Lawsuit Involving a Teen Car Accident which Caused a Fatality*

The defendant is appealing the criminally negligent homicide and assault charges.

The seventeen-year-old defendant left his high school grounds in his car with two of his friends as passengers at approximately 9:30 am.

At 9:45 am the police arrived at the car accident that involved the Litco car and a white minivan. Both vehicles were in the eastbound lane of traffic, in the right lane and shoulder. The car was on its side and the minivan was upright. The speed limit on that section of road was 55 mph.

Two victims in the car were dead at the scene and a passenger in the minivan died the next day. The two drivers remained at the scene of the accident. Defendant Litco acted dazed and shaken, not being able to recall the names of his passengers.

A police officer at the scene collected data and took precise measurements of different aspects of the teen car accident. The results were taken to a crime lab where the accident was reconstructed by a technician.

The technician concluded Litco's car lost control and collided with the minivan then spun into the guardrail. The estimated speed of the Litco car was between 82 to 87 mph. The speed of the minivan was the posted 55 mph.

The court stated that criminal negligence occurs when a person fails to perceive a substantial and justifiable risk in certain circumstances. "The risk must be of such nature and degree that the failure to perceive it constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the situation."

Criminal negligence also requires the defendant to have participated in blameworthy conduct creating or contributing to a substantial or unjustifiable risk. It takes an "additional act by the defendant to transform speeding into dangerous speeding" (for example, a teen car accident where the driver was drag racing on a city street and killed a driver stopped at a red light).

The court concluded there was not sufficient evidence that any other factor "in addition to speed" converted Litco's actions to dangerous speeding. The court must look to the actions of the defendant that caused the teen car accident, not the results.

In the court's view none of the factors cited by the plaintiffs are considered as "risk creating" behavior and therefore the counts of criminally negligent homicide and the assault in the third degree are dismissed. The remainder of the charges are supported by evidence and therefore remain in force.