Inept investigation can squander valuable police resources.
Traffic accident forms easily accomodate narrative and argumentative information. For most minor accidents that do not involve significant injuries, towed vehicles, or witnesses in addition to the people involved, a simplified report form can be submitted by drivers if police do not attend the accident. Five times during investigation at the scene, the situation can be evaluated well enough to plan what to do next. A vehicle failed to negotiate a curve in the roadway, ran off of the highway and became airborne. We document the collision scene and determine that the center of mass of the vehicle traveled 59 feet horizontally and fell 11 feet vertically.