Causes of Limitations in the Supervision of Traffic Accident Scene Investigation.

Fourth, the coordination between the Investigation Agency and the police force of wards and communes in some cases is not good, so there are many cases where the case is not reported promptly to the Investigation Agency and the competent People's Procuracy to conduct an examination or is notified but late, so by the time they arrive at the scene, the scene of the incident has been completely disrupted, the traces have been distorted or the related vehicles have moved to another location. The People's Procuracy is also not sensitive, not fulfilling its role and function.

Specific case: The case content is detailed in Appendix 1 - Case 4 of the Thesis:

The KNHT process determined: Characteristics of the accident scene: The accident occurred on the road from Long Thanh district to Vung Tau intersection, divided into 04 lanes for vehicles traveling in the same direction: The first lane (mixed vehicle lane: cars turning right, motorbikes, motorbikes, non-motorized vehicles, ........) close to the right curb, 04 meters wide; The second lane; the third lane, the fourth lane, 11 meters wide, is for cars.

The above accident was caused by poor protection of the scene and coordination between the police force of Phuoc Tan ward and the Investigation Agency of Bien Hoa city police, leading to: After causing the accident for the mother and child of Ms. Tran Thi Hang and Vu Thi Hong, the dump truck with license plate 60C-251.30 driven by Tran Thanh An stopped at the scene and An got out to help take the victim to the emergency room. However, because he waited too long without seeing the police force arrive to resolve the matter, An drove the truck into Tan Cang quarry to transport soil and rock. At this time, when the traffic police force got to the KNHT, it was completely disrupted, the victim had been taken to the emergency room, and the related vehicles had moved elsewhere. Due to the subjective assessment that the injuries were insignificant, the traffic police did not notify the Investigation Agency and the People's Procuracy to establish an investigation council. As a result, the process of the car entering to transport soil and rock caused the traces (overlapping traces) left on the vehicle to be lost. In the above incident, the KSV made a mistake in not asking the investigator to quickly collect witness statements, not requesting a quick reconstruction of the scene and appraisal of the collision traces. Therefore, a long time later, when the traces were checked and an appraisal was requested, the traces of the collision between the dump truck with license plate 60C-251.30 driven by An and the motorbike with license plate 61C-492.71 driven by Ms. Hang were not determined. The results of the reconstruction of the scene and the investigation experiment also could not prove that the traces were the same.

The traces were lost and the witnesses could not identify them. Therefore, the above case does not have enough grounds to prosecute Tran Thanh An.

Maybe you are interested!

Specific case: The case content is detailed in Appendix 1 - Case 5 of the Thesis:

The violation of the Industrial Park Police Force was that they assessed the damage as minor and did not protect the scene, the vehicle was moved to the side of the road (without marking the location), the victim and the person who caused the accident went to the hospital for emergency treatment and did not quickly take statements from witnesses. When the Traffic Police Force and the People's Procuracy arrived, the scene was completely disrupted, the direct witnesses had left without identification and there was no camera recording the content of the accident. Therefore, there was not enough basis to resolve and determine the fault between the parties in the above accident.

Fifth, the prosecutor participated in supervising the autopsy and autopsy, discovered violations during the autopsy of the investigator and the expert regarding the order, procedures, and minutes of the autopsy, did not use means and supporting tools to do a good job of the autopsy, so accidents that occurred at night had to be conducted in conditions of insufficient light, had to use flashlights to conduct the autopsy, leading to the situation of missing too many traces at the scene, such as the victim's blood, scratches on the road surface, bridge walls, or debris left by the vehicle when colliding, ignoring important details when doing the autopsy. The prosecutor also did not detect these shortcomings in time to request the investigator to conduct the autopsy, collect additional information, but was lenient, agreed with the work of the investigator and the expert signed the minutes. This leads to inaccurate assessments and judgments of the incident, misidentifying the nature of the accident that occurred, even leading to erroneous and subjective judgments that cause extremely serious consequences.

