{"id":1253,"date":"2013-03-29T22:02:22","date_gmt":"2013-03-29T22:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/?p=1253"},"modified":"2013-03-29T22:02:22","modified_gmt":"2013-03-29T22:02:22","slug":"forensic-engineering-investigation-of-a-fatal-mva-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/29\/forensic-engineering-investigation-of-a-fatal-mva-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Forensic engineering investigation of a fatal MVA. Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

(The following is one in a series of cases I have investigated that illustrate the different forensic engineering methods I use to investigate<\/strong> the cause of failures<\/strong> and accidents<\/strong> that result in civil litigation.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

The update is a very detailed, informative, easy to read – I think, description of the methods used to investigate the fatal motor vehicle accident (MVA).\u00a0 The description reads a little like a story which I think makes for an interesting blog on a forensic\u00a0engineering investigation – we engineers are not well known as rapt story tellers.<\/p>\n

A briefer version of this case was published earlier with a list of the methods I used.\u00a0 It’s a good case for illustrating how an\u00a0engineering investigation sometimes unfolds, going, in a sense,\u00a0from not knowing\u00a0at the start about what to do to solve the problem to getting on with it, figuring it out, and solving it.<\/p>\n

Original blog updated<\/strong><\/h1>\n

The investigation of the fatal MVA is reported under the following main headings with several sub-headings:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • The case (a description of the fatal MVA, the legal\/technical issues, and my client)<\/li>\n
  • Forensic engineering investigation of the failure and the methods used<\/li>\n
  • Preliminary findings of the investigation<\/li>\n
  • Post mortem (resolution and lessons learned)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    The case<\/strong><\/h1>\n

    Description of fatal motor vehicle accident (MVA)<\/strong><\/p>\n

    The accident occurred a few years ago on a remote, snow-covered highway along the top of a seaside cliff in eastern Canada.\u00a0 A jeep-like vehicle travelling along the highway at dawn struck a pile of soil-like material left in the travel lane.\u00a0 The driver lost control of the vehicle and drove over the cliff and into the sea.\u00a0 The driver died in the accident.\u00a0 Passengers in the vehicle survived.<\/p>\n

    Legal\/Technical issues<\/strong><\/p>\n

    At issue, for purposes of the forensic engineering investigation, was the following:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Whether or not the pile of material on the highway was a hazard<\/li>\n
    2. If it was, determine the degree or severity of the hazard<\/li>\n
    3. Also, whether or not the pile of material caused the accident<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Client<\/strong><\/p>\n

      I was retained by the RCMP to investigate the accident and resolve the technical issues.<\/p>\n

      Forensic engineering investigation<\/strong><\/h1>\n

      Unique investigation<\/strong><\/p>\n

      The investigation was unique in that there were no guidelines or well developed methods in the engineering literature on how to investigate this type of accident and\u00a0address the technical issues.<\/p>\n

      Fortunately, in researching the literature, I did find some very relevant scientific research on speed bump design that I was able to adapt to my problem with excellent results.<\/p>\n

      My forensic engineering investigation relied on the following methods.\u00a0 The methods\u00a0are described below in detail.\u00a0 I believe the following listing of methods is quite informative by itself:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Take briefing on the accident from the RCMP<\/li>\n
      2. Review documents on the accident provided by the RCMP including police reports and survivor’s statements<\/li>\n
      3. Travel to the area and visually examine the scene of the accident<\/li>\n
      4. Generate a picture of the accident scene using Photoshop as it might have been seen by the driver moments before the accident<\/li>\n
      5. Research engineering literature for methods on the investigation of obstructions on a highway<\/li>\n
      6. Research scientific literature on speed bump research and design<\/li>\n
      7. Research transportation authorities in North America and Europe<\/li>\n
      8. Design a full scale preliminary re-enactment of the accident on bare roads<\/li>\n
      9. Plan a full scale re-enactment of the accident on a snow-covered test site implementing refinements to the re-enactment including safety measures derived from the preliminary testing<\/li>\n
      10. Design a videotaping and measuring of the re-enactment<\/li>\n
      11. Construct a\u00a0full scale test\u00a0site on an airport taxiway<\/li>\n
      12. Re-enact and videotape the accident on the test site<\/li>\n
      13. Analyse the videotape for evidence respecting the technical issues<\/li>\n
      14. Edit the videotape to portray the re-enactment in a report<\/li>\n
      15. Report on the preliminary findings including safety issues<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Description of forensic engineering investigative methods for a fatal MVA<\/strong><\/h1>\n

