Section 674. Manner of investigation

1. When a coroner or medical examiner
  is  informed  of  the  occurrence  of a death within his jurisdiction as
  defined in section six hundred seventy-three of this article,  he  shall
  go  at once to the place where the body is and take charge of it. If the
  coroner is not a physician duly licensed to practice  medicine  in  this
  state,  he  shall  at once notify and designate a coroner's physician to
  act with him. If no coroner's physician is available,  he  shall  employ
  and  designate a physician qualified to make postmortem examinations and
  dissections and to testify thereon, and the physician so employed  shall
  be  deemed  a  coroner's physician for the purpose of the investigation,
  and any statute referring to a coroner's physician shall  be  applicable
  to  him  so far as concerns that investigation. Such coroner's physician
  so notified or employed, and designated, shall  also  go  to  the  place
  where  the  body  is, and the coroner and such coroner's physician shall
  jointly take charge of the body. Notwithstanding any general, special or
  local law, the coroner, or  coroner  and  coroner's  physician,  or  the
  medical  examiner,  shall  have authority to the extent required for the
  investigation to remove and transport the body upon taking charge of it.
  Notwithstanding the foregoing, in a county with  a  population  of  less
  than  two  hundred  thousand,  a  coroner  who  is  not a physician duly
  licensed to practice medicine in this state may, with respect to  deaths
  specified  in  paragraph  (e)  of subdivision one of section six hundred
  seventy-three of this article, take charge of, remove and transport  the
  body,  without  first  notifying  and  designating a coroner's physician
  when, in  the  opinion  of  the  coroner,  it  would  be  impossible  or
  impractical  to at once notify and designate a coroner's physician to go
  to the place where the body is;  provided,  however,  that  the  coroner
  shall notify and designate a coroner's physician to act with him in such
  case  as soon as practicable, and in any event within twenty-four hours,
  after taking charge of the body.
    2. The coroner, or the coroner and coroner's physician, or the medical
  examiner, shall fully investigate the  essential  facts  concerning  the
  death, taking the names and addresses of as many witnesses thereto as it
  may  be  practicable  to  obtain,  and before leaving the premises shall
  reduce all such facts to writing. He or they shall  take  possession  of
  any  portable  object  which,  in his or their opinion, may be useful in
  establishing the cause or means of death.
    3. (a) In the course of the investigation, the coroner or coroner  and
  coroner's  physician, or the medical examiner, shall make or cause to be
  made such examinations, including an autopsy, as in his or their opinion
  are necessary to establish the cause of death, or to determine the means
  or manner of death, or to discover facts, the ascertainment of which  is
  requested  in writing by a district attorney, or a sheriff, or the chief
  of a police department of a city or county,  or  the  superintendent  of
  state  police;  provided,  that  if  the coroner is not a physician duly
  licensed to practice medicine in this state, the  determination  whether
  an autopsy or any subsequent examination or analysis of tissue or organs
  is  necessary  shall  be  made  by the coroner's physician, and any such
  autopsy, examination or  analysis  shall  be  made  by  him  or  at  his
  direction, and provided further that, if so provided by local law of the
  county,  written  concurrence  of  the  district  attorney or the county
  health officer or the sheriff, or written concurrence of all or  any  of
  them,  as  the  local  law  shall  specify,  shall  be  required for any
  determination by a coroner's physician under  this  subdivision  whether
  acting  as  such  physician or as deputy coroner pursuant to subdivision
  four-b of section four hundred of this chapter, or for any determination
  by the medical examiner, that an autopsy or any  subsequent  examination
  or  analysis of tissue or organs is necessary. The authority to make any

  examination as provided in this section includes  authority  to  remove,
  retain  and  transport  or send, for the purpose of the examination, any
  tissue or organs and any portable object.
    (b)  The  coroner  or  coroner and coroner's physician, or the medical
  examiner, also shall make or cause to be made,  quantitative  tests  for
  alcohol,  and  for  any  trace  of a controlled substance, as defined in
  section three thousand three hundred six of the public health law,  that
  the  coroner,  coroner's  physician  or  medical examiner has reasonable
  cause to believe is present, on the body of every operator  of  a  motor
  vehicle  or  a pedestrian sixteen years of age or older who was involved
  in and died as a result of a motor vehicle accident; provided,  however,
  such  tests  shall  not  be  made  pursuant  to  the  provisions of this
  paragraph if such coroner, coroner's physician or medical  examiner  has
  reason  to  believe  that  the decedent is of a religious faith which is
  opposed to such test on religious or moral grounds.
    4. A coroner, coroner's physician or medical examiner shall have power
  to subpoena and examine witnesses under oath in the  same  manner  as  a
  magistrate in holding a court of special sessions.
    5. The coroner, coroner's physician or medical examiner shall promptly
  perform  or  cause  to be performed an autopsy and to prepare an autopsy
  report which shall include a toxicological report and any report of  any
  examination  or  inquiry  with respect to any death occurring within his
  county to an inmate of a correctional facility as defined by subdivision
  three of section forty of the correction law, whether or not  the  death
  occurred inside such facility.