The fact that an accident has occurred does not mean a crime has occurred
In Lapp v. SCDMV, decided March 31, the S.C. Court of Appeals upheld a license suspension under South Carolina's implied consent law. First, the Court finds that there was sufficient evidence for the hearing officer to find probable cause, where Lapp was sitting in her car, admitted to striking two vehicles, and smelled like alcohol, even though Lapp refused to take field sobriety tests.
The second part of the opinion was more interesting to me - it holds that Lapp failed to preserve the issue of whether her arrest was lawful under 56-5-6170, but then goes on to discuss why 56-5-6170 does not apply in her case. I've never seen 56-5-6170 before reading this opinion, but I can see where it can be useful in several situations.
Section 56-5-6170 provides in pertinent part:No police officer in investigating a traffic accident shall necessarily deem the fact that an accident has occurred as giving rise to the presumption that a violation of a law has occurred. Arrests and criminal prosecution for violation of this chapter shall be based upon evidence of a violation of the law.
The DUI and implied consent laws are found in Title 56 chapter 5, and so 56-5-6170 applies to both. In most DUI investigations, however, the officer will conduct SFST's and will carefully document his observations as to probable cause apart from the fact that an accident occurred (or copy and paste from the last incident report, either way). I am reminded of a small trial I had last year in the Myrtle Beach city court, for following too closely - I easily brought out in the trial that there was no evidence of following too close, other than the officer's statement that there was an accident, my client hit the other car from behind, therefore he was following too close.
The municipal court judge did not give us a directed verdict although he should have, but it did not matter since the jury found my client not guilty anyway. But this does highlight the practice of some officers of finding someone at fault when there is an accident, even when there is no evidence to support it.
