When there is a fatal car accident due to falling asleep at the wheel, how do cops prove that?

Russ B

They investigate the causes, experts show up and figure out how it happened. If its alcohol an easy tell would be traces of alcohol in person's blood. When you are talking on a cellphone and are about to collide you will still have time to try and avoid collision, start steering violently and slamming on your brakes. All that leaves marks on the pavement which tell the cops that you were trying to avoid the collision, you were awake and the cellphone is somewhere by your feet so you were probably talking on it. As far as falling asleep goes, i have seen plenty of those accidents and they look like a car simply went off the road. No skid marks. Since the driver is asleep he is not fighting the car trying to regain control. The car simply goes off road and into a tree. This is just what i noticed when i saw a wreck, but i am no expert so there is more to it.

ashleighpaiges

If it was Alcohol they would find it in their system when they did the autopsy. They would probably find a phone somewhere if it was due to a sell phone.

Faith F

I don't know about alcohol, but for a cellphone, they would just look around the body for a cellphone and check the time of the most recent call or most recent text.

eric

That's hard to prove. If alcohol or drugs is in the blood, they can prove that. By checking cell phone records, they can prove that. But falling asleep is just like any other accident losing control and running off of the road. There are usually no answers as to why drivers end up in an accident and why they lost control, etc. They can prove speed by skid marks. Also, witnesses can provide details of how someone was driving before the accident or before they lost control of their car.

Locksmith

that's why it's called investigation

wizer

If the driver was killed does it really matter what he was doing. It only matters what the living were doing. The dead are dead. If the living wasn't at fault. Than the dead must have been. If another vehicle was involved and the driver of that vehicle didn't do anything wrong, than it stands to reason it was the dead guys fault. Who cares what he did wrong. You ain't gonna hold him accountable. Logic dear Dr. Watson.

NATE BRACEY

there actually is a device akin to the breathalizer, the sleepalizer is inserted for the data. it generally takes 10-20 seconds as long as the acehole is still intact

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