Specific case: The case content is detailed in Appendix 1 - Case 6 of the Thesis:

The noteworthy point in the above case is that the collision between the two vehicles was right at the open section for vehicles to cross the road. According to the testimony of driver Nguyen Xuan Thach (driving a tractor-trailer with license plate number: 51C - 957.02, pulling a trailer with license plate number: 51R- 314.06), when crossing the road, Mr. Duan encountered a vehicle traveling in the opposite direction, so he swerved his bicycle to the right and collided with Thach's car. However,

However, the results of the on-site investigation showed that the car driven by Thach was lying diagonally and encroaching on the opposite side of the road. Therefore, the problem is to determine whether Thach did not pay attention and drove the car into the opposite side of the road, causing a collision with Mr. Duan's bicycle that was changing direction across the road. At the beginning of the median strip of the open section (in the direction Thach's car was traveling), at the time of the accident, there were scratches and the concrete pillar was impacted to the left. However, the investigation did not reveal the scratches and paint marks on the concrete pillar to determine whether the car driven by Thach had impacted or not.

The above shortcomings in the investigation process are extremely serious and cannot be overcome. Because the Bien Hoa City prosecution agencies made a mistake in ignoring the above content, even though they reconstructed the scene, they could not restore it because the traces were lost and the paint was gone. Due to the shortcomings of the scene investigation council, including the responsibility of the prosecutor, they did not collect sufficient evidence, omitting the most important detail to identify the driver Nguyen Xuan Thach to determine whether or not a crime had occurred.

2.1.2.4. Causes leading to limitations in the inspection of traffic accident scene investigation.

*Objective reasons

Firstly: Due to the current legal regulations still having some shortcomings. Although the 2015 Criminal Procedure Code has overcome the limitations of the old Criminal Procedure Code, contributing to serving and resolving criminal cases that occurred in Bien Hoa city in the recent past. However, the regulations on criminal investigation work still have many shortcomings, specifically as follows:

Article 150 of the 2003 Criminal Procedure Code stipulates: The investigator conducts an investigation "at the place where the crime occurred, where the crime was discovered..." while in many traffic accidents, it is not possible to confirm whether there are signs of a crime or not, but must conduct an examination to conclude. This is an inappropriate regulation that needs to be amended to suit reality.

Second, according to the provisions of Decision 768/QD-BCA in 2006 of the Ministry of Public Security: In Article 3. Classification of traffic accidents

3. Serious traffic accident

Is a traffic accident that causes damage to human life, health or property

belong to one of the following cases:

a) Causing the death of a person;

b) Causing harm to the health of one to two people with each person's disability rate from 31% or more;

c) Causing harm to the health of many people with each person's disability rate below 31%, but the total disability rate of all these people is from 41% to 100%;

d) Causing damage to a person's health with a disability rate of 21% to 30% and also causing property damage worth from thirty million VND to less than fifty million VND;

d) Causing damage to the health of many people, with each person's disability rate below 21%, but the total disability rate of all these people is from 30% to 40% and also causing property damage worth from 30 million VND to less than 50 million VND.

e) Causing property damage worth from fifty million VND to less than five hundred million VND.

4. Very serious traffic accident

A very serious traffic accident is a traffic accident that causes damage to human life, health or property in one of the following cases:

a) Causing the death of two people;

b) Causing the death of a person and causing consequences falling into one of the cases guided in points b, c, d, dd and e, Clause 3 of this Article;

c) Causing harm to the health of three to four people with each person's disability rate from 31% or more;

d) Causing damage to the health of many people with the total disability rate of all these people from 101% to 100%;

d) Causing damage to the health of one to two people with a disability rate of 31% or more for each person and also causing consequences in one of the cases guided in points c, d, dd and e, Clause 3 of this Article;

e) Causing property damage worth from five hundred million dong to less than one billion five hundred million dong.

