When the police report contains mistakes

What to know about Police investigation crash report mistakes

Police routinely investigate automobile collisions. Indeed, Police departments often assign certain departments the task of investigating crashes. And crash victims expect police to determine a collision’s fault. However, when the police report contains mistakes, resolving the claim with the adverse driver’s insurer can be difficult.

Quickly discover material inaccuracies and seek corrections. For instance, the collision time might be wrong. Also, the Police might wrongly report speed or measurements. The crash report diagram may be inconsistent with resulting damage. The investigating officer might wrongly report the direction being traveled of your vehicle or others. Further, Police might inaccurately report automobile landing locations.

Typically, Police do not witness collisions. Rather, their role is to investigate to determine facts. Therefore, Police rely on scene investigations and eyewitness interviews to determine fault. But eyewitnesses make mistakes too. And Police, while trained to investigate, are not regularly trained in forensics. Thus, the Police crash report may wrongly report the cause.

Investigating officers may not qualify as forensic experts

Police receive training in crash investigations. But the training is not extensive and nor is it intended to be. Police crash report mistakes are inevitable. Collision reconstruction involves math and science. And Police officers are not frequently trained in collision reconstruction. A Police officer not trained in collision reconstruction may make assumptions and base the collisions cause on speculation.

Detecting police crash investigation errors

Everyone typically presumes the Police crash report is accurate. This is true even with the Report contains clear errors. But material errors in the Police crash investigation report impact its reliability and can delay an insurance investigation. Thus, it is important to closely examine the report.

Police frequently diagram the collision’s progression and the automobile landing locations. Involved parties should examine the diagram closely and confirm its accuracy. If possible, conduct your own interviews at the collision scene. A primary witness identified in the police crash report may contradict himself when you talk to him.

Let us help.

We frequently receive questions about police investigations. We thoroughly investigate each claim to realize its full value. If you find errors in the crash report, get us involved.