After the accident, he said that it was “a conflict between a safe car and a coffin on wheels”, then the prosecutor's office determined that it was Pawel Kozanecki, a lawyer from Lodz, who caused the accident in which two women died. One of the key evidences of the court proceedings in the Olsztyn court is the records of the data recorder, that is, the so-called black box in the Mercedes car of the defendant. However, as it turned out, the court has now instructed the expert to ignore this information. On what grounds and why do experts say this is a “dangerous precedent”?
The tragedy happened on September 26, 2021 on the route Barchevo – Jeziorany around 17:40. Lawyer Pavel Kozanecki (he agreed to provide full details and provide his image) was returning from a wedding with his wife and four-year-old son. There were two women – 53 and 67 years old – in the second car. That afternoon they went to visit family (the children of the deceased women are married).
The case gained notoriety after a lawyer posted a video on the Internet in which he said the women in the Audi died because they were “riding in a coffin on wheels.” The lawyer advised that it is better to save money or get a loan for a better car. Although it has been three years since the tragedy, the trial of the first instance continues.
Also read: He lost his license to resume his profession after talking about 'coffins on wheels'
At the end of November, the Central Police Forensic Laboratory received a letter from the Olsztyn court instructing the expert who reconstructed the course of the Lodz lawyer's tragedy to republish his report. The previous one – as we were the first to report on tvn24.pl – showed the guilt of the lawyer Kozanecki, who blocked the women from the opposite direction and did not give them the chance to avoid the accident.
Now we have learned that the court has requested another opinion – but this time the expert will base it “only on physical and personal evidence, excluding IT data obtained from reading the controllers from the defendant's car.”
This means that the police laboratory expert should ignore the “black box” indications of the accused Mercedes. This is important, because thanks to it it was possible to recreate the events that happened in the last seconds before the collision. The data read showed that the Mercedes was accelerating (about 60 to 66 km/h) and the car's steering wheel was pushed to the left five seconds before the accident. A second and a half before the tragedy, the lawyer Kozanecki allegedly pulled the steering wheel to the right, which at first glance was considered a late attempt to return to his lane. CLKP's expert indicated that the data collected was consistent with the damage to the accident vehicles and the artifacts found at the scene.
Main edition
So where did the idea for the court to recover the accident data, except for the recorder data, come from? During the court proceedings in Olsztyn, the lawyer Vladyslav Marchevsky, the defense lawyer of the accused Pavel Kozanecki, called the expert's opinion on the reconstruction of the accident “very unprofessional” and “prepared for a specific thesis”. He asked, among other things, the information obtained from the tape recorder. During the discussion in April this year. referred to the publication from February 2022, which was prepared by two recognized experts in Poland in the field of mechanics and car mechanics. This publication is entitled “Data translation errors in Bosch CDR reports after a crash”.
We have reached this publication. The authors point out that there are “translational flaws” in the case of “black boxes” that can mislead people when analyzing the data during a trial. With this information, the court ordered the expert to reconstruct the accident without taking into account the information about which the experts had doubts.
Attorney Pavel KozaneckiTVN24
“Exactly the opposite” intention
Did the Olsztyn court do the right thing? We contacted Michal Krzeminski, one of the authors of the publication, based on which the court ordered the expert to ignore the black box. Our interlocutor briefly says that this is a surprising decision, because – as he emphasized – the purpose of the research described in the publication was not to eliminate trust in electronic traces of the accident.
– It is completely the opposite. For several years now, “black boxes” allow to reconstruct traffic accidents more accurately than before. This publication is intended to help people make more informed use of this source of information and not to doubt the correctness of their use. This is a dangerous precedent, he emphasizes.
Michal Krzeminski emphasizes that – despite the cases of errors in reading data from “black boxes” in 2022 – this is a reliable source of evidence. – We described the problems to be overcome at the stage of data collection and analysis. We wanted to help in the development of leading practice in this field and to show that we do not run away from the problems that always arise during the development of the young field of science, – says the expert.
According to the expert, “black boxes” are an important source of warning about accidents, like traces left on the road or broken cars after a collision. – They are more valuable because they are an objective source of knowledge, which cannot be said about eyewitnesses. They can be inaccurate and even contradict the facts, even when the witness has good intentions, he notes.
The place of the tragic accident Police in Olsztyn
“No effect”
Michal Krzeminski also warned against criticizing the Olsztyn court for its decision. – Recorders are still new. I have participated in many trainings with prosecutors and judges, during which we emphasize how important the source of the data recorder is. Unfortunately, this is still not common knowledge, he notes.
