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Venus Williams got lucky, as surveillance video happened to be there and exonerated her. If however she had even a cheap dash cam, she wouldn't have had to go through all the crap she went through. It also illustrates how unreliable witness statements can be. It didn't help that the PD jumped the gun in blaming her early in the investigation.
Williams was blamed for running a red light and for violating the Hyundai Accent’s right of way. Williams’ driving allegedly made it impossible for Barson to avoid hitting her. The assignment of blame onto Williams was based at least in part on witness statements and their recollection of whether Williams ran a red light.
The accident sparked a legal aftermath. Most notably, the estate of Mr. Barson sued Williams for wrongful death in a Palm Beach County circuit court. The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages not only for Mr. Barson’s death but also for the pain and suffering that he and his wife experienced following the accident.
The Palm Beach Gardens Police Department has since amended its view of the accident. In a statement released last Friday, the police say “new evidence”—namely surveillance video—indicate that Williams drove through a green light and only slowed in the intersection to avoid a collision with a Nissan Altima that had turned in front of Williams’ SUV. The video shows Williams’ SUV hit quite hard in the intersection.
The tennis legend was publicly blamed for a man’s death, only to be exonerated thanks to TMZ. Something is wrong with this picture.
The immediate public statements by police, before any kind of investigation was completed, claimed Williams was “at fault for violating the right of way.” They recklessly announced to the world—in our low-information, 140-character celebrity culture—that Venus Williams had effectively killed an elderly man.
In a June 30 Facebook post, Williams addressed the incident, writing: “I am devasted [sic] and heartbroken by this accident. My heartfelt condolences go out to the family and friends of Jerome Barson, and I continue to keep them in my thoughts and prayers.”
Then, at Wimbledon on July 3, the tennis media pressed Williams to discuss how she felt about Barson’s death. (I hate that they asked the question, but I get that it would’ve been absurd not to.) Williams broke down in tears, saying, “There are really no words to describe, like, how devastating and—
yeah. I’m completely speechless. It’s just…” Then she put her head in her hands and left the podium before returning, a hybrid of frayed nerves and steely resolve, to complete the interview.
After all of this, the Palm Beach Gardens police issued a statement basically saying “Whoops.” While the investigation is still ongoing, police now say that Williams was driving lawfully in the intersection, which video released by TMZ appears to confirm.
), you can test this with a probe, and there are adapters available that slip under (or around) fuse connections. If you have better access, you can splice to a wire for a more solid connection.
The prosecutor just sighed, looked down and shook his head from side to side. Despite winning, (if you want to call it that) I wish dash cams would've been available back then.
