numerous times, the time it took the Z to cover this distance was right about 6.75 seconds. This equates to a speed of 82.73 mph