5. Particularly serious traffic accidents

Particularly serious traffic accidents are traffic accidents that cause damage to human life, health or property in one of the following cases:

a) Causing the death of three or more people;

b) Causing the death of two people and causing consequences falling under one of the cases guided in points b, c, d, dd and e, Clause 3 of this Article;

c) Causing the death of a person and causing consequences falling into one of the cases guided in points c, d, dd and e, Clause 4 of this Article;

d) Causing harm to the health of five or more people with each person's disability rate from 31% or more;

d) Causing damage to the health of many people with the total disability rate of these people exceeding 200%;

e) Causing damage to the health of three or four people with each person's disability rate from 31% or more and also causing property damage as guided in Point e, Clause 4 of this Article;

g) Causing property damage worth one billion five hundred million dong or more.

Accordingly, when an accident occurs in the cases specified in Clauses 3, 4, and 5, Article 3 above, the agency assigned to handle the investigation must notify the People's Procuracy at the same level to supervise the investigation according to the provisions of law.

In practice, the investigation work encounters many difficulties because when an accident occurs, there are many cases that cannot be determined whether they fall under the provisions of Clauses 3, 4, and 5, Article 3 above or not, so that the Investigation Agency and the Procuracy can be notified to participate in the investigation. As a result, because the Investigator and the Procuracy do not participate in the investigation, the investigation has many shortcomings and is not carried out in accordance with the prescribed procedures. Later, it is necessary to reconstruct the scene and conduct an investigation experiment, but it is still impossible to restore the original state of the traces as well as the necessary work that must be collected right at the scene.

In particular, when the 2015 Penal Code came into effect, it increased the injury rate of 01 victim from 31% to 61% and increased the property damage from 50 million VND to 100 million VND, specifically: Clause 1, Article 260 - Crime of violating regulations on road traffic participation stipulates:

1. Anyone who participates in road traffic and violates road traffic safety regulations causing damage to others falls into one of the following cases:

The following shall be subject to a fine of from VND 30,000,000 to VND 100,000,000, non-custodial reform for up to 03 years or imprisonment from 01 year to 05 years:

a) Causing death;

b) Causing injury or damage to the health of 01 person with a body injury rate of 61% or more;

c) Causing injury or damage to the health of 02 or more people, with the total body injury rate of these people from 61% to 121%;

d) Causing property damage from VND 100,000,000 to under VND 500,000,000.

However, for a long time, there has been no document guiding the coordination work that stipulates when to notify the Investigation Agency and the Procuracy for investigation. This limitation leads to the fact that every year, traffic accidents without the presence of inspectors and investigators from the beginning account for 15 to 20% of the total number of accidents (Specific data are shown in Table 2 - Appendix 2 of the Thesis).

Up to now, this shortcoming has been overcome by Circular No. 63/2020/TT-BCA dated June 19, 2020 of the Ministry of Public Security regulating the investigation and settlement process of road traffic accidents by the Traffic Police force, effective from January 1, 2021. Specifically, Clause 7, Article 7 of the Circular clearly stipulates when to notify the Investigation Agency and the People's Procuracy for investigation: If a traffic accident is discovered with one of the following signs of consequences: someone dies at the scene, dies on the way to the emergency room, dies during the emergency room; someone is injured with crushed, crushed, severed, or severed arms or legs, blinded in both eyes; skull fracture; 03 or more people are injured with broken arms or legs or more or there is evidence of property damage of 100 million VND or more, then the following shall be implemented:

For traffic police officers of district-level police, report to the Chief of District Police to assign the Investigation Police to receive and handle the investigation;

For officers of the Traffic Police Department, report to the Director of the Department; officers of the Traffic Police Department of the provincial police department, report to the Head of the Department to transfer to the competent District Police Investigation Agency for investigation and settlement;

Second: The team of prosecutors of Bien Hoa City People's Procuracy does not yet have specialized professional skills.

