Phoenix Car Accident Attorney Blog

When you are involved in a Phoenix Car Accident it is important to understand how a phoenix car accident lawyer reads the police report. Of course, if you hire an attorney right away you can just let the lawyer read the police report but I (Alexis) try to educate our clients to understanding how to read the police report so they understand.

Many times when people call our injury office for the first time they do not have the police report yet as the officer is still drafting the report. When it comes to serious Phoenix car accident injury claims it can take a couple of weeks for the police report to be completed. When it comes to a fatal accident in Arizona, sometimes it can take up to 6 months to have the police report completed.

We had a case once where the claim was against a city entity and the caller had spoken to another lawyer who did not practice just Arizona injury and wrongful death law, and the attorney told the caller to wait until the police report came out. It apparently was an attorney that the caller had trusted and the attorney was trying to help but the problem was the lawyer did not practice just injury and wrongful death law and failed to explain or maybe he didn't even understand the law so the caller missed a statute of limitations. How did that happen? The caller waited until the police report came out which was at about 200 days after the accident since it was a fatality and there were a lot of complex issues involved in the car accident in Arizona.

The police report came out and at that time the caller called our office. Unfortunately, the fatal car accident was in part caused by a negligent roadway design wherein the city where the accident took place would have been at fault. The caller was never explained that she had a 180 day deadline that she could not miss if she wanted to make this claim. She never was told about the deadline so she felt she could just wait until the police report came out. By the time the police report came out the deadline against the city had already passed. That was an atrocious accident wherein there was a serious road design defect that caused the fatal accident.

The accident was so severe that the car was set on fire and exploded. The only way that the family could know it was their loved one inside of the vehicle was by dental records. A lawsuit would never bring the loved one back but it could have shown the city that they should not have had the road blocks where they had them and that there was a defective design that should have been corrected so that other innocent drivers in Arizona are not hurt or killed at a later time.

How to read a police report:

1. The date is on the top line along with the time
2. Usually the person who is listed in the top position is usually deemed to be at fault
3. Section 2 lists the person’s injuries. A number 1 for injuries usually means the person is slightly hurt. The number ratings go up to 5 which is for a fatality.
4. The driver’s name and owner’s name and address will be in the boxes along with the insurance information and all the information on the vehicle. If the insurance is left blank that does not meant here is no insurance. Often times the person does not have the insurance with them or it is unknown so the police leave that area blank.
5. Passenger information is listed in Section 5. Often times the police will cross out the date of birth and phone number and just leave the name. If a passenger is not listed and there is evidence that the passenger was in the vehicle the police report may be amended but often times the police will not amend the report once it is completed so it is important to call the police right away if there is a problem with the police report. Again, the police usually will not change the police report once it is completed.
6. Section 7 lists the witnesses. If there is ever a comparative fault car accident in Phoenix, Arizona it is important to contact witnesses as soon as possible to get affidavits or recorded statements. Witness statements sometimes can make or break a case.
7. Section 8 had the office’s information. Many times it is difficult to read! The officer might need to be contacted to find out more information about witness’ names or to talk to the officer to get the information before the police report is completed.
8. On the back side of the page under section 11, it tells if any skidding occurred. This is important to Phoenix car accident lawyers because they can tell a lot about how a car accident happened depending on the skidding that is noted by the officer.
9. Section 12 indicates the citations. Just because you are cited does not mean that you do not have a Phoenix personal injury claim. In Arizona we have a comparative fault state so you are able to collect for personal injuries for whatever amount of percentage you are not at fault for the accident. Especially in comparative fault accidents where there are serious injuries we recommend people speaking to a Phoenix car accident lawyer to go over their options and the deadlines.
10. Section 13 contains a description of the car accident taken down by the police officer.
11. On the second page of the police report will also include different sections about the lighting, the weather conditions and more information about how the Phoenix car accident occurred. This is important to a lawyer because there are different things that we look at in this section especially when there is comparative fault. In this section it will also listed if the driver was driving drunk. Driving drunk may result in a claim for punitive damages. Other things that we can look for in this section that may lead to punitive damages is if the driver fell asleep, was on drugs, was working over the federally mandated hours, among other things.
12. The last page usually contained a description or drawing of how the Arizona car accident took place.