On Sept. 12 my dad was killed by another driver. His motorcycle was rear ended and driven into the vehicle in front of him.
We have not yet been able to see the police report, and don’t even know the name of the driver who killed him.
Does it vary from state to state on when such info is released to surviving family, or the widow? How do we go about finding out this stuff? I feel we are entitled, for one thing, to know who killed my dad.
Also, do punishments for such an offense vary from state to state? How do I find out what the law is on that?
Was there not a police report of the accident? Wouldn’t that information be in there, unless it has been redacted. Have you asked your father’s insurance company? I would think this would be public information in most places in the US.
In the UK there would be an inquest where all the details are released. This would not happen until the police have investigated all the circumstances surrounding the accident because they have to be certain of the cause and of the identity of the people involved. I am sure that the US must have a similar procedure. I think it is too soon for you to expect the release of the details.
Don’t the police have a ‘Family Liaison Officer’ or some such? That would be the person to speak to.
You seem to be waiting for someone to contact you. That may not happen. IANAL, but in every area that I have lived, police reports are public record. You can contact the police and request a copy of the one for your father’s incident. It won’t automatically be mailed to you.
If the police department in your area has a family liaison officer or something similar, again, you may have to take the initiative and contact them first.
The police should be able to tell you what possible crimes a person can be charged with and what the penalties are. These do vary by state. Department procedures also vary, not only by state but even by town and local departments. It’s best to ask for a liaison officer to help you through their procedures. If they don’t have one, just tell them what you are looking for and I’m sure someone there will guide you through what you need to do.
Autopsy records also vary by state. In some states they are public record. In other states they are given only to certain people, like immediate family members and people with a direct interest in the case, like the insurance company that has to pay out a life insurance policy. Some states are more restrictive than others about what family members may receive the autopsy report. Some states for example only allow next of kin.
For any civil punishments, you would have to contact a lawyer.
It is possible that the driver was a minor. To varying degrees, by state, minors are given a great deal of protection in terms of what information can be publicly released about their criminal activity. Once the offender is determined to be a minor, the entire matter is turned over to juvenile processing and absolutely nothing remains in the hands of the police or the courts, either investigatory or prosecutory. In my experiences, Missouri (for example) is particularly rigid about that.
Police reports are a matter of public record. Many locations now have daily police incident logs available on line. Try to do some searching on-line for the police and emergency dispatch reports in your city, town or county. If the other driver was arrested and is still in jail that information is also on line, at least where I live, which is a small town and rural areas.
I read the daily police log in my area on line and it provides the officer’s name, the call number, and the incident number assigned to each incident, with a brief description of the event.
You can also go to the police department and ask for the incident/case number. The police may not have finished their investigation but the incident was assigned a case number at the time it happened and you do not have to wait to at least get that number so you can stay current on the investigation.
If the above advice fails, have your lawyer file a civil suit for wrongful death against “John Doe” driver of the vehicle in the accident that caused your father’s death.
Then he will have subpoena power to get each and every piece of information the cops have.
I am truly sorry for your loss. The day my dad died over five years ago remains the worst day of my life. Best wishes.
Now this is all dependent on the jurisdiction you are in. I am in Texas so your results may vary. Police reports take a while, especially when a fatality is involved. Officers have to have time to write them up, supervisors have to review them, etc before they can be released. Autopsy reports take even longer. Months sometimes. There are full reports and public release reports. and supplemental reports. If a crime has been committed, most probably you will only be able to get the public release report which only has basic info, date, location, time, etc. If an arrest has been made, that is public record too. I would try to speak with the investigating officer and see what he/she has to say. If you retain an attorney, he/she could get it for you
You may have an office attached to the DA’s office called something like “Victim/Witness program.” It’s these people’s job to help victims of crime and their families navigate the system. I would contact them first, before contacting police, etc. Because they can help cut through red tape for you or even possibly obtain reports for you. They can also notify you of upcoming court dates, etc.
They will be able to answer all the questions you posted here.
They may even have funding for counseling, if you would like it.
Also, for your grief, they’re may be support groups or individual counseling available for grief through the local hospice. This is usually free or very low cost.
I would think that you would be entitled to the info. as you may want to file a civil lawsuit even if the authorities are not pursuing criminal action against him. You may need to seek the info. from authorities, don’t assume they are just going to give it to you.
No one automatically sends you all these things. You need to request them.
Normally you call the general number for the police department and ask where the records division is (unless you live in a really small town). The records division will make you a copy of the police report for a small fee (usually around $10.00). It can take a week or two for the police report to make its way to the records division. You will probably need an incident # to request the record. The police should be able to look that up for you.
