Forensic Engineers and Consultants

Tag Archive: ACTAR

  1. Stan

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    “What’s up man, you want to hit up the Longbranch tonight? Cool, I’ll get up with you later.” Ronnie ends the call and heads out on a beer run. After the last sip of Gin, Stan finishes up one of his many fan letters, drops it in the box, and starts to get ready for the night. “What’s good?” It was Ronnie’s cousin Squirrel on the line. “You okay with Stan going tonight?”  “Yeah,” Squirrel says, “he’s got a sweet ride… we’ll let him drive! He let me drive that GT all last week, that thing is hot!” “Sounds like a plan! Let me go dude, bout to head in and get some cold beer.”

    “911, what’s the nature of your emergency?“

    “Yes, there is an overturned car, looks like maybe a Mustang, a red Mustang. I’m just off Highway 9. It’s down an embankment…I can see two people laying on the ground and one person still in the car. The two people on the ground are moving, but the one in the car looks bad!”

    “Police and EMS are on the way ma’am.“

    “Okay, I have my emergency flashers on, can you stay on the phone with me until they get here… it’s really dark and cold. I’m scared.”

    “I’m here ma’am, try to calm down. Can you give me a description of the people involved, maybe what they’re wearing?“

    “The one that’s lying near the car is wearing red jeans with a white T-shirt, and it looks like he has a black and green high-top sneaker on his left foot only, just a sock on the other. The other one out of the car has regular blue jeans on, and a green shirt with boots. It’s hard for me to see the guy in the car… looks like he has on jeans and some kind of black concert T-shit, I can see tour dates and make out the word “Shady”. Hey, the police are here, so I’ll hang up now.”

    A lot is at stake here and we have quite a dilemma, three occupants involved in a single vehicle crash with one fatality and no idea who the driver is. The stakes begin to rise immediately, at the scene of the crash. What’s documented or not documented will affect the outcome of this case. It will affect the outcome of this case when everyone has gathered with suit and tie, when hands are placed on the Bible, and the truth is sworn to be told.

    We’ve talked about proper collision scene documentation several times, but this time let’s talk about a few ways we can build a case like this and possibly identify beyond a reasonable doubt who was driving at the time of the wreck. (more…)

  2. The Middle Car Blues

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    Maybe you, a loved one, or even a client, have been in the unfortunate position, no pun intended, of being the creamy center in a three-car wreck. Odds are high that you have not, but those odds are also equally high that if you have, you will be shown as one of the contributors to the collision. In other words, the wreck will likely be your fault-and possibly the fault of the person behind you as well. Sure, the wreck could be the fault of the middle and third cars… that wreck would look something like this; (more…)

  3. The Alphabet Soup of Expert Certifications

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    When consulting as an expert witness, having certifications can assist in establishing your credibility and qualifications.  If you’ve perused the Curriculum Vitaes of the experts at The Warren Group, Inc., you may have seen some of these letters trailing after our names.  What do they mean and what organizations grant them?  The following is a sampling of some of the certifications our experts have acquired: (more…)

  4. What’s Up Doc? Collision Scene Documentation & Techniques

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    A proper collision scene documentation, lovingly referred to as a scene doc, will make or break the investigation… guaranteed! While not necessarily all inclusive, here are a few evidence collection / documentation techniques that have served me well over the years.

    Some, if not most, collision scene evidence is short lived, and tire marks (more…)

  5. The 9-Cell Collision Matrix – The Environment

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    “Was a dark stormy night as the train rattled on…” Anybody? 1985? Scarecrow?  Come on… this was when Cougar was still a Mellencamp! Ok… it was called Grandma’s Theme… you’ll have to look that one up… but as I sat down to write this blog on the environment, that song kept running though my head. If you look it up, it will have a similar effect… just a little warning.

    In our last installment of the 9-Cell Collision Matrix let’s travel down the wet, slippery slope of environmental factors that can contribute to car crashes, and maybe take a closer look at the things around us, at or near our crash scene that may reveal some important clues. (more…)

  6. The Collision Reconstruction Matrix – The Human

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    Murder, suicide, deceit, and intrigue… car crashes? You bet! In our next installment of the 9-Cell Collision Matrix let us dive a little deeper into the glue that binds all this together, the human element.

    Photo by Mark Turner

    Let’s begin with the most basic human element at the root cause of car wrecks, our old friend inattention. Inattention… a vast word that encompasses many lackadaisical conditions. The daydreaming 16-year-old in math class, the radio knob turner, the back seat talker, the quarter pounder with cheese eater, and perhaps the most offensive, the cell phone user. All very dangerous behind the wheel, and one very dangerous to your future… as it turns out, you will always need good math skills… ask me how I know? Driving is of course a divided attention endeavor, (more…)

  7. The Vehicle (EDR)

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    In a previous blog post, we began to delve a little deeper into the vehicle aspect of the 9-Cell Collision Matrix by taking a look at tires. Let’s now take a closer look at the very diverse and interesting topic of Event Data Recorder (EDR) data. (more…)

  9. Why investigators should have “Scaled Diagrams” of scenes?

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    When it comes to diagramming a crash scene, there are several methods to accomplish the task. Forensic Mapping, (locating, positioning, and documenting the evidence of a collision scene to scale) is essential to having the answers to the questions “Who, What, Where, When, and Why?”. Photographs do a great job showing what the investigators saw post collision; yet they lack scale and the ability to describe pre-collision movement. Having a computer aided diagram (CAD) of the collision scene goes much further than the pictures can; here is why.

    basic intersectionA scale diagram gives the full overview of a collision scene from either a 2D or 3D point of view. Being able to see how things lined up, how they came together and how they parted helps explain the events within a crash. When a scene can be viewed from top down or any angle, that helps relay the facts. The investigator, judge, or jury will get (more…)

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