The
one–vehicle car crash creates a special problem in the classification of death
because the law states that suicidal intent must be proven. Reasons for this
legal mandate relate to other legal issues, insurance claims, family concerns,
and the stigma attached to suicide.
- Some
vehicular accidents are suicidal in nature and most victims are drivers of
the vehicle.
- Suspicion
may arise from the circumstances preceding the accident, e.g. family
quarrel, financial crisis, threats of suicide, history of depression,
suicidal notes, etc.
- The
characteristic of a suicidal death by a driver is a head–on collision with
a road side object, pole or bridge support at a high rate of speed,
without evidence of an effort to apply brakes or to evade striking the
object.
- The
accelerator pedal imprint is an additional evidence of the deliberate
nature of the crash. Rarely, premeditated homicide may be disguised an
accident. Suspicion should arise when the accident cannot be
reconstructed.
- It
is very rare a person may be killed by other means and the body placed in
a vehicle is pushed off the road to make the scene look like an accident.
In such a case careful examination of all the injuries is necessary.
Sometimes a murder victim is burnt in a vehicle to conceal the crime.
Sometimes putrefaction indicates the body to have been dead prior to the
fire.
- The
number of vehicular deaths recorded in the United States total 48,800,
46,620, 43,980, and 41,040 for 1989, 1990, 1991, and 1992, respectively.
It is observed by analysts of fatal accidents that many of the deaths
attributed to vehicle car accidents, especially single–vehicle car, may
result from suicidal intent. However, the information necessary to
conclude that the driver's intent was to terminate his/her life is
generally unavailable.
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