Venus Williams' lawyers have filed an emergency protective order in the developing case of Venus Williams' June 9 car crash. According to E! News, the tennis player collided with another car at an intersection in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, sending a 78-year-old passenger in the other car to the ICU. He died two weeks later.
The motion filed by Williams' lawyers on Thursday prevents Linda Barson's (the driver of the other car and wife of the victim) lawyer from conducting an inspection of Barton's Hyundai Accent and downloading its data.
"The on-board data of both vehicles will be critical evidence," the court documents say, according to the outlet. "Issues have been known to arise when a vehicle's data is downloaded. These issues included, but not limited to, the unintentional loss of the data. For that reason, no party should be allowed to inspect the vehicles until all Parties can be present with their experts and this Court issues a procedure for collecting the vehicles' data."
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Instead, Williams' team requests that inspection of both cars wait until the court has provided "procedure for the proper collection of all data." A hearing for the case is set for Friday.
The details of the case were provided to Refinery29 in a statement from the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department:
"The Palm Beach Gardens Police Department initiated an investigation into a traffic crash involving Venus Williams on June 9, 2017. The crash occurred at 1:13 P.M. at the intersection of Northlake Boulevard and BallenIsles Drive in the City of Palm Beach Gardens. The passenger of Vehicle 2 (Jerome L. Barson of West Palm Beach, FL) was transported to the hospital, where he later died on June 22, 2017. As per Florida Statutes, due to the continuing investigation of this incident no additional information will be released at this time."
Venus Williams addressed the crash with a message on her Facebook page, writing, "I am devasted [sic] and heartbroken by this accident. My heartfelt condolences go out to the family and friends of Jerome Barson and I continue to keep them in my thoughts and prayers."
Refinery29 will continue to post updates as the case progresses.