AIRBAGS ARE NOW USED TO PROVE LIABILITY
Law enforcement and attorneys are now using the DNA embedded in an airbag to prove who was driving as well as the blood alcohol level of that driver.
When airbags were first introduced, they were intended to save lives and prevent personal injury. But with new scientific developments in DNA testing, resulting in lower costs to analyze blood and tissue samples, airbags have an entirely new role. Forensic accident reconstruction labs now use dried blood left on the airbags to obtain DNA samples. These samples are then tested to determine a multitude of answers otherwise left unconfirmed.
For those who try to deny their involvement in motor vehicle accidents, that can now mean perjury, lawsuits, charges, fines and even jail time.
"Crash, stabbing nets man five years"
"Before rescue personnel arrived at the scene, Brown said Conaway appeared to be unconscious for a few seconds as his head was leaning against the steering wheel. When he regained consciousness, Brown said that Mootispaw got out of the vehicle and went over to sit in the driver's side and Conaway slid over to the passenger's seat.
When authorities arrived, both Conaway and Mootispaw denied being the driver of the Ford Windstar. Authorities said that both men were heavily intoxicated.
Authorities removed the airbag, which had blood on it, from the steering wheel. On July 24, 2008, DNA evidence confirmed that it was Conaway's blood on the airbag. Coupled with Brown's statement, authorities were able to charge Conaway with the crime. On Monday in Fayette County Common Pleas Court, Conaway pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular assault, a second-degree felony, operating a vehicle under the influence, a first-degree misdemeanor, traveling left of center, a minor misdemeanor, and driving under financial responsibility law suspension, a first-degree misdemeanor."
Record Herald
January 14, 2009
"Hearings to decide on cocaine evidence in trial of off-duty Greece cop"
"Joseph, 43, is charged with aggravated vehicular assault, second-degree assault, leaving the scene of a personal injury accident, operating a motor vehicle while ability impaired by cocaine, seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, and first-degree perjury in connection with a crash that injured a Rochester woman and caused her to deliver a child prematurely.
The prosecution said that a toxicologist extracted cocaine from blood found on the airbag of the car Joseph was driving. Joseph suffered a head injury in the crash, which he said dazed him and made him unable to report his alleged involvement in the crash."
Democrat & Chronicle
January 14, 2009
"DNA Clears Woman In 2006 Fatal Crash, Implicates Boyfriend"
"Leyana Rich spent two years behind bars awaiting charges in the Feb. 2, 2006, crash that killed a cab driver, but DNA tests have convinced officials that it was her boyfriend Luke Irons who was driving at the time.
After Rich claimed she wasn't the driver, her attorney, Geoffrey Cox, had DNA tests performed on several items in the car - including the air bags - to determine who was where. The results showed there was blood on the air bag on the driver's side, but it was Irons, not hers, even though Rich's mouth had been bloodied. Irons is admitting he was the driver, even though he claimed after the wreck that Rich was and then said he couldn't remember, according to court documents and prosecutors. Irons' admission came after he was sentenced to 30 years in prison last year after a string of crimes in Hendry County.
The state attorney's office then had its own expert perform tests on the airbag, and that expert found the same thing, said Doneene Dresback, the assistant state attorney in charge of the case."
The Tampa Tribune
January 14, 2009
A Vallejo man will spend more than 11 years in federal prison after he offered to sell crystal meth to an informant and authorities found drugs and a pistol hidden his vehicle's airbag compartment.
They found a small amount of marijuana and $1,050 in the center compartment of the car, prosecutors said.
A police dog trained to find drugs alerted officers to additional narcotics. When detectives pried open an area designed to house an airbag on the passenger's side of the car, they found a hidden compartment containing 9 1/2 ounces of crystal meth in four separate plastic knotted bags, a digital scale and a loaded 9mm semi-automatic pistol that had been reported stolen, the release states."
The Sacramento Bee
January, 2009
Drug run comes to an end in East Texas
Nearly half a million dollars worth of heroin is not going to be in Philadelphia tonight. The man transporting the drugs was pulled over and arrested in Tenaha, Texas today.
Constable Randy Whatley says inside the airbag compartment was eight pounds of heroin with a street value of $360,000.
Whatley says Rojas, who was on his way from Houston to Philadelphia, had replaced the airbag with drug bags. Rojas is in the Shelby County jail on state charges right now, but he's expected to be sent to Beaumont to face federal charges."