Malibu, CA—Earlier this month
former Olympic champion, Bruce Jenner was involved in a fatal accident on
Pacific Coast Highway. Jenner was
driving a Cadillac Escalade towing a trailer.
As most of my blog visitors know
I’m a former cop and licensed private investigator for longer than I care to
admit. I have conducted many fatal
automobile accident investigations and understand the process.
A white Lexus was in front of
Jenner’s vehicle being driven by a 68 year-old Arizona woman driving with an
expired driver’s license. She suddenly slowed down for no apparent
reason. Jenner apparently hit her and somehow
pushed her Lexus into oncoming traffic.
A Hummer then struck the
Lexus head on killing the woman.
Apparently there was no evidence
of excessive speed or impaired driving involved. Right now sheriff’s officers are trying their
best to reconstruct the accident to determine fault.
Just because there is the
tragedy of a fatality does not change this from an accident. Eventually Jenner
could be determined to be at fault.
That’s purely a civil matter for the insurance companies to fight
over.
Yes, Jenner could receive a minor
traffic citation for Following Too Close.
That accusation would have to be proven in a court trial and if so
Jenner could face a fine. Jenner could
still avoid the fine, conviction and points on his driving record by simply attending
traffic school.
Jenner did what I’d never
recommend to anyone. He fully cooperated
with police and submitted to a totally unnecessary and embarrassing field
sobriety test (Simon Sez).
This is an accident pure and
simple. Accidents happen and the media
at this stage suggesting potential Manslaughter charges is both libelous and
vile.
Video recreations are not
evidence unless and until engineers and qualified accident reconstruction
experts are allowed to testify about them in court.
This investigation is nowhere near the stage of actually finding fault.
This has turned into a case
of implied guilt by celebrity, not by facts or evidence. Jenner has enough misery on his plate without
the wild speculation and sensational innuendos.
I think we need to wait until
the police investigation is complete and see if Jenner actually needs to attend
driving school. This is not going to
result in criminal charges!
Below is an animation that is
NOT actual evidence, but simply suggests a theory of what may have happened. The video shows no
criminal behavior. It may support a minor
traffic citation being issued to Jenner if it was somehow actually validated. Just be aware this is not actual evidence!
Comments
At least that is what I learned at the Chicago Police Academy. Did they teach you something else?
They taught us to fix responsibility and cite those people that violated traffic laws in accident cases. They never suggested that we arrest people for Murder or Manslaughter over minor traffic violations.
If someone’s wanton disregard for human life was involved that would be different. A reckless driver killing someone while fleeing from police, or being intoxicated, or during some other felony crime would justify those kinds of charges.
Jenner may have been following too close as to avoid a collision here. That’s not a major felony crime in any United States jurisdiction.
We have a civil justice system for minor traffic torts, that brings financial compensation to victims and that’s why we have liability insurance.