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Lying on the Road Before Being Run Over: Vehicular Manslaughter, Suicide, or Accident? Two Case Reports and Literature Review
Author(s) -
Doro Luca,
Bonvicini Barbara,
Beccegato Elena,
Terranova Claudio
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of forensic sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.715
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4029
pISSN - 0022-1198
DOI - 10.1111/1556-4029.14500
Subject(s) - poison control , injury prevention , suicide prevention , accident (philosophy) , human factors and ergonomics , medical emergency , forensic pathology , medicine , occupational safety and health , criminology , forensic engineering , psychology , autopsy , engineering , pathology , philosophy , epistemology
We present two apparent hit‐and‐run cases where two women were run over. The vehicles involved were subsequently traced and their owners charged with manslaughter. Autopsy evidence, scientific investigation of the scene and circumstances of the deaths, technical inspection of the vehicles, and DNA analysis strongly suggested that both victims were lying on the road before the accident. Case 1 was a suicide. In Case 2, the victim had fallen to the ground following acute alcohol intoxication. Victimological analysis was pivotal in reconstructing the dynamics of the events. We suggest that a hit‐and‐run fatality should not be regarded as a manslaughter case until each piece of evidence has been carefully considered. We also propose an interdisciplinary method of reconstructing run over occurrences based on the following three steps: (i) identify whether there was a primary impact when the victim was in an upright position; (ii) identify victim drug/alcohol intoxication and/or presence of acute or chronic disease or injury, which may have contributed to the impact; and (iii) consider suicide intent.