Tort Law

This page within Virginia Tort Case Law is a compilation of cases reported by the Virginia Supreme Court and summarized by Brien Roche dealing with the topic of Expert Testimony Motor Vehicle and the related topic of vehicle accidents.    For more information on traffic collisions see the page on Wikipedia.

Expert Testimony Motor Vehicle-Cases

2000 Keesee v. Donigan, 259 Va. 157, 524 S.E.2d 645.

Expert testimony motor vehicle. Defendant attempted to present testimony of accident reconstruction expert concerning average human perception and reaction times. Expert acknowledged he had not tested defendant’s vision or assessed cognitive and physical abilities, assumed that they were normal and were based upon that, stated that driver requires average of 1.5 seconds between recognizing hazard and executing action to avoid it. Defense then argued that defendant had insufficient time to avoid impact. This evidence was not properly admissible.

1984 Doe v. Thomas, 227 Va. 466, 318 S.E.2d 382.

Trial court allowed engineer to testify as expert witness, and he made alternative estimates of speed of car at time it became airborne. In his opinion, it was traveling at speed of 76 miles per hour if it landed at spot where it was found or at 48 miles per hour if it landed in water near flood plain and floated from there to place where it came to rest. Supreme Court did not rule on admissibility of that evidence.