Make it up as you go along

Michelle Vibert, a 29-year-old mother of two, had the monumental bad luck to break down on a portion of an expressway in Boston that had no shoulder on August 12, 2006. She was struck and killed at 2:30 a.m. by an SUV driven by an off-duty Boston police officer, Thomas Griffin. The officer was not given a breath test at the scene, even after admitting that he had just been at a bar, and was subsequently not charged in the accident, because the State Police investigator found that the crash "was precipitated by the illegal encroachment of the stopped Camry in the active right travel lane.’’ In other words, it was Ms. Vibert's fault that the accident occurred, because she had the audacity to have her car break down on a portion of the highway that didn't have a shoulder.

Ms Vibert's father, upset at the investigator's conclusion, hired a retired State Police accident reconstruction specialist, Stephen Benanti, to do his own research. The specialist's conclusions?

"'It appears the report was written in a manner as to protect Mr. Griffin and blame Michelle Vibert,' Benanti wrote."

Here's some of the findings that support Benanti's theory:

"Paulding (the State Police investigator) did not begin his investigation until approximately 7½ hours after the crash, and at the scene it lasted only 40 minutes, Benanti reported.
An analysis to determine how visible Vibert’s car was to approaching traffic was not conducted until four months after the crash, which is ‘‘highly unusual,’’ the report says. The speed of Griffin’s Ford Explorer was calculated at 62 mph based on the distance the two vehicles moved following impact, and Benanti concludes there is no physical evidence that Griffin took any evasive action to avoid the crash.‘‘This would indicate inattention or some other cognitive problem quite possibly alcohol consumption,’’ his report states."

In other words, Benanti, a former cop himself, believes that the State Police whitewashed an investigation into a traffic death in order to cover up for a fellow officer.

Can you imagine a private citizen barreling into another car in the middle of the night, then telling the police that they had just come from a bar, and that citizen not being given a breath or sobriety test? Me neither. Nor can I imagine an investigation from that scenario being completed in only 40 minutes, or the investigation not being completed until four months later.

Ms. Vibert's father, who also questions why "the state trooper dispatched to the accident got only a two-line statement from Griffin" has asked the Massachusetts Attorney General to look into the case further. I wish him luck, and kudos to Mr. Benanti for seemingly investigating the circumstances of the accident thoroughly and fairly.