Opinion ID: 2635221
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Testimony of Souder

Text: In contrast to Alejandro's testimony, Souder maintained that, while it had rained earlier that morning, it was not raining at the time of the accident and he did not believe Alejandro's vehicle was following him particularly closely. He did not recall Alejandro's vehicle ever attempting to pass him. He became aware of Klink's vehicle when it was [v]ery, very close . . . [w]hen it took a sudden swerve into my lane of traffic. He recalled that Klink's vehicle took a slight jog to the right and then an immediate hard turn to the left. At the time Klink executed that maneuver, Souder insisted that there were no vehicles to his immediate left; to wit, no vehicle attempting to pass Souder; accordingly, Souder had no explanation as to why Klink drove as he did. He remembered Alejandro's vehicle passing through the accident scene immediately afterward. 10. Testimony of Andrew Levitt Andrew Levitt, the State's accident reconstruction expert, testified that, based on a review of the physical evidence and photographs of the accident, it was his expert opinion that the accident was not caused by hydroplaning but, rather, by Klink's attempts to avoid an unknown vehicle entering his lane of travel. He reasoned that, if Klink's vehicle had hydroplaned, denying Klink steering control, his vehicle would have continued northward in a straight trajectory until the roadway curved away toward the west and out from underneath it, sending the vehicle onto the east side shoulder. Levitt maintained that, in order to execute the maneuver that it dida radical change in the direction of the vehicle from northward to northwestwardthe vehicle's tires would have had to have remained in contact with the pavement, making steering input possible. He asserted that the turn and rotation of Klink's vehicle, as diagramed by Krueper, was not possible solely within the northbound lane of travel, that, in order to produce the evidence gathered at the accident site, Klink's vehicle would of necessity have first been steered eastward onto the northbound shoulder before turning westward across the highway, into the oncoming, southbound traffic, and that that maneuver required some degree of contact between the vehicle's tires and the roadway. He theorized that the vehicle driven by Alejandro had attempted to pass Souder's vehicle by entering the northbound lane, presenting Klink with the need to steer right, onto the shoulder, and then left, back onto the roadway, and to apply his brakes, thereby resulting in the accident. He maintained that, Alejandro having admitted tailgating the Souder vehicle and given the human reaction time necessary to avoid the collision, it was simply not possible for her to avoid becoming part of the accident without either being much farther behind the Souder vehicle than she claimed or off in the northbound lane in a passing mode. Levitt reviewed Krueper's testimony and contested Krueper's reconstruction, maintaining that it did not reproduce the rotation necessary to place Klink's vehicle where it was when it struck Souder's truck. On cross-examination, Levitt conceded that neither Souder nor Alejandro had testified that Klink's vehicle ever left the roadway. He also conceded that the police had not observed any tire marks on the pavement or the paved shoulder; he asserted, however, that it would not be uncommon, given the wet conditions, for a vehicle in such a scenario to fail to leave discernible marks. On the other hand, he conceded that if Klink's vehicle had lost traction in its rear wheels, perhaps due to water on the roadway, the rear of his vehicle would have drifted slightly to the right, which, in turn, could have caused Klink to overcorrect to the left, bringing him into the oncoming lane of traffic. Nevertheless, Levitt maintained that such a scenario would presuppose either that Klink was inattentive or that he was grossly overreacting to a stimulus. 11. Testimony of Dr. John Dracup Dr. John Dracup testified for the State as an expert in hydrology and hydraulic engineering. Relying on police photographs taken of the area on the day of Klink's accident, he opined that the shoulder sloped away from the roadway on the eastern side of the highway. The Appellants objected to this testimony as exceeding the scope of Dr. Dracup's expertise, but were overruled by the circuit court. Dr. Dracup's analysis did not rely on any independent survey of the topography of the site. Relying on Krueper's measurements of the site and meteorological data of the rainfall in the area during the morning of the accidentwhich reported 0.19 inches of rainfall in the hour before the accidentDr. Dracup opined that, even assuming all 0.19 inches fell in a sudden deluge, the water would drain completely from the roadway within fifty-four to eighty-five seconds. He conceded on cross-examination, however, that he did not include the driveway area in his calculations. The Appellants' counsel then asked Dr. Dracup to refer to photographs Dr. Dracup had taken in the course of his field investigation of the accident site. Dr. Dracup confirmed the photos were taken two hours after a light rain had fallen. He conceded that the photos exhibited water on the highway, water continuing to drain down the driveway, and water continuing to flow down the interceptor ditch, constructed subsequent to the accident, along the eastern shoulder.