What we know about the victims and driver in the crash that hurt 25 sheriff’s recruits in the past few hours:
• The driver, a male, is in his 20s, about 5’10” and 170 pounds, has blue eyes and black hair, and is a smoker. The victims, both 24, are in their 20s, both 5’5″ and 150 to 170 pounds, with brown hair and light or dark eyes. They are white Hispanics.
• The car was a Dodge Charger. The car had six passengers. Two were adults, three were children, two were infants.
• The Sheriff’s Department had no prior training in accident investigation.
• The department’s accident investigator, Michael Hoeffelin, was at the scene and issued a report on the crash, though police had seen the vehicles traveling at 65 mph in the intersection and had said the driver appeared to be drunk. The accident had occurred at 3:05 a.m.
• The Sheriff’s Department had no prior training in the use of body cameras and had not tested the cameras or attached them to the vehicles for more than 30 minutes before the crash.
• The department had not notified the family of the victims’ loved ones of the accident.
• The department had no cell phone service to call 911 or deputies.
• The department had no first responder training in the use of body cameras.
• The department had no training in the use of cell phones on the patrol cars.
• The department had not made a record of any complaints regarding the agency’s use of body cameras.
• The department had not checked every sheriff’s deputy’s cell phone records for complaints about the agency’s use of its body cameras.
• The department had only seven body cameras and had not checked the cameras’ power source or battery levels.
While most of that list of questions is relevant to investigations of crashes that result in death, there are others that could be relevant to investigations of crashes that cause injuries.
If there are no other questions I can think of, I’ll close it out there
