Stop Not Legal, Supreme Court Agrees No Grounds To Pull Over Truck Passing Crash Scene, Court Says

Merely driving by the scene of a traffic accident does not give an officer legal grounds for stopping the vehicle and questioning its occupants, the Idaho Supreme Court says.

The court on Thursday agreed with District Judge Don Harding that an officer did not have legal grounds to stop a vehicle that contained Jeff D. Wixom after an accident.

An officer, called to investigate the report of an accident in Bear Lake County last year, found an empty vehicle. While trying to locate the driver or passengers, the officer stopped a passing pickup truck to ask if the occupants knew anything about the accident.

Wixom, a passenger in the truck, later admitted he was the driver of the crashed vehicle and was charged with drunken driving and driving without privileges.

His attorney won suppression of the key evidence by arguing the stop and questioning were improper.

The Supreme Court noted that the only reason the deputy stopped the pickup was that it was the first vehicle that he observed on the road after the accident.

“We agree with the district court that simply passing the accident site did not, by itself, provide a reasonable basis to stop the pickup in order to locate possible witnesses,” the court said.