How did the expert of the Central Police Forensic Expertise Laboratory react to the court's request to conduct an analysis without information from the “black box”? In a letter sent to the court, he emphasized that ignoring the registrar's testimony “does not affect the final conclusions of the prepared opinion.”
Also read: A lawyer is being tried in court on charges of the death of two women. After the tragedy, he spoke of “coffins on wheels”.
The expert emphasized that while reconstructing the process of the fatal accident, he relied primarily on the traces left on the road. And these, as he noted, clearly indicate that the collision took place in the lane of the “Audi” in which two women died. CLKP's expert believes that this clearly accuses the lawyer of driving the Mercedes, which left its lane.
The expert noted that the Central Forensic Laboratory of the police conducts an investigation “on the basis of complete evidence” and emphasizes that the information from the Mercedes car's registration is “objective and accurate information about the course of the accident.” He also emphasized that the data cannot be edited and that the download process is “standardized and based on ISO standards.”
The lawyer appeared before the disciplinary court (11/05/2022)TVN24 Łódź
What does the data show?
The recorder recorded that immediately before the collision, the Mercedes accelerated from 60 to about 66 km/h. The expert showed that five seconds before the accident, the car driven by Mr. Kozanetsky went from the right to the left.
“The steering wheel is placed at an angle of 10 degrees to the left from the right position,” said the specialist in his analysis.
Three and a half seconds before impact, the turn to the left is said to have deepened to 22 degrees. The last one and a half seconds turn back – to the right. “Turn the steering wheel 12 degrees”. – he pointed.
The expert estimated that at the time of the collision, the Audi car was moving at a speed of 64 km/h. The speed limit at the scene of the accident is 70 km/h.
No chance to react
In the original reconstruction of the tragic accident from 2021, the expert shows that, in addition to the “black box” evidence, the guilt of the lawyer Pavel Kozanecki is also shown by the evidence at the scene.
Scattered sand was found in the lane where “Audi” was driving. The coroner stated that it fell off the left front tire of both vehicles during the collision. In addition, the expert observed traces of Mercedes tires. They started in the lane of the victim's car, near the crash site. These tracks followed the line the Mercedes was supposed to be traveling in and ended up near its wheels and stopped there.
The expert determined that the post-accident positioning of the cars also leaves no doubt that it was the Lodz lawyer who left his lane and caused the accident – the Mercedes he was driving veered anti-clockwise after the accident and the Audi crashed. roadside ditch.
According to the CLKP expert, the woman whose lawyer from Lodz cut her off on the way did not have a chance to react. In the report disclosed to the court, the expert showed that the human body needs 0.8 to 1 second to correctly assess the threat and take defensive actions. The expert of the Central Laboratory of Forensic Expertise of the Police noted that even if the Audi driver was able to press the brakes at that time, it would have taken an additional 0.3 seconds for the system to activate.
Protection of “extremely unprofessional opinion”.
During the investigation, the wife of the accused lawyer presented her version of events. She claimed that immediately before the accident, her husband was driving according to the regulations:
“I am sure that the collision took place in our lane, on the right section of the road. Before the incident, my husband and I were looking at the road, my husband did not do anything to distract his attention,” we said. read in the testimony of the expert who reconstructed the course of the tragedy.
He explained that systems are installed in Mercedes that warn of crossing the road by moving the steering wheel.
In April of this year, the lawyer Vladyslav Marchevskyi, the defense attorney of the accused Pavel Kozanecki, called the original opinion of the CLKP expert on the reconstruction of the accident “very unprofessional”. Why?
– I don't want to evaluate my client's words about “coffins on wheels”. What should not have happened happened. However, I do not understand why the opinion did not mention that the technical condition of the Audi could have a key influence on the event of that day – the lawyer told tvn24.pl after the hearing in the first half of 2024.
He then said that Audi “was a cover-up”. – This results directly from the Central Register of vehicles and drivers. The body had to be separated from the chassis and propulsion system of the car and then reassembled. Only for this reason, it was not a car with the technical characteristics of the factory. In addition, the car was crashed in July and had an inspection in August. Between one event and another, its progress was reduced. The car was in such a state that the headlight, battery and the entire radiator fell out of it during the accident, – the lawyer calculated.
The attorney also questions the expert's estimates of the speed of the vehicles. – The appointed expert tried to reconcile the evidence gathered in the case with the initially accepted option, which was that my client was guilty. It was the doubts that I raised that forced the court to request an additional opinion, – said the defense attorney.
While working on the article, we made several attempts to contact the accused's lawyer. Unfortunately, these efforts were not successful.
Main photo source: Police in Olsztyn
