In an update on the incident reported by BTU on August 18, the dashcam footage from inside the truck that hit a California woman has now been released by the driver. Alex Mai from The Asian Mai Show revealed the footage on August 21.
Glare from the afternoon sun being blamed by driver for incident
Alex Mai was contacted by the driver who reportedly ran over a 65-year-old California woman on August 15. The incident occured at the Ellensburg, Washington Pilot Travel Center at the I-90 and US 97 interchange.
From the newly released footage, we can now verify the speed the truck was traveling and conditions that the driver was facing. According to the driver, he was driving into the afternoon sun, which he said was blinding.
This brings the “sudden emergency doctrine” into play as a potential defense. Many states have this law that gives some protection to someone who must act to defend themselves when faced with an instant threat.
Sudden emergency doctrine
Charlotte, North Carolina law firm Rosensteel Fleishman wrote a great article describing the sudden emergency doctrine. In the article, the attorneys go into detail about different uses of the statute and their successes and failures.
The New York Court of Appeals summarized the sudden emergency doctrine:
“When an actor is faced with a sudden and unexpected circumstance which leaves little or no time for thought, deliberation or consideration, or causes the actor to be reasonably so disturbed that the actor must make a speedy decision without weighing alternative courses of conduct, the actor may not be negligent if the actions taken are reasonable and prudent in the emergency context, provided the actor did not create the emergency.”
As someone who has driven over the road for over 15 years, being blasted in the face by all 6,000 lumens and 25,000 lux of the sun is painful. It takes a few moments for the ‘sunspots’ to leave your field of vision.
The issue I have is the amount of time the driver had to travel through the truck stop. Also, the video released showed the driver continuing to drive up to the fuel island. He even admitted he did not detect the contact with the woman.
I do not know how this will play out in both civil court and the court of public opinion. Some are taking the driver’s side, but personally, I cannot. I’ve had too much real experience to take the explanation as is.
This is a developing story and BTU will continue to monitor the situation.
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