Court Case: Vehicular Manslaughter.?

So for my senior Government class, we are doing mock trials. I wrote the trial and it is as follows:


A man, john doe, and his sister are driving to work. The roads are icy, and a thick fog makes visibility very difficult. John is driving at about 65 mph. He reaches a hill and begins descending down when he notices flashing lights marking a wreck up ahead. He tries to slow down and begins skidding due to the ice. A Highway patrolman, parked only a short distance before the accident, notices the car driving follows him to pull him over for driving at an unreasonable speed through an accident zone. As doe is struggling to slow down and control his car, he tries even more with the HP behind him. His car fishtails and hits a firefighter doing traffic control at aprox. 55 mph. The firefighter dies at the scene. He is being charged with Vehicular manslaughter, and the reason it will be considered vehicular manslaughter, is because he was charged with reckless driving for driving at an unreasonable speed approaching an accident scene.





Is this a good case? I am a defense attorney and need a few ideas. I have a few such as, the law states that, approaching a car accident scene, you must slow down to a reasonable speed the best to your ability. Considering the conditions such as the fog and icy roads, what would be some good arguments? thanks.|||It is foggy, Light reflection in fog can make a vehicles speed impossible to guess. John doe doing 35, was slowing, had time. The officer throwing on his light caused him to push on the brakes on ice. Causing the fish tail. Natural reaction. There was no ice till the accident site. common occurrence on hills. Thus no excess speed. Officers knowing ice was on road used bad judgment. In turning on light. He should realize a persons first reaction is to hit the brakes contributing to accident. No fog other side of hill at that time, common occurrence on hills. A car speeds up when brakes are locked on a down hill slope. When slick or has ice. So good roads till just before the accident. and cop blew it for me, and contributed to death and severity of accident.|||You wrote a case that will be very hard for the defense to win, might even be impossible.





Your driver was driving very recklessly given the conditions ... 65 on ice with heavy fog? The defense bringing up anything to do with the driver not being capable of slowing the car to a reasonable speed will give the prosecution a very hard to answer line of questioning!





"The defense has stated that the driver could not slow their vehicle down to a reasonable speed before they entered the accident scene ... Was the driver's speed reasonable for conditions before they entered the area?"





The defense would have to show that the driver's speed was reasonable for the conditions (hint 65 mph on ice with heavy fog is totally unreasonable).





In this case the best defense is to deal! Cut a deal with the prosecution to plea guilty to a lesser offense in return for a lower sentence! Your client is so wrong in this case he can not win at trial.





If you can do a rewrite of the script ... reduce the driver's speed to about 30 mph (55 mph or higher speed zone), with conditions of light fog and patchy ice or black ice. The terrain should be a down hill grade past the accident. the emergency personnel were working. Then you might have a chance with your intended defense! The defense might be able to argue that the ice took the driver by surprise and that is why he could not control his vehicle.|||One mistake you made in your scenario is the sentence "He tries to slow down and begins skidding due to the ice."





If you are going to be a defense attorney, this sentence, and ones like it will kill your argument in court. Ice did not cause the skidding. The driver's choice to travel too fast for conditions caused the skid. Saying ice caused the skid is like blaming the stop sign for someone failing to stop at it.





I have testified in several cases like this when the weather conditions were brought up as the cause. Haven't lost one yet.