As our team discussed in a prior blog post, public records requests are a fantastic tool to include in an attorney’s arsenal for obtaining discovery. (See Public Records Requests: The Underutilized Discovery Tactic – Gjording Fouser (gfidaholaw.com)).
Another discovery tool Idaho attorneys should utilize is the Idaho Transportation Department’s (ITD) search function. Sometimes a public records request can be so voluminous that the cost can be burdensome for a client. One example would be requesting information about complaints or crashes on a particularly busy intersection. Rather than submitting a public records request, you can use ITD’s safety dashboard to find this information at no cost.
ITD KEEPS THOROUGH CRASH DATA THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE STATE
ITD keeps crash data from 2018 to present, which you can filter by district, county, city, severity, and highway district. Further, ITD maintains in-depth statistics such as contributing causes to crashes, crashes by driver age, gender, and even days of the week.
Even more useful is the ability to pinpoint a specific road or intersection using “map view.” Under map view, ITD includes incident points you can click on to obtain specific details and contributing factors for each crash. You can identify locations by city, county, severity, or even just by zooming in to a desired location.
INSIGHTS FOR GF CLIENTS
This information can give insight as to whether a particular intersection may be poorly designed, or alternately, prone to accidents. Such information could potentially create a basis for comparative negligence arguments, or alternately, may create a basis for why a driver acted reasonably under the circumstances. At a minimum, it may provide some information to give thoughts as to affirmative defenses available to our clients.
Please contact a Gjording Fouser lawyer at 208.336.9777 if you would like any additional information about this topic or any other issues facing your company.