By Brian Shane

Staff Writer

A new initiative is underway to standardize traffic accident protocols across Worcester County police agencies, one that aims to produce more streamlined investigations.

Starting in March, monthly meetings will be held among crash evaluators to share techniques and improve investigations, according to Worcester County State’s Attorney Kristin Heiser. Her office is working to ensure that best practices are consistent for all law enforcement agencies who deal with car accidents and their aftermath.

Different police departments may have their own rules and regulations about how to investigate a serious car crash where people are hurt or even killed. Not only that, but not every police department has the resources to dedicate one or two officers exclusively to a crash team or a traffic reconstruction detail.

Sitting down in person, as a group, might help police officers start to work from the same playbook on traffic reconstruction cases, Heiser said.

“As State’s Attorney, they’re looking to me for legal guidance,” she said. “Which charges apply? Do we have probable cause? Internally, we’re standardizing these investigations. The faster and more efficiently we get all the work done, we can get everything off to the lab to be tested and make those charging decisions.”

Traffic reconstruction is highly specialized and comes with extensive training. Officers assigned to these cases are working through a process that rules things out: Was there a malfunction in the car? Was there a medical event that caused a person to lose control of their car? Or was it driver negligence?

Heiser said participating officers in this initiative will include accident reconstructionists and collision investigators for all Worcester County police agencies. They’ll be joined by a State’s Attorney’s Office investigator and prosecutor. Down the line, other specialized partners could join in, like forensic analysts, or specialty auto mechanics.

For families left grieving after vehicular accidents involving injury or fatality, the penalties allowed by law often feel insufficient. Sometimes, the only punishment is a stiff fine, even when someone has died.

“You have all the emotion of a homicide investigation,” she said, “and you have very little in the sense of corresponding jail time. Anybody who’s experienced serious injury or death of a loved one, there’s no amount of jail time that’s going to compensate or make you feel better.

“It’s even more difficult,” she added, “when you look at the traffic law and you see the penalties are not the same for traffic violations as something that’s more intentional – but you still have a loved one gone. Families can be very frustrated by this. They feel like, that’s all? That’s all the law allows for.”

Another reason that collaboration is needed for officers on car accidents is because Worcester County and its tourism hub of Ocean City are home to several annual automotive events, where police sometimes deal with multiple car accidents a day.

The resort’s notorious H2O International car event may be gone, but “we still have bike week, car cruise – these are unique problems that not a lot of cities have to deal with,” Heiser said. “If we’re going to continue to be faced with these motor vehicle events, I think it’s important we stay on top of this stuff.”

In addition to this collaboration, Heiser also plans to propose a strategic highway safety plan for Worcester County, one rooted in data collection. It means collaborating in particular with the Ocean City Police Department, she added, because of how busy resort roadways get.

She said the Maryland Highway Safety Office collaborates with various counties to create these plans, many of which are based on National Highway Traffic Safety administration crash data and can be grant funded.

“Let’s talk to police officers on the ground to ask, which intersections in your experience are most dangerous?” Heiser said. “The answers won’t always line up with what the data says. We want to make sure we have all of the facts behind where our focus in going to be. I think it will be a helpful tool.”