Why detentions happen in road accidents

Many of us have seen the viral video of a motorcycle counterflowing along the Skyway, with the rider dying after hitting another vehicle that was going in the proper direction. The driver was taken by the police but as of writing, was reportedly ordered to be released.

This detention is not unique and in this day and age of dashcams, camera-equipped mobile phones, and online platforms where footage is right away shown, it’s easy to feel sorry for what many feel are innocent drivers that have to suffer even if he or she does not seem to have any fault.

To be clear, what we’re talking about here is when persons are brought to jail after an accident, and not merely when a police officer asks the parties to go to the station as he or she generates the police report. Waiting in the police station for the police report is just that- waiting time- and is not considered an arrest.

When there are injuries or death, the driver or drivers involved -even if appearing to be innocent- are detained (a.k.a. arrested) by police officers (property damage may also be a crime, but generally the parties just resolve it between themselves). Why is this the case?

The reason is that the accident site where there are injuries or death is a potential crime scene. Depending on what exactly happened, someone might be held criminally liable for physical injuries or homicide. Other possible crimes as such as a violation of the Anti-Drunk and Drugged Driving Act may also be discovered in the course of investigating the incident.

The most obvious assumption in a vehicle accident is that the driver may be at fault or had something to do with the injuries or death. A police officer may perform a warrantless arrest if an offense is committed before him or her (e.g, the accident happened in the officer’s presence) or the officer has probable cause to believe, based on personal knowledge of facts or circumstances, that the person to be arrested committed the crime. Personal knowledge does not require actually seeing the accident happen. Rather, an officer will make the conclusion based on what he or she sees, hears, or perceives in the accident site upon arriving there soon after the accident happened.

Note that these are all presumptions that there was a crime committed and that the driver is involved and/or at fault; everyone is in fact innocent of any crime until the court says otherwise. Whether the case would be brought to court however is not a conclusion made by the police, but is a decision made by prosecutors.

That is why we should not blame police officers if they detain persons under these circumstances, because it is part of their duty to bring to custody somebody that may have committed an offense, and there is basis to bring them in right then and there.

The prosecutor steps in thereafter to determine whether the case should be brought to court, which is then the only office in our system of government that can adjudge a person as guilty of a crime in the accident (e.g, physical injuries, homicide, etc.). If the prosecutor does not find probable cause to pursue the case in court, he or she will dismiss the case. Note also that the law sets time limits on how long you can be detained, and you cannot be held forever on the mere ground that the investigation is taking too long or is not yet done.

How then do we improve our current system? There are many schools of thought and ideas on this, which we can all wonder about, including the following:

Must it be a rule that if one driver or a person is obviously in error, e.g. not going in the right direction, blatantly violating the traffic light, etc., the police officer is not bound to arrest the other driver or persons involved? This elicits a lot of debate because what is ‘obvious’ can be subjective.

If it turns out a person detained was without fault, should the State provide reasonable compensation for lost work and other opportunity costs?

Should we further decrease release times for those detained? This might be hard though for our officers and prosecutors that already have a lot on their plates.

If there are only injuries, should we disallow arrest if the driver is able to right away provide initial compensation at pre-determined amounts, subject to addition later if it turns out the injury costs more?

Should we differentiate the treatment of drivers with clean traffic records and those with several citations? Issues of equal protection of the law may however crop up here.

These are just some ideas, broadly stated, that may be considered moving forward. No system will ever be perfect, but we can always strive to improve.

For the meantime however, and even after we’ve made some changes to our laws, the best recourse is still to use our roads- whether using 2 to 4 wheels, on foot, or some other manner of lawful mobility- with utmost care and regard to ourselves, fellow road users, and the law.

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To get in touch with the author: ptcastillo@aaqlaw.com.ph

accident reckless imprudence