Two Collisions. Three Deaths. Both Totally Unnecessary.

Two collisions. Three deaths. Both totally unnecessary. Here are the
particulars. Warning; Some of this material is tough to read due to the
graphic nature of the seriousness of the injuries. Both collisions,
although unrelated, have similar endings.

The first collision occurred about one month ago. Two men, both in
their early 30's, driving a Mercedes CL63 that is a $130,000 car for
those who are keeping score. It is a two-door racecar for all intents
and purposes. The driver is a male Hispanic, and the passenger, a male
Armenian. They were both at a party, and when the owner of the Mercedes
is about to leave, the two men ask for a test drive as a kind of
nightcap. They drive about three miles away and are now coming back to
return the car.

They are driving on a four-lane street next to a golf course, so there
are some curves in the road. This is the perfect place to test drive
this high performance car. It is one in the morning, and the street is
wide open and clear of traffic. The driver is going no less than 110
miles per hour. He makes his last turn going at his high velocity,
loses control, and his car starts to skid out of control.

Further inspection of the tire marks told the investigators that he was
attempting to correct his left turn. His car laid down over 430 feet of
pre-impact tire marks. According to the speed skid chart, that places
his car at a minimum speed of 95. You will soon understand why I
believe that he was going at least 110MPH. The tire mark was not quite
a full yaw mark. A yaw mark is when a car is traveling too fast, it is
going out of control, and there are faint striations in the mark that
are unique (that also allow you to use a different kind of measurement
to get a more accurate speed calculation). This mark was more like a
locked wheel, turning tire mark. This was not surprising since the car
was high performance, with upgraded wheels and brakes.

The car, at the conclusion of its tire marks, ran up a curb, hit a
cautionary street sign, and then, for the grand finale, a
six-foot-in-diameter-tree. This was one of the biggest trees I have
seen in a while. It soared over two hundred feet tall, and had the
girth of a lineman for the Dallas Cowboys. The car had rotated so that
the passenger side door made initial impact. The door actually
separated from the car and was left on the side of the tree.

The passenger, the male Armenian, was not wearing a seatbelt, and was
ejected from the car. His body flew out of the door, and also made
impact with the tree. As the car continued to rotate away from the
tree, it caught fire and came to rest about 40 feet from the tree. The
passenger flew in the same direction as the car, but only went about 20
feet from the tree.

The driver, who was seat belted, remained in the car, and burned. I
wouldn't say burned to death because the coroner investigator told me
that his neck broke upon impact and he died as a result of the broken
neck. It was just a sad side note that he burned in the car. He was
sitting on his wallet, and would you believe that it was not burned. It
even had his identification in it. Although we believed who he was, the
coroner would not positively identify him without dental records. I
will get into that part of the story in a minute.
The passenger was almost torn apart. His left upper leg was hanging on
by some muscle and tissue. His right leg was almost torn off at the
knee. His upper chest area was torn open, and, this was unbelievable
for me; his heart and one of his lungs were resting next to his body.
His heart was about one foot from his head, and lung about 10 feet away.
Never in my career had I ever imagined, nor conceived, that this could
happen. I told a district attorney later in the day; he didn't
believe me.

That was the force of the impact! That is why I believe that it was
110MPH. The aftermath of this well built car was unimpressive. There
were car parts all over the place. One full airbag container was about
80 feet away. All four tires had been ripped from the car. The body of
the car was mangled. The passenger seat was ejected. The amount of
intrusion to the passenger side made this impact insurvivable for any
and all occupants.

I received a call from the family of the driver. If you have read my
article, Death of the 10-year-old-boy by a drunk driver,
(http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1625697/death_of_a_10yearold_boy_by_a_drunk.html?cat=17),
this story got real personal, real fast. The family member, although I
did not immediately recognize her name, told me that she was the niece
of the woman who I had put in prison for six years, just a year ago.
She told me that her brother was the driver of this collision, and was
dead. As I began talking with her, and made this realization, two of my
cases, one family, one in prison and one dead. I couldn't imagine
that this family likes me very much. Luckily, I remember having good
conversations with them and helping them through the tough time in their
lives. This was even more difficult as she was very close with her
brother, and it happened so suddenly. She told me that her brother had
just moved back into town, started hanging out with people that he knew
from before, and used to get into trouble with.

The male Armenian's family was virtually uncooperative with all
aspects of this collision aftermath. They wouldn't provide any family
information, and in fact, told the coroner's investigator that she
could not do the death notification; they would handle that within their
family. I understand that they wanted to do it their way, but have some
respect for the job that the coroner had to do, and involve her. We
later went to the parent's house, heard the crying from four doors
down, and just spoke with other family members outside of the house. We
did not intrude, rather, just had one family member get the father's
identification as proof of service. We answered any questions that we
could, and left.

I received a call from one of our undercover detectives, who actually
is working a task force, and was told that the Armenian was in a gang,
and they had been tracking him for other crimes. I was pretty shocked,
his tattooed body notwithstanding, that the detectives had already
learned of his death.

The second collision occurred just two days ago. A male White,
parolee, was riding a motorcycle, without a driver's license, and hit
a parked black and white police car. He actually ping-ponged in between
the parked police car and a bus that was in the next lane over. The two
stunned officers yelled at the rider to stop, but he kept going, and
rapidly. The officers got back into their car, but he was already gone
after turning on the first street. The officers broadcasted what had
just happened and started to go in the direction that he had just gone.

Two minutes later, other officers spot the rider going about 90MPH down
another street. They also broadcasted his location, but they soon lost
sight of him. Another minute went by, and another officer saw the
aftermath of a motorcycle versus Sport Utility Vehicle collision on
another street. The fire department was called and the rider was
quickly pronounced dead.

Witnesses place the motorcycle going over 80MPH prior to this
collision. The SUV had turned left in front of him. Due to the speed
of the motorcycle, it would have been difficult for the driver of the
SUV to even see him coming. The motorcycle rider put the brakes on
about 80 feet before the collision but it was too little, too late, to
make a difference. The motorcycle hit the front end of the SUV, made a
huge indentation, and then continued on for another 120 feet down the
road.

The rider stayed near the front end of the SUV. Here is the scary part
of the two collisions. The rider's heart, yes, his heart, came out of
his body. His upper chest cavity was ripped open, and although still
attached, it was out of his body. My partner and I looked at each other
in amazement when the coroner's investigator pulled the white sheet
up, and we discovered that we had seen two hearts in less than one
month. That is the crazy part of my job. We see death, and because I
can disassociate myself not knowing the person, it is not too bad... But
the flipside is going to scenes where there was more than excessive
speed and seeing this kind of aftermath... It is a little more than
uncalled for. By the way, the motorcycle rider was possibly under the
influence, as one of the officers at scene had just arrested him two
weeks earlier for being under the influence. He was also on parole for, you guessed, it, narcotics violations. By the way, his helmet fell off his head because it wasn't strapped on properly.

Both of these collisions had similar endings, and gruesome discoveries.
Again, both were unnecessary. Both tragic, but luckily, no other people
were seriously injured as a result of the reckless driving from both
collisions.