Accident Reconstruction and Evidence in Austin, TX Crash Data, Vehicles and Preservation Duties

Vehicle recorder data is access-controlled

Section 547.615 of the Transportation Code addresses manufacturer-installed recording devices. Subsection (b) requires a manufacturer of a new vehicle sold or leased in Texas that is equipped with a recording device to disclose that fact in the owner's manual. Subsection (c) prohibits retrieval of recorded information by anyone other than the vehicle's owner except on court order, with the owner's consent, for the purpose of improving vehicle safety where the owner and driver are not identified, or to determine the need for or facilitate emergency medical response. Subsection (a) defines the owner as the person holding all incidents of ownership, including legal title, regardless of lending, renting or a security interest.

A court order has a showing requirement

Subsection (d) provides that for information from the categories described in subsection (a)(2)(B), a court order may issue only after a showing that retrieval is necessary to protect the public safety, or that the information is evidence of an offense or evidence that a particular person committed an offense. Subsection (f) treats subscription telematics differently: where a recording device is part of a subscription service, the agreement must disclose the recording, and the subsection (c) restriction does not apply. In practice, this means the download plan is a legal question before it is a technical one.

The crash report and the officer's file

Section 550.062 requires an investigating officer's written report of a crash resulting in injury, death, or apparent property damage of $1,000 or more, filed electronically not later than the tenth day after the crash. Section 550.065 makes that information privileged while requiring release on written request to persons directly concerned, a definition that includes any person who may sue because of a death resulting from the collision, at a $6 fee or $8 certified.

The spoliation standard, from the Supreme Court's own text

The Texas Supreme Court set out the framework in Brookshire Brothers v. Aldridge, whose opinion is published in full. The court held that spoliation analysis is a two-step judicial process: the trial court determines as a question of law whether a party spoliated evidence, and if so assesses an appropriate remedy. To find spoliation, the court must find that the party had a duty to reasonably preserve evidence and that it intentionally or negligently breached that duty. Findings are made by the judge outside the jury's presence, and evidence bearing on spoliation is not presented to the jury except as it relates to the substance of the lawsuit.

Why the harshest remedy is rare

The same opinion holds that a spoliation instruction is warranted only where the trial court finds the spoliating party acted with the specific intent of concealing discoverable evidence and that a lesser remedy would be insufficient to reduce the prejudice. A negligent mental state can support an instruction only in the rare situation where the nonspoliating party has been irreparably deprived of any meaningful ability to present a claim or defense. Remedies must be proportionate, and the court identified culpability and prejudice as the key considerations. Applying that standard, the court held an instruction was an abuse of discretion where a store preserved the requested footage of a fall but allowed additional footage to be automatically erased. The lesson for a family is that a preservation letter sent early is worth far more than a sanctions motion later.

A corridor that changes month to month

Reconstruction in central Austin is complicated by the fact that the roadway itself is being rebuilt. TxDOT's Capital Express Central project is removing the I-35 upper decks, lowering the mainlanes downtown and rebuilding the Lady Bird Lake bridge, with the limits described from US 290 East to SH 71 and Ben White Boulevard. A scene photographed two months after a death may no longer show the lane taper, barrier position or signage that existed on the night in question, so contemporaneous imagery and the traffic control plan in effect that week carry disproportionate weight.

The examiner's file is part of the reconstruction

Where the Travis County Medical Examiner took the case, the office's findings bear directly on occupant position, impact mechanics and survivability. Its fee schedule lists $25 for an autopsy report, $30 for a disc of digital images or of x-ray and CT files, $50 for certification and $500 per hour for testimony in a Travis County civil matter, and its FAQ notes a report may take up to 90 days where laboratory work is pending and that an autopsy report is public under the Public Information Act. Also relevant: Local Rule 13.3(a) automatically refers jury-docket cases to pre-trial mediation, so the evidence record is usually tested at mediation before trial. This page is general information rather than legal advice about any crash, and the attorney who advertises on this site is the right person for a specific evidence question.