Case Name: James J. HOCTOR, a minor, By and Through his parents and natural guardians, Michael J. HOCTOR and Lorraine B. Hoctor, and Michael J. Hoctor and Lorraine B. Hoctor, Individually, Appellants, v. Brian K. TUCKER, etc., et al., Appellees
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1983-05-12
Citations: 432 So. 2d 1352
Docket Number: No. 81-1144
Parties: James J. HOCTOR, a minor, By and Through his parents and natural guardians, Michael J. HOCTOR and Lorraine B. Hoctor, and Michael J. Hoctor and Lorraine B. Hoctor, Individually, Appellants, v. Brian K. TUCKER, etc., et al., Appellees.
Judges: SHARP, J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 432
Pages: 1352–1356

Head Matter:
James J. HOCTOR, a minor, By and Through his parents and natural guardians, Michael J. HOCTOR and Lorraine B. Hoctor, and Michael J. Hoctor and Lorraine B. Hoctor, Individually, Appellants, v. Brian K. TUCKER, etc., et al., Appellees.
No. 81-1144.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.
May 12, 1983.
Rehearing Denied June 21, 1983.
Robert J. Telfer, Jr., of Cianfrogna, Tel-fer & Evans, P.A., Titusville, for appellants.
Janet R. DeLaura of Smalbein, Eubank, Johnson, Rosier & Bussey, P.A., Rockledge, for appellees.

Opinion:
ORFINGER, Chief Judge.
This is an appeal by plaintiffs below from a final judgment entered on a jury verdict for the defendants in a personal injury suit. We reverse.
Plaintiff was a passenger in an automobile driven by Brian Tucker and owned by Charles Tucker (the Tucker vehicle) which ran into the rear end of a motor vehicle operated by defendant Helen Maliszewski. Plaintiff alleged that the Maliszewski vehicle had stalled on the dark and rainy highway and that Mrs. Maliszewski was negligent in permitting it to remain on the roadway without lights. Whether the Malisz-ewski car had lights on while stalled or was dark until just before impact became a major issue of the trial.
Over objection, appellee's counsel was permitted to ask Brian Tucker what he had told the investigating officer concerning the tail lights on the Maliszewski vehicle. The investigating officer was later permitted to testify, over appellants' objection, to what Brian Tucker told him, and this recitation essentially contradicted Brian's testimony. To tie the knot tighter, the investigating officer was permitted to testify that no statement was made to him by other witnesses at the scene which would contradict Mrs. Maliszewski's statement that her lights were on.
Appellant contends that statements made by Brian Tucker to the investigating police officer are privileged under section 316.-066(4), Florida Statutes (1981), which says, in pertinent part:
All accident reports made by persons involved in accidents shall be without prejudice to the individual so reporting and shall be for the confidential use of the department or other state agencies having use of the records for accident prevention purposes, except that the department may disclose the identity of a person involved in an accident when such identity is not otherwise known or when such person denies his presence at such accident, and except that the department shall disclose the final judicial disposition of the case indicating which if any of the parties were found guilty. No such report shall be used as evidence in any trial, civil or criminal, arising out of an accident .
Appellee contended at trial, and asserts here, that the privilege is personal to the person making the report and cannot be invoked by the plaintiff.
Under the statute, reports, whether oral or written, made to a police officer investigating an accident by a person involved in the accident, are privileged as to the person making the report and cannot be used in evidence against that person. Stevens v. Duke, 42 So.2d 361 (Fla.1949). Appellee would have us stop there, but the statute does more. It provides that the required reports "shall be for the confidential use of the department or other state agencies having use of the records for accident prevention purposes .," and prohibits the use of the report as evidence in any trial, civil or criminal. In Stevens v. Duke, supra, the Supreme Court ruled inadmissible the statements made by the driver of plaintiff's vehicle to a police officer who took the statement at the request of the investigating officer. Although the Supreme Court did not discuss the issue in precise terms, it held that the testimony was inadmissible as a privileged statement under the statute in question here, and thus implicitly held that the plaintiffs, although not the makers of the statement, had standing to raise the question of privilege.
Thus it appears that the privilege of the statute extends to all persons within its ambit, those "involved" in the accident, because the statute is not only for the benefit of the person making the report but is for the benefit of the public to enable the motor vehicle department to collect data on the cause and frequency of accidents, and use that information for accident prevention purposes. See Sprague v. Brodus, 245 Iowa 90, 60 N.W.2d 850 (Iowa 1953), where the Supreme Court of Iowa reaches the same conclusion under an Iowa statute almost identical to the one in question here.
