Texas Car Accident Sparks Jury of Commenters
December 14th, 2009. By AbiK
KWTX.com reported it. The article about the car accident in Texas was only about 130 words. That’s it. And while a car accident is never something to be viewed with nonchalance, this one, as car accidents go, was pretty much your standard head-on collision–and thankfully, only one person of seven involved sustained injury (reportedly non-life threatening) of any sort.
So why am I even talking about it? Because it highlights a new age of “discovery” in the world of everyday car accidents. This accident, which happened on FM 2484 in Harker Heights, TX—sort of midway between Dallas and San Antonio—sparked 18 comments within approximately 24 hours.
Some of those comments were, of course, from well-wishers who were just thankful that all involved were generally “ok”. Some were from wannabe grammarians—always a few ‘em out there… But the comments that caught my eye were these:
- I travel 2484 daily and have wittnessed this lady and her Saturn exceeding the speed limit many times. This was bound to happen.
- Thankyou to all the fire safety and police on the scene for working the accident,I was in the traffic being held up. It did look scary, thankfuly the children and driver are ok.I’ll pray the driver hurt will have a speady recovery. The speed limit is 60mph but sometime FM3481 is a racetrack for some people, we should all slow down on this road, this was a wake up call that didn’t need to happen!!! Please be careful my daughter and I travel this road daily.
- …usually, when you turn left, your turning into oncoming traffic…I believe the mini-van would be at fault, regardless if she were speeding. Just because you slightly exceed the speed limit, doesn’t give someone the right to turn or pull out in front of you!!!!
- to anonymous, thanks to all the cops etc??????? thats their jobs to work accidents like that, if they were doing a good job at it, instead of hitting the donut shops, keeping people from using it as a racetrack, this might not have happened,
- If the minivan was turning then wouldn’t the passenger side have been hit? Instead it was a head on and even the photo shows that the coupe was in the wrong lane. Speeding doesn’t give time to react.
- … there are many blind spots on that road, hills turns etc. An experienced driver with 5 kids in the car all buckled is not taking chances by turning into a car. I saw the accident and the little car was clearly in the other lane and had pushed the mini van backwards. It was the speed of the other car. All are blessed to have walked away.
So I live nowhere near Harker Heights, TX—heck, I don’t even live near the state of Texas, but from reading the comments I can pretty much make out a few things:
- FM 2484 has a speed limit of 60 mph
- Folks who drive FM 2484 have a tendency to speed
- Folks watching traffic on FM 2484 refer to it as a “racetrack”
- Someone involved in this accident was speeding—and the commenters seem to think they know who…
Now, even though some of these commenters claim to have actually seen the accident, who knows if these eyewitness accounts (and in some instances, musings) reflect reality? When an accident occurs, you and the other driver (if they stay around) are usually the only ones at the scene and eyewitnesses can be hard to come by—particularly if you’re not on Main Street, Anytown, USA. Get on a highway and folks just aren’t stopping in the shoulder to offer up eyewitness accounts and their contact info for that police report.
But now, that all changes.
Imagine getting into an accident, coming home, and clicking on the local news site (just after clicking away from your insurer’s site, of course) only to find you’ve been indicted by a bunch of nowhere-to-be-seen-at-the-time onlookers? It makes you wonder, too, as that insurance claim is about to be processed, just who else is “researching” the accident via the local court of online public opinion?
I don’t know about you, but I was never one to get a lawyer for a car accident. Thankfully, I’ve never had to. But after reading these comments—and hey, they’re “free speech”—regardless of whether they’re accurate or not—the word “lawyer” might start popping into my brain…
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Really interesting post. It's amazing with the use of the internet how fast news travels, especially when it comes to car accidents. I think you raise a valid point – if these minor accidents are being posted online (be it in the local news or somewhere else) and people are commenting on the story claiming to have seen the accident, etc, does that equal a valid testimony? And is it a good way to try and see if anyone saw your accident if maybe you couldn't get a statement from anyone at the time? Either way, I would definitely get a lawyer if I was involved in the case you're talking about – someone who can advise you as to what exactly is legal and will hold up in court.
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