Concealment of cases of murder as traffic accidents. A case study

• Author: Elena Ana Nechita
• Position: Faculty of Law and Economics, the Law Department, Agora University, Oradea, Romania
• Pages: 11-16

AGORA International Journal of Juridical Sciences, www.juridicalj ournal.univagora.ro

ISSN 1843-570X, E-ISSN 2067-7677

No.1 (2012), pp. 80-85

80

CONCEALMENT OF CASES OF MURDER AS TRAFFIC ACCI DENTS.

A CASE STUDY

E. A. Nechita

Elena-Ana Nechita

Faculty of Law and Economics, the Law Department

Agora University, Oradea, Romania

*Correspondence: Elena-Ana Nechita, Agora University, 8 P iaa Tineretului St., Oradea,

Romania

E-mail: anaelena2009@yahoo.com / departament.stiintesociale@univagor a.ro

Abstract

There are mentions in forensic practice of the possibility, even if rare, of

concealing murder as a traffic accident.

The motivations of persons involved in such acts are related to : an attempt to

circumvent criminal liability, the belief that, in ca se of a traffic accident, the crime is less

serious and therefore the p enalty is lighter or the offender’s idea that the a ct will not be

investigated or that there will be a superficial assessment of it as not meeting, under certain

circumstances, the conditions required by law to consider it an o ffence.

In the first part of the article we p resent a brief analysis in terms of criminal law

of the offen ces of simple murder and manslaughter, and in the second p art we present some

considerations on a case study of concealment of murder as a traffic a ccident.

Keywords: murder, traffic accident, study, case, concealment.

Introduction

National and international ana lyses demonstrate that traffic accidents a re not

random, unpredictable or unavoidable, only their occurrence at a given time is.

The factors contributing to the occurrence of a traffic accident may be grouped

into internal factors and external factors. From the an alysis of internal factors, it can be said

that most traffic accidents are due to the fault of drivers (high speed of movement, irregular

overtaking, not giving priority, driving under the influence of alcohol, illness, driving while

tired, incorrect assessment of situations arising in traffic, etc.).

The category of external factors for traffic accidents includes specific structural

and arrangement features of communication lines

1

.

In forensic practice, there are cases where the active subject of the murder

offence disgu ises murder as a traffic accident. Sometimes, in order to simulate/disguise an

act as another act and sometimes as produced by another person, they create at the scene

traces that are typically formed when committing a crime, in the same place and time. Other

times, they remove the material object of the offence from the original place of committing

the offence, transporting it to another location.

Despite the effort, attention and reasoning of the active subject of the murder

offence, they fail to create the overall appearance of the scene and the details that are

1

C. Aionioie, V. Berchean, I. Dumitracu, Treatise of Forensic Methodology, Volume I, Carpai Publishing

House, 1994, p. 112.