Pflugerville Man Injured in Tractor-Trailer Accident on I-35 in Austin, TX
Austin, TX -- November 15, 2022, a Pflugerville man was injured following an accident where a tractor-trailer crashed with his car.
Initial statements about the crash said that it happened at around 6:50 a.m. along I-35 in the area of Park Thirty Five Circle.
A 27-year-old Pflugerville man was said to be the driver of a Kia Optima traveling southbound along the interstate. An 18-wheeler traveling the same direction collided with the Kia, reportedly resulting in injuries.
What stood out in some of the details I read was that both drivers claimed that the other one changed lanes into them. The investigating officer, however, seems to think evidence on the crash scene sides with the victim here, which is apparently why they suspect the truck driver was in the wrong here. But is that really the end of the story?
I always talk about the importance of independent investigations on this blog, but these details bring up a reason for that importance I don't usually have the opportunity to discuss, and that has to do with how the defense teams for trucking companies and insurance companies poke holes in police statements.
To be clear up front, there is not enough information here to say who or what caused this wreck. And that's exactly the point. Not only does that give every reason to take an officer's statements with a grain of salt until more information is available, it's also a myriad of holes that defense lawyers can fill with their own information to tilt the scales in their favor.
Let's put on our pretend caps for a second and put ourselves in the shoes of a defense attorney for a trucking company. We're seeing reports that the officer believes our truck driver messed up, but our driver is on record blaming the victim. So what evidence is there to support the authorities' claims? Is there any? Witnesses? Video? A professional accident reconstruction? Or is the victim's claim entirely based on a single officer's opinion?
Unless that officer happens to be recognized as one of the world's best accident reconstructionists, their word alone is simply one piece of the puzzle. With independent investigations, all of that evidence a defense team would be looking to poke holes in can instead bolster the reports and convincingly tell the victim's side of the story.
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