According to show-business trade paper 'Variety', of this project, director Wolfgang Petersen "was contemplating [it] even before his breakthrough success with Das Boot (1981) ten years earlier".
The detective reports that the doctors at the hospital say the facial injuries could not have resulted from the accident alone; however, the final explanation does not tackle this problem whatsoever, as there was no damage to the main character's face before his car goes over the cliff.