Commerce Township Resident Seriously Injured and Killed By Flying Wheel From Southfield Driver's Vehicle
Athir Qarana, 44, of Commerce Township. Dead, after a wheel detached from a nearby motoring SUV - and crashed through the windshield of Mr. Qarana's car. The accident victim suffered massive injuries.
Nonetheless, back at insurance company headquarters, an army of insurance lawyers is hard at work, searching for a way out of this mess. Our prediction? They'll call it an "Act of God". And they don't mean the warm and fuzzy good tidings variety, either. They're talking about a dusty old legal doctrine that may deprive the Qarana family of compensation for the loss of their loved one.
Moreover, the insurance company appears to be well on its way to achieving that goal, since even the Michigan State accident reconstructionist has commented that he finds no indication of negligence.
"An act of god". A pretty euphemism for a pernicious legal doctrine called "sudden emergency". The principle holds, in essence, that an injurious action which was the result of an unforeseen 'freak of nature' and not the apparent substandard conduct of the insurance company's customer - is a complete defense to the injured person's claim of negligence.
But legal doctrines are a lot like rabbits, in that one doctrine has a way of begetting lots of little doctrines. And, so, the Sudden Emergency Doctrine gave birth to the Doctrine of Res Ipsa Loquitor (a latin phrase which means 'the thing speaks for itself').
The purpose of the Res Ipsa Loquitor principle is to cure an injustice in the law. In a nutshell - it relieves the hapless accident victim from the nearly impossible task of proving something that was knowable only by other parties. The Doctrine is comprised of several necessary elements.
In the context of the Qarana case, those components are as follows: (1) An automobile tire does not typically detach from a moving vehicle, absent negligence; (2) The injury victim could not have contributed to the accident, and; (3) The explanation for the lapse is more readily available to the negligent party than to the victim.
If the evidence supports those elements, then the burden of proof shifts to the Defendant to establish non-negligence.
From the Defendant's standpoint, it can seem unfair. From a common sense perspective, however, it is eminently reasonable. It is indisputable that if a wheel detaches from a vehicle cruising along at 70 miles an hour, the result can be deadly. Accordingly, all American vehicles are designed, manufactured, assembled and maintained with that fact in mind.
Where a wheel is sent hurtling out of control at umpteen miles per hour on a public expressway, it is a safe bet that somewhere along the line between manufacture and maintenance - somebody dropped the ball. The question is - who? Certainly not the injured driver or passenger in the other car.
So in the final analysis this seemingly complex automobile accident case boils down to a simple 'whodunit'. A little back-tracking by an experienced Southfield personal injury lawyer should have the case solved in short order.
Man Killed On I-696 When Another Motorist's Wheel Comes Off, Hits His Windshield, The Oakland County Daily Tribune, November 9, 2010
