NELLIE TURNAGE, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, APPELLEE
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The court reversed a trial court's admission of blood alcohol test results from a deceased driver in a civil wrongful death suit, holding that Florida law prohibits the use of accident investigation reports and related evidence in civil litigation.
Blood alcohol test results from an accident investigation are inadmissible in civil suits, regardless of whether they are characterized as part of an independent investigation. The trial court erred in admitting the evidence.
[1] Results of a blood alcohol analysis of a decedent driver, procured during an investigation of a traffic accident, are inadmissible in a civil suit arising from that accid…
[2] A traffic accident investigation, even if conducted by a trooper who also conducts a 'homicide' investigation, is considered the accumulation of facts pertaining to the a…
Previewing 2 of 4 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“The legislature of this State has proscribed the use of such information in a civil suit.”
Establishes that Florida law prohibits use of accident investigation evidence in civil proceedings
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAppellant's husband died in a motor vehicle accident on March 7, 1970, on State Road 267 when he failed to navigate a detour around a washed-out bridg…
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Once again we are confronted with the question of the admissibility of the blood alcohol content of a decedent driver in a civil suit.
Appellant’s husband met his death while driving a motor vehicle on State Road 267 in Gadsden County between 9:00 and 10:00 p. m. on March 7, 1970. At the time of the accident, a bridge had been washed out and appellee was in the process of repairing same. The decedent failed to negotiate the detour, and thereupon met his Maker. A Florida Highway Patrol trooper investigated the accident and filed an accident report which did not mention any finding as to the results of a blood alcohol analysis, Another trooper concurrently conducted a “homicide” investigation and procured a sample of decedent’s blood which upon analysis revealed an alcohol content of .11 percent. Over timely objection, the trial judge admitted the results of the blood alcohol analysis into evidence upon the ground that same was not a part of the accident report, but was procured from the independent “homicide” investigation.
In an analogous factual situation in Seaboard Coast Line R.R. v. Zufelt,1 after discussing in depth the question here being considered, this Court stated:
“In the case at bar, Trooper Wehrli insisted that he ‘ran the homicide investigation’. Decedent driver was hardly a subject for a subsequent charge of homicide in any form. The trial judge in denying the proffer of the blood alcohol test observed that the sample of blood was developed by a Florida State Highway Trooper, drawn at his direction, and became a part of the Florida State Highway report of this accident. The record supports the exclusion of the blood alcohol results by the trial judge as clearly proscribed by the aforesaid statute.”
As was the case in Seaboard, this decedent driver was hardly a subject for a subsequent charge of homicide in any form. The investigation by the trooper in the instant case was clearly that of accumulating facts pertaining to the accident. The legislature of this State has proscribed the *645use of such information in a civil suit.2 The trial court erred in permitting the introduction into evidence of the results of the blood alcohol test.
Reversed and remanded for new trial.
SPECTOR and JOHNSON, JJ., concur.
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Authorities Cited
- Seaboard Coast Line R.R. Co. v. Zufelt, 280 So. 2d 723 (Fla. 1st DCA 1973)