Motorcycle Accident Victim Blames Police Technology For Crash

Sometimes the cause of a traffic accident isn’t what it at first seems.
In Texas, a motorcyclist was struck and seriously injured by an Austin police cruiser. A video of the crash revealed that the police officer in question was using an onboard computer terminal while driving and ran a stop sign, causing the accident. While the rider, 75-year-old Louis Olivier, survived, he suffered serious injuries and incurred a half-million dollars in medical bills. He required four skin graft surgeries alone and said that he was in pain constantly for the four months following the accident.
Olivier settled with the City of Austin for $250,000 – the most that he could have legally been given by the city -- but now he ha turned his attention to what his injury lawyer says is the real cause of the motorcycle accident: the fact that onboard data terminals in police cars can be used while the car is in motion. According to a new lawsuit filed by the injured motorcycle rider, software companies Tritech and Versaterm were negligent in designing police cruiser computer systems that did not take safety into mind. Olivier added that he hopes that safer technology will exist in all police cruisers in the future.