How a fatal crash is investigated and why it takes so long
Gilroy – After the screaming, after the sirens, a car crash tells a quiet story. It’s told in rebus, by the angle of a mangled fender, by a skid mark’s length, by the filaments of a plastic headlight. Investigators decode that story slowly, mapping every point of a tragic scene. It’s a painstaking process: the delicate work that follows indelicate deaths.
But when blood stains the pavement, some grow impatient, demanding charges filed and drivers jailed. In June, after Robertina Franco struck and killed 5-year-old Brayan Trejo, the boy’s father said she ought to be arrested without bail. Four months later, when 76-year-old Norm Watenpaugh and 5-year-old Julio Gonzalez died in a single bruising week, both hit by trucks as they crossed Gilroy streets, others clamored for manslaughter charges.
“Fatal crashes are so emotionally taxing for everyone involved,” said Frank Carrubba, Deputy District Attorney. “People expect that the person who caused that loss will be severely punished” – and soon.
But, he cautioned, “You can’t do an investigation like this in 48 hours.”
Nor can police charge drivers before every detail is dredged from a scene. Sgt. Kurt Svardal explained that if police issued quick, on-the-spot citations, they’d forfeit more serious charges, since a person cannot be charged twice for the same crime. Instead, officers inspect the crash down to the smallest details before recommending a charge to the DA. That takes time.
The process sometimes confuses people. Police didn’t cite the drivers who killed Watenpaugh and Gonzalez, and after Gonzalez’ death, the Associated Press wrongly reported that the woman who struck him would not face charges. Svardal said that was absurd, since the police report was only finished this week. The DA, Carrubba, decides whether charges are filed, and as of Monday, he hadn’t seen the reports.
“Unless they have a crystal ball,” said Svardal, “I don’t know how they’d know that.”
After a fatal crash, tiny details take serious attention. At the intersection of Kern and Welburn avenues, where Gonzalez died, police snapped eight photographs of the car, from every angle, before taking close-up shots of dents and damage. The condition of the car before and after the crash, its exact position, and the scrapes and gouges inflicted on other objects – trees, curbs, poles and signs – were documented in detail.
“It takes effort,” said Svardal. “It takes time. Somebody lost their life, and in court, we have to have answers. Certain questions you can never answer, but cars don’t drive themselves, and we need to figure out every piece of the puzzle, the physical force it took to get that car to this point.”
What’s more, a crash site can stretch hundreds of feet in diameter, as investigators piece together what happened before a collision.
“When a car’s going 30 miles per hour, that’s 45 feet per second,” explained Deputy Mike Betti, an accident investigator with Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department, West Valley Station. Betti analyzes crashes in Cupertino, Saratoga and Los Altos Hills. “A couple weeks ago, when a car rolled over with no witnesses, we went 400 feet up the road to find the initial problem.”
High-tech tools help investigators map a scene. Betti uses a Nikon Pulse Laser Station, a surveying machine. Aiming it at the key points at a crash, Betti can measure distances, elevations, and angles, then create 3-D renderings and animation of a crash. At a fatal accident at DeAnza College this Sunday, Betti recorded 180 points.
But the key to decoding a crash is often low-tech: a witness statement or a family interview that clues in detectives to a critical issue. A medical condition. A suicidal note. A disability, or a distraction. The lead investigator – in Gonzalez’ case, Cpl. Joseph Crivello; in Watenpaugh’s, Cpl. Justin Matsuhara – condenses inches of witness statements, pages of photos, diagrams and analysis into a determination of cause, and a recommended charge.
“Personally, I’ve probably spent three solid work days – 36 hours – contributing to the report,” said Svardal. “To review it, I’ll probably spend three hours, maybe more.”
It’s that report that lands on Carrubba’s desk
Sifting through a police report, Carrubba decides whether to charge a vehicular manslaughter case as a misdemeanor or a felony. Felony vehicular manslaughter charges are unusual, he said, reserved for the worst of cases, where a driver took severe risks, like racing or driving under the influence. In such cases, a driver could spend four to six years in jail.
Otherwise, Carrubba charges a case as misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter, the charge filed against Franco, who hit Brayan Trejo in June. To Carrubba’s knowledge, it is the only misdemeanor involving a loss of life, and one of the few crimes that doesn’t involve criminal intent. Chatting on your cell phone, driving with fogged-up windows, or forgetting to replace your balding tires aren’t crimes – but if you hit a pedestrian while doing so, Carrubba could charge you.
It’s no speeding ticket: misdemeanor convictions bring a year of county jail time, and $1,000 in fines. However, most judges prefer giving community service hours to jail time for errant drivers.
“Typically, the defendant is a victim as well,” Carrubba explained. “Robertina Franco wasn’t intent on doing anything that would put that boy in jeopardy. But she did.”
Felony district attorneys handle such cases, even though they’re misdemeanors, he added. Misdemeanor DAs are swamped with minor cases, while felony DAs have the luxury of interviewing family members and generally devoting more attention to the case. Overall, said Carrubba, a case like Franco’s is handled more like a homicide or a sexual assault than an ordinary misdemeanor.
It makes sense. When drivers err, the crime has more victims than perpetrators, and as much pain as blame. Still, after a car claims a life, some aren’t satisfied with a misdemeanor charge.
“Many people don’t understand it and don’t agree with it, and they’re entitled to that,” said Carrubba. “But we can only charge what the law allows us to charge.”
