[scottj]

Downstream, about 30-40 feet from where he hit the tree, there was a group of "noones" [sic] sitting in lawn chairs. Correct, they weren't standing... one of them jumped up after the car impacted the tree.

Cold tires on cold pavement may well be the root cause, although not an actionable cause. I’m going to go with the guy’s right foot as the cause. Another way to think about root cause would be to substitute the word “defendant”. Had a spectator been hit or the passenger been injured there’d be a number of “root causes”.

I used the "cold tire on cold pavement" analysis once a long time ago. The cop wasn't having any of it and neither was the judge.