High court rules against NHP in fatal accident

Thursday, Dec. 23, 2004 | 9:26 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The Nevada Supreme Court has ruled that a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper was solely responsible for a traffic collision that killed a man near the Las Vegas Speedway on Interstate 15 in December 1997.

The court Tuesday upheld a $325,000 District Court judgment against the state in favor of the family of Dale Dodson, who was hit by Trooper Daniel Bennett's Highway Patrol vehicle.

The state appealed the award, saying Dodson should have been held at least partially responsible because drugs were detected in his system. The court, in its unanimous decision, said the state never presented evidence at trial that Dodson was impaired when he was struck.

Dodson and his family had started out from Las Vegas toward St. George, Utah, on Dec. 26. Near the speedway, a bicycle attached to the top of Dodson's Jeep Cherokee fell off onto the roadway. Dodson pulled into the medianc about a half mile from the bike and walked back to retrieve it.

Bennett testified at the trial that he saw the Dodson car and wondered if it was in trouble. He then saw the bike and pulled the Dodge Ram patrol vehicle around to avoid it. It was then that Dodson was hit and killed.

But Dodson's family testified that Bennett never swerved to miss the bike but hit it straight on. They said Bennett did not slow down but kept driving for about a quarter of a mile until turning off the roadway and hitting Dodson.

At the time of his death, Dodson's blood and urine contained methamphetamine and marijuana, but District Judge Lee Gates ruled that those substances were not contributing factors.

The state Department of Motor Vehicles, on appeal, said there were significant amounts of controlled substances Dodson's system and argued that he failed to properly tie down the bicycle to his vehicle, which created a road hazard when it fell.

The state agency also said Dodge exercised poor judgment in his walk to the bike by not taking any precautions to make himself more visible to oncoming traffic at night.

The Supreme Court said the state failed at trial to present expert evidence linking the controlled substances to Dodson's ability to secure the bike and it did not present evidence to show that the drugs in Dodson's system affected his decision or ability to negotiate the median.

"A reasonable mind could have concluded that there was adequate evidence that Dodson was walking in the center of the median and this was a reasonable course of action under the circumstances, and that there was insufficient evidence to support a finding that alcohol or drugs impaired Dodson's ability to properly secure the bicycle," the court said.