CHP Seems Reluctant to Release Info on Christopher Laurie's Accident

UPDATE: CHP report released to the family which may be considering a lawsuit.

A reader pointed out this link to a story on InstantRiverside.com that suggests that the CHP is not to anxious to release the final report on the Christopher Laurie accident:

There is still no conclusive report from the California Highway Patrol on the crash that killed Christopher Laurie on July 24. An investigation team headed by the CHP is to examine the collision and will likely offer a cause based on its findings.

Laurie, 33, died when his vehicle slammed into a Caltrans truck on eastbound Highway 91 in Corona. He was on his way to work at Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside; his father, Greg Laurie, is the mega-church’s pastor. (Laurie is pictured with his wife, Brittany, and daughter, Stella.)

But in a series of phone calls over the past week, there appeared to be wide confusion over how the investigation results might be announced. Officer Mario Lopez, a public-affairs coordinator for the CHP, said that the Inland Division office in San Bernardino would defer to the Riverside office for investigation results.

Lopez directed calls to officer George Foard, an administration sergeant in the Riverside office, but general support officer Delores Mercuri said Foard was preparing for a deployment to Iraq. She said it was her understanding that the investigation was not complete, and was unclear what the procedure might be for informing the public once it was. “I guess I’m your contact, but it’s a job I don’t want,” she said.

In a follow-up phone call, officer Mario Lopez said, “Being that this is a high-profile investigation, we want to make sure we’re releasing the right information.”

That's kind of an odd reaction from the CHP. At the time of the accident we were told the CHP final report would take about two weeks. That was nearly a month ago.

The only "right information" that should be released is the final result of the investigation, including all causal factors. It appears that the CHP doesn't want to have the unenviable task of releasing information that won't be very easy to hear for those who knew Laurie.