Bee Cave, TX — August 21, 2024, 71-year-old Karen Faubion was injured in a single-vehicle accident on State Highway 71 in Travis County.
Authorities say the incident happened around 12:25 p.m. on SH 71 near Ranch to Market Road 3238. Investigators were unable to collect details from Faubion about her crash, but after examining the scene they reported a belief that she took a wide left turn at the SH 71/RM 3238 intersection. During the turn her Nissan Pathfinder may have struck a curb, then run through a crosswalk and crashed into a traffic light pole.
Karen Faubion was seriously injured in the crash. No other vehicles or people were involved.
No further details are currently available.
Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman
Police seemed unsure of their narrative in preliminary reports, and if they can’t say for certain what happened then people certainly shouldn’t jump to any conclusions on the sidelines. Only evidence should tell the final story, and I’ve seen plenty of crashes where the final narrative is nothing like the early one. That’s why it’s so important to ask (and answer) as many questions as possible. Some answers may just rule things out, while others may reveal surprising facts. Here are three that come to mind:
- Did police do a thorough investigation? Sadly the answer to this is not always “yes.” Police have limited time and resources to devote to traffic accidents, which sometimes means investigating officers reach a “good enough” conclusion and move on. Officers recording their best guesses in Bee Cave and never returning to amend or explain them may be a good example. I can’t tell you how many times our investigators find critical clues that a more comprehensive early effort might have caught—which leads to our second question.
- Did anyone investigate product defects? People would be startled to find out how often a major vehicle malfunction caused a crash or worsened a victim’s injuries. Seatbelts fail to lock, airbags don’t inflate (or overinflate and explode), tires separate, brakes fail…the list goes on, and yet untrained investigators rarely take the time to look for those dangerous defects. Plenty of people are blamed for accidents they were helpless to stop, which investigators might have known if they looked in the right places. Speaking of which…
- Was all electronic data gathered? Like it or not, much of our lives are recorded in the modern world. Between cell phones, surveillance cameras, electronic monitoring software in vehicles, and countless other electronic devices, there is often at least a partial snapshot of what we’re doing at any given time. One case where that’s actually helpful is after accidents, where gathering and interpreting the data can help tell the real story.
In the end the point I’m trying to make is that many accidents are far more complicated than they may seem from early reports. I feel like most people want to know their crashes were taken seriously and investigated carefully, so I hope someone does that for the victim in Travis County.
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