So, Danny and I witnessed a car wreck several weeks ago. The insurance companies are calling asking for our side of the story because there is a conflict. Will it hurt the people that were not at fault because I didn't know the car type and color? I knew exactly what happened but couldn't tell you what color the cars were. They were small cars... I knew the hurt guy was black and the other guys were foreign and "looked" black.. I am not sure where they were from but their skin tone is what we refer to as black.
Sadness... I would have taken notes and asked questions if I knew I was going to be questioned on tape by an attorney! YIKES!
Witness protection.
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Ilovebigcats
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Ilovebigcats
- ---=== J2 ===---
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- Joined: January 30th, 2003, 6:58 am
- Location: USA,Tennessee
[edit- please delete]
Last edited by Ilovebigcats on June 23rd, 2008, 9:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
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dolfan
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Just tell what you recall seeing, nothing more and nothing less. Will it hurt? Well, is that your concern??? No, you're a witness only. I can tell you that asking on an internet forum whether you should be concerned about how your answers might affect the parties is probably more damaging --- should someone subpoena your computer (and, in this age, it happens more and more) ---- than not being able to identify the color and make of the car.
I witnessed --- was right behind --- a guy who got killed a few years ago in an accident. A schoolgirl pulled failed to yield the right of way to him from a median turn onto a 4-lane as the guy in front of me appropriately went through the green light. Wham, he spun, and his truck caught on fire. I stuck around after trying to get to the guy only to be NOT able to because of the inferno that killed him, and gave a statement to police and described the truck as a Mazda. It wasn't. I'd been behind him for miles. I just didn't pay that close attention to it.
But, I did pay attention to and saw flames shooting out from under the engine compartment as he spun around in front of me. The lick wasn't hard enough to kill him, but the faulty design on the electric fuel pump (I learned later) did him in by catching on fire in an impact that should not have caused that flame to erupt. That guy didn't make it to work that afternoon and his family lost him. I was on my way to file a car wreck lawsuit when it happened. I said all that in my affidavit and statement. I was deposed on the phone briefly. Last I heard, the case settled with GM.
Lessons to learn for witnesses who want to help establish the truth:
1. Make some sort of record of your own account soon after the event.
2. Just be honest and don't worry about who is helped or not.
3. Then, just be quiet and let the system do whatever it does. Your best intentions may have the worst consequences.
I witnessed --- was right behind --- a guy who got killed a few years ago in an accident. A schoolgirl pulled failed to yield the right of way to him from a median turn onto a 4-lane as the guy in front of me appropriately went through the green light. Wham, he spun, and his truck caught on fire. I stuck around after trying to get to the guy only to be NOT able to because of the inferno that killed him, and gave a statement to police and described the truck as a Mazda. It wasn't. I'd been behind him for miles. I just didn't pay that close attention to it.
But, I did pay attention to and saw flames shooting out from under the engine compartment as he spun around in front of me. The lick wasn't hard enough to kill him, but the faulty design on the electric fuel pump (I learned later) did him in by catching on fire in an impact that should not have caused that flame to erupt. That guy didn't make it to work that afternoon and his family lost him. I was on my way to file a car wreck lawsuit when it happened. I said all that in my affidavit and statement. I was deposed on the phone briefly. Last I heard, the case settled with GM.
Lessons to learn for witnesses who want to help establish the truth:
1. Make some sort of record of your own account soon after the event.
2. Just be honest and don't worry about who is helped or not.
3. Then, just be quiet and let the system do whatever it does. Your best intentions may have the worst consequences.
Human government bears the same relation to hell as the church bears to heaven. (David Lipscomb, On Civil Government, 72).
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Ilovebigcats
- ---=== J2 ===---
- Posts: 5044
- Joined: January 30th, 2003, 6:58 am
- Location: USA,Tennessee
dolfan wrote:Just tell what you recall seeing, nothing more and nothing less. Will it hurt? Well, is that your concern??? No, you're a witness only. I can tell you that asking on an internet forum whether you should be concerned about how your answers might affect the parties is probably more damaging --- should someone subpoena your computer (and, in this age, it happens more and more) ---- than not being able to identify the color and make of the car.
I witnessed --- was right behind --- a guy who got killed a few years ago in an accident. A schoolgirl pulled failed to yield the right of way to him from a median turn onto a 4-lane as the guy in front of me appropriately went through the green light. Wham, he spun, and his truck caught on fire. I stuck around after trying to get to the guy only to be NOT able to because of the inferno that killed him, and gave a statement to police and described the truck as a Mazda. It wasn't. I'd been behind him for miles. I just didn't pay that close attention to it.
But, I did pay attention to and saw flames shooting out from under the engine compartment as he spun around in front of me. The lick wasn't hard enough to kill him, but the faulty design on the electric fuel pump (I learned later) did him in by catching on fire in an impact that should not have caused that flame to erupt. That guy didn't make it to work that afternoon and his family lost him. I was on my way to file a car wreck lawsuit when it happened. I said all that in my affidavit and statement. I was deposed on the phone briefly. Last I heard, the case settled with GM.
Lessons to learn for witnesses who want to help establish the truth:
1. Make some sort of record of your own account soon after the event.
2. Just be honest and don't worry about who is helped or not.
3. Then, just be quiet and let the system do whatever it does. Your best intentions may have the worst consequences.
Well.. the people were really nice and I was recently in a similar case where the witness helped. I didn't want to be the cause of them getting nothing. The attorney made me guess the car colors... or else I would have been fine with telling him that I didn't know what type of car other than they were small cars. I have no idea which attorney I talked to. I didn't want him using the fact that I didn't have basics to say I am not a good witness.
Whatever... don't matter now.-
dolfan
- Established Member
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- Joined: March 17th, 2004, 1:25 pm
- Location: USA,Alabama
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Ilovebigcats wrote:
Well.. the people were really nice and I was recently in a similar case where the witness helped. I didn't want to be the cause of them getting nothing. The attorney made me guess the car colors... or else I would have been fine with telling him that I didn't know what type of car other than they were small cars. I have no idea which attorney I talked to. I didn't want him using the fact that I didn't have basics to say I am not a good witness.
Believe me, if they got nothing, it wasn't your fault. A simple "I don't know" will shut an attorney up faster than your best, but incorrect, guess ever would.
Human government bears the same relation to hell as the church bears to heaven. (David Lipscomb, On Civil Government, 72).
dolfan wrote:Ilovebigcats wrote:
Well.. the people were really nice and I was recently in a similar case where the witness helped. I didn't want to be the cause of them getting nothing. The attorney made me guess the car colors... or else I would have been fine with telling him that I didn't know what type of car other than they were small cars. I have no idea which attorney I talked to. I didn't want him using the fact that I didn't have basics to say I am not a good witness.
Believe me, if they got nothing, it wasn't your fault. A simple "I don't know" will shut an attorney up faster than your best, but incorrect, guess ever would.
Dolfan is correct and he is the expert for sure here. My wife was a paralegal at the largest firm in the state of Virginia and they use every little comment. They could be asking you something that you find meaningless but I assure you all the questions have there agenda behind them. The less said the better and always be simple direct answers.
My personal experience comes from a different background in my younger years before salvation I learned quick that the less you say to a cop the better, but that was a total different scenario
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