According to the data reflecting the structure of the staff and prosecutors of the Bien Hoa City People's Procuracy, the number of prosecutors with capacity and sensitivity in traffic accident investigation work is not high. Currently, the agency has 36 prosecutors and 15 inspectors.

experts, however, in reality, because there are only 10 prosecutors who regularly handle traffic accident cases, the remaining prosecutors perform criminal investigation work in shifts, so they do not have experience and expertise in this field, have not received specialized training, as well as training and development in criminal investigation skills, scientific knowledge of criminal investigation and forensic medicine is still weak, not meeting the professional requirements of the work, leading to the prosecution of the examination being completely passive, not understanding the process of the examination. These things have significantly affected the effectiveness and quality of criminal investigation work. This is also one of the difficulties and shortcomings in the work of many People's Procuracies nationwide.

Third: The facilities and equipment serving the work are still difficult, the prosecutors when performing their duties are not fully equipped with tools and technical means to be able to conduct and thereby truly supervise the activities of the investigators and other participants in the prosecution when carrying out the work, specifically: Regarding means of transport: The industry has not fully equipped the prosecutors with the means to promptly arrive at the scene within the prescribed time; when conducting the inspection, the prosecutors who arrive at the scene are not equipped with supporting tools such as cameras, audio and video recorders, measuring and drawing tools... so they can only conduct simple inspections by eye or manually. In reality, if the prosecutors do not take detailed notes , it is difficult to have a solid basis for comparison and contrast later, or if they discover incorrect work, there is no basis, no basis to prove or compare. The records of the prosecutors cannot cover everything. This is also one of the important issues for the prosecution industry in investing in adequate equipment for prosecutors when conducting on-site investigation and autopsy.

*Subjective causes:

Firstly, the work of receiving denunciations and reports is often slow, the prosecutor's office is late in arriving at the scene, which affects and limits the activities of the prosecutor's office and the investigation activities that lead to the leaking of the case.

Due to the late arrival of the police at the scene, and the recording of initial information when the accident had just occurred by the police force in charge of the ward, commune and some local police, it was very sketchy, inaccurate, and provided little information to serve.

good for the investigation of the case. Therefore, the initial prosecutor often does not grasp the specific content of the accident. At this time, at the scene, the prosecutor has to do one more step, which is to grasp the situation of the accident to have a basis for the direction of the investigation, which takes a lot of time and affects the effectiveness of the prosecution.

Second, in reality, in most of the cases of traffic accident investigation, the coordination between traffic police, investigators and prosecutors is not good, there is often no exchange about the investigation method, each person does their own work according to the usual practice. During the investigation process, traffic police have to play the main role in the investigation, from measuring data; taking photos of the scene to collecting traces, related documents and evidence; while investigators often collect camera images, take statements from people who know the incident, the person who caused the accident and the victim at the scene; the prosecutor is not given a preliminary report on the content of the accident, must find out and ask for information on their own. Coordination in the initial investigation of traffic accident cases has not been very effective, specifically: There are many cases where the work of protecting the scene has not been done well, legal regulations have not been followed and there is a low sense of responsibility, so some accident scenes have been disturbed, traces and evidence related to the accident have been erased, causing many difficulties in detecting and collecting traces; implementing emergency measures at the scene is still limited; the work of taking statements from related people has not been expanded in many cases to detect those who know other things but only concentrates in the area around the scene; the prosecutor and the investigator lack close coordination in the investigation of the case, leading to cases where there are contradictions in determining the cause of the accident;

In the process of taking statements from witnesses and victims, there were many contradictions and shortcomings, but the prosecutor did not detect them to request timely correction or, due to the prosecutor's lack of responsibility, easily ignored them without any comments.

The lack of coordination between the police, investigators and members of the Traffic Police Board affects the investigation process and leaks the case; the investigators plan and coordinate the search for people and vehicles that fled the scene, often not in a timely and specific manner. However, the police also do not detect and have no comments. Therefore, for accidents involving people and vehicles that fled the scene, the investigation process is very difficult and the investigation time is often prolonged, causing delays and congestion. Third, there is a current situation in the process of traffic accident investigation that is the drawing

Comment