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Belew v. Nelson12/16/2005
d and that her attention was directed at him at that point.
The only other witness to testify at trial was Truman Jones, who, at the time of the accident, was an Alabama State Trooper. Jones testified that he was called to the scene of the wreck to investigate the accident. As to his qualifications to investigate accidents, he testified that, in addition to the training he received when he became a state trooper, he was trained at a traffic-homicide-investigation school in 1996, which included an 80-hour course in advanced accident investigation that was designed to enable him to determine, based on the evidence at the scene of an accident, how the accident had occurred. Trooper Jones testified that he had investigated over 2000 accidents during his 10 years as a trooper before the McKelvey/Nelson accident. In addition, he had conducted between 15 and 20 homicide investigations during the period after he graduated from the traffic-homicide-investigation school until the McKelvey/Nelson accident.
Trooper Jones testified that, in reaching his ultimate conclusion as to what happened with regard to the McKelvey/Nelson accident, he considered the skid and yaw marks that each vehicle left on the pavement, the damage to the vehicles, and the final resting place of the vehicles. Additionally, he and the other trooper at the scene of the accident placed their vehicles over the skid and yaw marks at the point of impact in order to determine the angles of the vehicles at the moment of impact, a technique on which he had received instruction.
Trooper Jones testified that before the impact Nelson's truck left skid marks that began in his lane of travel and continued in a straight line across the center line of the road and into the McKelveys' lane of travel. He testified that before the impact the McKelveys' car left a yaw mark that began in Nelson's lane of travel and ended in the McKelveys' lane of travel. Specifically, he testified:
"Q: Okay. And were you able to determine anything in regard to the vehicle driven by Mr. McKelvey that may not be show up in this photograph?
"A: There was faint, what I would call a yaw mark, which is a tire that is still rolling that is in a side skid. It leaves diagonal striations on the asphalt. And we did see faint yaw marks.
"....
"Q: How would they have been angled?
"A: They were angling in this direction.
"Q: From the [westbound] lane into the eastbound lane? This is west, and this is east?
"A: Yes, coming from the westbound back into the eastbound.
"Q: So some of this yaw mark was in the westbound lane?
"A: Correct.
"Q: And some of it was in the eastbound lane?
"A: Yes.
"Q: Crossing over the center line?
"A: Yes."
Trooper Jones testified that, based on the physical evidence and the consideration of the angles of the vehicles at the moment of impact, he determined: (1) that Nelson's truck was entirely in his lane of travel when he applied his brakes; (2) that the McKelveys' vehicle had crossed the center line of the highway and was in Nelson's lane of travel; and (3) that, at impact, although the front of the McKelveys' vehicle had returned to the McKelveys' lane of travel, the majority of their vehicle remained in Nelson's lane of travel.
The jury returned a verdict in the defendants' favor. On November 19, 2004, the court entered a judgment on that verdict. Belew appeals.
Belew contends that the trial court erred when it allowed Trooper Jones to testify regarding the relative positions of Nelson's and the McKelveys' vehicl
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