Arlington, TX — October 25, 2023, Cristhian Lopez Pena was fatally injured after a car accident at around 7:47 p.m. along West Sanford Street.
Authorities said in their preliminary statements that the crash occurred near the intersection of West Sanford Street and McKinney Street.
It appears 26-year-old Cristhian Lopez Pena was the driver of a Honda Civic going westbound on Sanford. Authorities say that an eastbound pickup somehow went across the center line and hit Lopez Pena, ultimately causing Lopez Pena to suffer fatal injuries. The driver of the pickup apparently had no injuries.
Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman
Something that stands out in the public statements from police is that Mr. Lopez Pena was apparently thrown from his vehicle, but officials say he was wearing his seatbelt. Are authorities following up on that at all? After all, keeping you in your seat is the primary job of a seatbelt. So how was the victim thrown from the vehicle if they were wearing their seatbelt? One possibility that concerns me is there may have been some kind of defect.
Let me give an example. I had this wrongful death case a little while ago where a driver died after being thrown from their vehicle. Police in that case actually assumed the driver hadn’t been wearing their seatbelt simply because of the ejection. We had a specialist examine the victim’s vehicle, though, and found that the victim’s seatbelt pretensioner failed. As a result of that defect, the driver was thrown from the vehicle despite doing everything they were supposed to do.
To be clear, there could be perfectly reasonable explanations for the information I’m seeing here that doesn’t involve a defect. Maybe authorities made a mistake or left out extenuating circumstances. But if a person involved in a crash like this with a properly functioning seatbelt could have survived this crash, what was different here? And more importantly, are authorities dedicating the time and resources to answer these questions?
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