DMV Victory at Fatality Hearing—San Francisco Driver Safety Office
Case History: California Drivers Advocates was engaged to assist a client whose driver license was in jeopardy of being suspended because of his involvement in a fatal traffic collision. On New Year’s morning, January 1, 2013, our client was driving a friend home following a church service. As he drove on a major freeway in the area of Oakland, an erratic driver passed our client’s vehicle on the left-side. In the process of doing so, the unidentified driver drifted into our client’s lane striking the left-side of the vehicle. Our client maintained control, however, as the errant driver continued to pass on the left, he swerved again into our client’s lane a second time and collided with the left-front fender and tire of our client’s vehicle. Unfortunately, our client was unable to maintain control after the second impact. He lost control of his vehicle, careened across three lanes of traffic, left the roadway and rolled 3-4 times. In the collision, our client’s passenger; a close friend for many years, lost her life.
The investigating CHP officer conducted a thorough investigation to include a full examination for DUI. Our client was stone-cold sober and was not charged with any crime. Unfortunately, the investigating CHP Officer could not find any evidence of a second vehicle and therefore determined that our client was primarily responsible for the traffic collision by making a unsafe turning movement.
DMV’s Position: The California DMV’s position was crystal clear. If the driver was involved in a traffic collision where he “caused or contributed to” the death of another person, his license was to be suspended for a minimum of one-year, even if he were never charged with a crime. The DMV relied upon the CHP officer’s investigation and the fact that he could not find any evidence of a second vehicle being involved.
Additionally, the DMV suspected that our client suffered with a myriad of medical ailments that may have contributed to the traffic collision. The DMV believed they had a “slam-dunk” reason to suspend our client’s driver license.
Our Defense: Entering this case, we had the deck stacked against us. It became abundantly clear that to win this case would be take a tremendous amount of work and commitment. To his credit, our client followed each and every task we laid before him. Every assignment we gave him he attacked and completed without hesitation.
We built a comprehensive medical history including numerous Driver Medical Evaluations (DME) and diagnostic letters from several doctors and other medical professionals. We completely investigated the maintenance records of our client’s vehicle to ensure he was diligent in keeping his vehicle mechanically sound. We investigated to ensure that our client was not speaking on a cell phone or texting at the time of the traffic collision and we enlisted the assistance of a prominent Accident Reconstruction Expert to carefully examine our client’s vehicle.
We completely prepared our client for his testimony so that when he was in front of the DMV Hearing Officer he could respond to questions with a great degree of credibility.
Over the course of 4 appearances and nearly a year of work, we were able to prove that there WAS a second vehicle involved. Our Accident Reconstruction Expert was able to find conclusive gouging and paint transfers that the CHP Officer missed during his inspection. We countered every suspicion of the DMV including medical issues and our client testified very well.
Outcome: The standard of proof at a Fatality Hearing is actually quite low but a thorough investigation and complete preparation won the day.
At the conclusion of the Fatality Hearing, the hearing officer took the matter under submission. Two weeks later, we received notice in the mail that the hearing officer had completely, “
Set Aside” any further action against our client’s driving privilege.
As a result, our client was able to keep his job and was finally able to move on after more than two years of turmoil. Nothing we do in a fatality case will ever bring the victim back, but in this case, our client was finally able to move on with the healing process.
Call CDA Today. Let Us Go to Work on Your Case.: The DMV Defense Experts at California Drivers Advocates have been fighting and winning DMV administrative hearings for years. We excel at every type of administrative hearing handled by the DMV and have a history of winning. Call us and let us get you back on the road.