Having determined that it was error to permit the testimony of Brian Tucker and the investigating officer as to the report of the accident made by Brian Tucker, we must determine if the error was prejudicial, because if it was not, the error is not reversible. See Williams v. Scott, 153 So.2d 18 (Fla. 2d DCA 1963). Whether the Mal-iszewski vehicle had its lights on prior to the accident was a crucial point in the determination of the question of her negligence. Because of the conflicting evidence on this point, it cannot be said that the improper testimony was harmless. Herbert v. Garner, 78 So.2d 727 (Fla.1955).
We cannot agree with the dissent that there is no contradiction between Brian Tucker's testimony and that of the police officer. The very purpose of questioning Brian about what he told the officer was to substantially demonstrate to the jury that the lights were on and that Brian didn't see them until too late to avoid hitting the other car. Thus, this testimony was important not to impeach Brian, but to add credence to the later testimony of Mrs. Malisz-ewski that her lights were on. The dissent characterizes Brian's testimony as never indicating that "before the collision he saw the Malaszewski vehicle at a time when its lights were off." Yet, Brian's entire testimony makes it clear that on the dark and rainy highway, he saw nothing until "all of a sudden red lights flashed in front of me and I put on my brakes and hit." He specifically denied seeing any vehicle in the roadway prior to the lights flashing on "at the last instant." Another witness, a passenger in Brian's car, testified that when he heard Brian exclaim "Oh, no" he looked up and saw two red lights Hash on and stay on until the two vehicles collided.
So, we see a definite significance in the desire of the defense to introduce the officer's testimony. If, as the dissent indicates, it was proper to introduce that testimony to impeach Brian's earlier testimony as a prior inconsistent statement (a point we need not decide now), it was not proper to do so without first giving Brian an opportunity to explain or deny the prior statement. Before a prior inconsistent statement may be admitted in evidence, the witness allegedly making the statement must be asked if he made the statement and be given the opportunity to explain, admit or deny making the statement. Section 90.-614(2), Florida Statutes (1981); Hutchinson v. State, 397 So.2d 1001 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981); Studstill v. State, 394 So.2d 1040 (Fla. 5th DCA 1981). The same rule applied prior to the adoption of the Florida Evidence Code. See Hancock v. McDonald, 148 So.2d 56 (Fla. 1st DCA 1963). Harris v. New York, 401 U.S. 222, 91 S.Ct. 643, 28 L.Ed.2d 1 (1971), does not contradict that view. In Harris, the court held that the unconstitutionally obtained statements of the defendant were admissible to impeach defendant's in-court contradictory testimony after defendant had first been asked if he had made the statements and had been given an opportunity to admit, deny or ex- plain them. This procedure was not followed here.
The factual dispute here is similar to that found in Herbert v. Garner; supra, where the court held that permitting a witness to testify about a statement he overheard the defendant make to the investigating officer about defendant's observation of plaintiff's blinker light, was reversible error because there was a factual conflict as to whether plaintiff's blinker light was on and whether defendant saw it. The testimony was not considered harmless there, nor can we consider it so here.
The final judgment is reversed and the cause is remanded for a new trial.
REVERSED and REMANDED.
SHARP, J., concurs.
COWART, J., dissents with opinion.
. The Tuckers were originally parties defendant in the action, but had been dropped by the time the case came to trial.
. Several Florida cases have apparently so held without discussing the point. In Wise v. Western Union Telegraph Co., 177 So.2d 765 (Fla. 1st DCA 1965), the court said that the privilege of the statute is extended to statements which have some reasonable bearing upon an investigation properly undertaken by the investigating officer and must be made by a person in some way "involved" in the accident, and must be in some way an accident report. The case was not decided on that issue, however, because the court held that the statements in question were made by a person who came upon the scene later, thus not "involved" in the accident, so those statements made later to the police officer were admissible. In Wiggen v. Bethel Apostolic Temple, 192 So.2d 796 (Fla. 3d DCA 1966), quashed on other grounds, 200 So.2d 797 (Fla.1967), the court explicitly held that the privilege could be claimed by a person involved in the accident, although not the person making the report. Southern Life and Health Insurance Company v. Medley, 161 So.2d 19 (Fla. 3d DCA 1964), is not helpful here, because the question there was whether a party to the action, not the person making the report, could waive the privilege of the statute. Since the court found there was no waiver, it was not necessary to decide if there could be a waiver.
. See section 316.068, Florida Statutes (1981), pertaining to accident report forms, and section 316.069, Florida Statutes (1981), authorizing the Department to tabulate and analyze accident report forms and publish information based thereon.