Autopsy reports can take a lot longer and in a lot of places are available to next of kin only. A call to the coroner’s office should be able to get you all the particulars.
I’m very sorry for your loss.
There may not be any legal punishment, as in charges, especially if your father was that close to the vehicle in front of him. Sounds like everyone was pretty close together. You may want to look into someone representing your family in a civil suit against the driver though.
The reason the vehicles were so close is that they were coming to a lighted intersection at the end of the bridge. My dad was nearly stopped, and the vehicle that struck him was not slowing enough, as I did hear that driver looked down to change a CD. We do know that driver was not driving under the influence.
As others have noted, this will be public information. However, depending on jurisdiction, staffing, and how complex the accident was, the report may not even be finished yet. A simple fender-bender accident report may be done by the next day, but a complicated report (say, one of those 40-car pileups in the fog) may easily take six months to a year. Even if the final report is not ready yet, however, they should be able to give you the driver’s name and insurance information.
Yes, they do, and you’ll need to speak to someone in your state or check your state’s laws. In Kansas, this would probably be classed as vehicular homicide (“unintentional killing of a human being committed by the operation of an automobile, airplane, motor boat or other motor vehicle in a manner which creates an unreasonable risk of injury to the person or property of another and which constitutes a material deviation from the standard of care which a reasonable person would observe under the same circumstances”), which is a misdemeanor and likely to result in little or no jail time. In some other states, it is a felony worth years in prison.
This is the sort of case that plenty of attorneys would take on contingency (no money up front–they collect from the other driver’s insurance company), so you may want to talk to several different firms.
Upfront big, huge caveat: everything varies according to the local jurisdiction.
Sometimes the terms “Incident Report” and “Police Report” are used interchangeably. Often times not. An Incident Report number may not be the same as a police report number, and so on… Other possible lingo may include “Records Management System” (RMS) number, or possibly a “RMS report”.
At least for my jurisdiction, here’s how it goes…
[ol][li]Someone calls 9-1-1 (or otherwise makes a report). At this point the Incident Report is started and the Incident Report number is assigned.[/li][li]Officers go and attend to the immediate aspects of the report. Once officers clear this phase then the “Incident Report” is complete and the RMS number is generated. Our system uses the terms “RMS number” and “Police Report number” interchangeably.[/li][li]Officers continue the investigation, adding more information to the Police Report (aka RMS report).[/li][li]If the matter proceeds to prosecution in the criminal courts then the court system assigns case numbers and the like.[/ol][/li]
Generally an “Incident Report” would have less details than a “Police Report”. You may be able to request a copy of an Incident Report from the 9-1-1 center and/or the local police department. A Police Report would have to come from the police department.
Incident Reports frequently do not have the full details of the names of the parties involved in an incident and any such information should not be considered confirmed.
A traffic crash report will nearly always be available from your state’s highway patrol/equivalent. Call them. The results of the autopsy should have been released to the next of kin (is he married?) immediately, but your state might differ. I would call the office of the local medical examiner/coroner/whatever your state calls its death recorders.
I’m so sorry for your loss. I can’t even imagine how I’d take that news.
Paragraph 3 — easiest way may be to get an attorney and start a civil action against “Driver Doe and related parties”. That makes everything part of the court record and available for you (your lawyers) viewing.
Paragraph 4 – Just as there are places where its “tough to murder an African-American” there are still some places where its hard to kill a biker any way but accidentally. The American Motorcyclist Association ends up fighting a case or three like that a year. In one a pickup truck driver admitted to running a bike off the road (crippling the rider) because “he passed me and I didn’t want to be passed” and walked away with a reckless driving cite. It’s not so much what the law says as how much the local jurisdiction is in following it. Again, an attorney on your side is a nice thing to have in cases like that.
Again, I am very sorry for your loss. I lost my father many years ago and a day doesn’t go by when I don’t miss him.
Rumors fly around after an accident. Witnesses all see and hear different things. If the driver did actually say “I wasn’t looking at the road because I was looking down at my CD player and changing CD’s.” he probably would have been ticketed and/or charged with something by now. Anything from negligent driving to vehicular manslaughter. It all depends on what state you are in.
Your best bet is to pursue the mater in Civil court by hiring an attorney to sue rather than wasting time looking up laws. If the driver was going to have been charged with something, he would have been by now. Neither will bring your father back, but one will bring you compensation whereas the other will not.
Less than three weeks after a fatality accident? The police accident reconstruction reports might not even be finished yet, much less forwarded to the DA/prosecutor (or grand jury) for consideration of charges.
