Neither Victim in Car Crash Wants to Take the Wheel

Albert Carmichael and Carol Fleming agree that they were the only occupants of the black Cadillac Eldorado when it rolled over Nov. 9, 1980, on the San Diego Freeway.

They also agree that they were seriously injured in the single-car accident.

About the only point on which they cannot agree is who was driving.

Each has sued the other for damages, and their consolidated cases were headed for trial this week in Orange County Superior Court.

There are no witnesses to the crash, which occurred about 10 p.m. at the Jamboree Road entrance to southbound freeway lanes, according to court documents.

Carmichael played football for the Green Bay Packers and the Denver Broncos after playing three years for USC, according to his attorney, Richard P. Booth. Booth declined to discuss the case. Fleming’s attorney could not be reached for comment.

A California Highway Patrol report listed Fleming as the driver and cited her for driving under the influence of alcohol, but her lawyers filed papers in court asserting that the charge “was later dropped for lack of any evidence.”

Fleming insists that she was the passenger and has sued Carmichael for slander and emotional distress for saying otherwise.

Carmichael, who was conscious when police arrived, suffered severe cuts, scrapes and recurring headaches, according to court papers. Fleming was thrown out of the car and woke up in a hospital with cuts and a broken shoulder and ribs.

In a sworn statement, Carmichael said Fleming’s shoes were found “jammed up underneath the front seat” on the driver’s side of the car. But under questioning by Fleming’s attorney, Carmichael acknowledged that he did not find the shoes himself but was informed by his mother-in-law that they were found there.

Fleming was thrown from the car through the driver’s window. The passenger seat was found pushed far back on its tracks, leaving leg room for someone of Carmichael’s height, according to an accident reconstruction expert he hired. The expert also found traces of Carmichael’s hair on the right sun visor, indicating that his client was in the passenger seat when thrown forward, according to court papers.

At one point, an attorney for Fleming summarized the case in court documents as follows:

“Whoever was driving came down an on-ramp, crossed several lanes of a freeway and went over a curb, turning the car over in the center divider after losing control under circumstances which have to indicate either intoxication, mental and physical impairment or driving under the influence of something.”

Presiding Judge Everett W. Dickey was scheduled to assign the case for trial Thursday.