romantic suspense questions involving police procedures

[Sirenabeau]

I am writing a romantic suspense and have some questions. In the beginning of the novel the heroine's parents take a nosedive into the ocean in a small town in California. I would like to know what the procedure is for investigating that type of accident. And how the heroine would be able to procure the investigative report on her parents. Her father was driving and was an excellent driver. (past stock car racer in his younger days and his career after that took a turn-he became a museum owner with his daughter-the heroine-one of his curators)

If the police closed her parents case, what would it take to open it? Would it be enough to bring up her fathers excellent driving record?

What I also need is some kind of reasoning or high tech thing where the Dad turned on the windshield wipers and it set off the back tires to pop plummeting into the oceon over a cliff. Would this be plausible?

How long would the accident investigation take?

I appreciate the hard work that all you police officers do. My daughters boyfriend is thinking of going into policework.

Thank you for your time in answering me.

[P01IC3M4N]

i'm not clear on what you're really asking, but i'll try.

in that type of accident, you'd handle it like any fatality. get an autopsy to find out if they were on dope, drunk, etc. then find a state law to cite for the cause. someone can fall asleep at the wheel and drive off a bridge.

you get a report through an open records request.

normally, an accident investigation that in-depth would only be had through legal requests in a civil trial instigated by family members in the event of the victim's death. basically, they think something other than the driver is at fault and they're looking for money from the car manufacturer. even in that situation, the police are not likely to open an accident case. those aren't usually serious criminal offenses unless you can readily show they tried to kill someone; like running someone over.

rigging something like that would seem like too much work and potential evidence left around. even then, there's no guarantee that it would be used at the right time. if it were on a huge turn, you could hacksaw the lugnuts down to nothing so when the turn comes up, the stress on the wheel pops off the lugnuts making the wheel fall off. you could loosen a tie-rod bolt causing loss of steering. ??????

[EricTheBald]

Originally posted by Sirenabeau
What I also need is some kind of reasoning or high tech thing where the Dad turned on the windshield wipers and it set off the back tires to pop plummeting into the oceon over a cliff. Would this be plausible?

It could be done. I could wire up something like that. But it would leave behind too much evidence.

What I would do instead is to use the windshield wipers to activate a small charge on the pressure side hose of the power steering pump.

If you have a nice straightaway leading to a sharp curve overlooking a cliff and you do something to make him activate his windshield wipers about 50 yards out, then blowing the hose would take away his power steering right before the curve, making it likely that he'd have trouble making the turn.

You'd need to put him in something like a cadillac or S Class mercedes so that he is in a big car with a nice heavy engine that would have power steering. If he were in a something like an MGB with manual steering it wouldn't work.

I'd have the blasting cap against the hose in a perpendicular posture, with a thin sheet of C4 completely wrapping the detonator to destroy that evidence and I'd put a rubber band on the wire leading to the detonator so that once the charge went off the wire would be yanked away from the area of the PS pump.

If a bomb team was inspecting the car and knew they were looking for an explosive device they'd find the wire, the rubber band and the activation mechanism and be able to put 2 and 2 together, but a regular accident investigation team could plausibly miss it.

I couldn't say what to use for the activation mechanism or even if it should be mechanical or electronic, without inspecting the type of car being used in the story to determine what would work best.


The only catch to this scenario is that the attacker would need significant access to the car for an extended period of time.
A half hour perhaps.

[Orleander]

It just seems to me that it would take a hell of a coincedence to turn on the wipers just as you are near a cliff. How did the rigger know it would start to rain and they would need the wipers just as they got near a cliff. Or are they driving through a water fall?

[Edge]

It's scary how in detail Eric gets on his reply.

Have you done this before or something, Eric? ;)

[KrisSAU]

Eric, you scare me!

*sending the men in white jackets to Eric's house*

[Zendik]

Blasting cap....... C4..........

Need electricty.

[txinvestigator1]

Actually in Texas any person can get a copy of any Traffic Accident Report if the person has any two of the following pieces of information; location, name of any driver, date.

[EricTheBald]

Originally posted by Orleander
It just seems to me that it would take a hell of a coincedence to turn on the wipers just as you are near a cliff. How did the rigger know it would start to rain and they would need the wipers just as they got near a cliff. Or are they driving through a water fall?

A person hidden in the bushes with a super soaker would get the job done.

[Orleander]

Originally posted by EricTheBald
A person hidden in the bushes with a super soaker would get the job done.

LOL. That would be one hell of an aim and one hell of a high pressure super soaker. I don't even know of any men who can pee that accurately. ;)

[EricTheBald]

We're talking about FICTION here! :p :D

[Orleander]

Originally posted by EricTheBald
We're talking about FICTION here! :p :D

Oh, in that case make it a ninja!