Opinion ID: 2226968
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Officer Rauch's Opinion Testimony

Text: Defendants' final contention is that the trial court erred in excluding Officer Rauch's opinion testimony as to the point of impact of the vehicles. The trial court excluded this testimony because it found that Rauch did not qualify as an expert who could render an opinion on the point of impact. The court also found that the proposed testimony was accident reconstruction testimony and was not appropriate in this instance. We find that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in finding Rauch unqualified. We therefore do not address the accident reconstruction issue. A reviewing court will give a trial court broad discretion in deciding whether an individual qualifies as an expert. ( Hardware State Bank v. Cotner (1973), 55 Ill.2d 240, 250-51, 302 N.E.2d 257.) It will reverse the trial court only if the trial court has abused its discretion. (See, e.g., Cleveringa v. J.I. Case Co. (1992), 230 Ill.App.3d 831, 851, 172 Ill.Dec. 523, 595 N.E.2d 1193.) At the time of the collision, Rauch had been with the department for one year, he had investigated 15 to 20 cases, and his traffic investigation training was strictly limited to taking measurements and collecting material at the scene of the collision. The trial court found that this background did not qualify Rauch as an expert witness. Defendants argue that the trial court should have considered the expertise Rauch developed after his investigation of the collision between Hugo and Monroe. According to defendants, Rauch had investigated over 3,000 collisions at the time of trial. Given that Rauch had no independent recollection of the investigation, though, there is no assurance that Rauch did, or even could, apply this after-developed expertise to this collision. At trial, Rauch relied entirely upon his report and a diagram prepared on the day of the collision. The record suggests that this report and diagram may not have been accurate. For these reasons, we cannot say that the trial court abused its discretion in finding Rauch unqualified as an expert witness and excluding his testimony as to the point of impact. The judgment of the appellate court is affirmed. Judgment affirmed.