        1. Take briefing on the accident from the RCMP<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

        The RCMP’s briefing described the accident scene, the accident, and\u00a0their staff’s assessment of the speed the\u00a0jeep was travelling at the time it struck the pile of material on the highway.\u00a0 The briefing was supported by photographs of the scene, the pile of\u00a0material on the road, and the truck\u00a0that deposited the material on the highway.\u00a0 Survivor’s statements\u00a0on the accident taken by the police were included in the supporting\u00a0documents.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0.<\/p>\n

        The RCMP wanted a forensic engineering investigation to determine what part, if any, the pile of material had in the fatal accident.\u00a0 Very specifically, investigate the technical issues as noted above.<\/p>\n

        2. Review documents on the accident provided by the RCMP including police reports and survivor’s statements<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

        Reviewing existing documents and examining photographs is a standard first step in the forensic engineeing\u00a0investigative process.<\/p>\n

        The police reports were quite valuable in\u00a0describing:<\/p>\n

          \n
        • How the truck deposited the material on the highway,<\/li>\n
        • The dimensions of the\u00a0pile – the width of a traffic lane long, several feet wide and several inches high,<\/li>\n
        • The range of speeds the vehicle was\u00a0possibly travelling, and the most likely speed<\/li>\n
        • The time of the accident<\/li>\n
        • The snow-covered road conditions at the time, and<\/li>\n
        • The lighting conditions (dawn).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          I read the survivor’s statements but these did not yield\u00a0any data\u00a0relevant to the technical issues.<\/p>\n

          While reading the documents and afterwards I\u00a0sort of brain-stormed the situation and jotted down\u00a0all and sundry that\u00a0came to mind.\u00a0\u00a0It wasn’t long that I realized this was quite simply an obstacle on the highway.\u00a0 I figured there would be lots of information in the engineering and scientific literature on how to investigate\u00a0different obstacles on and\u00a0near highways and their effect on vehicle travel.\u00a0 I\u00a0soon found\u00a0out that I was wrong.<\/p>\n

          3. Travel to the area and visually examine the scene of the accident<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

          This is also one of the standard, invaluable, initial steps in the engineering investigative process (see Ref. 1).<\/p>\n

          I drove to the scene of the accident and simply walked\u00a0and looked at the part of the route travelled by the jeep.\u00a0 I was struck by the straight alignment of the highway and the uninterrupted line\u00a0of sight for several hundred metres in the approach to the scene of the accident.<\/p>\n

          Why wasn’t the pile of material seen by the jeep’s driver well enough in advance to stop, even on snow-covered roads?<\/p>\n

          4. Generate a picture of the accident scene using Photoshop as it might have been seen by the driver moments before the accident<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

          I took photographs of the highway while on site.\u00a0 There was snow on the ground in the area during my visit but not on the highway.<\/p>\n

          I had a photographer take one of the photographs and using Photoshop “colour in” the\u00a0bare highway\u00a0with “snow” to give it that snow-covered look existing at the time of the accident.\u00a0 The photographer also added a feature to represent the pile of material on the highway.\u00a0 The material was light in colour like\u00a0snow or very light quartz sand.<\/p>\n

          The technique is called\u00a0“cloning”\u00a0in photography when a small element of colour is taken from one part\u00a0of a photograph and added to another.\u00a0 In this case many\u00a0small elements of the white snow in my photograph were taken and\u00a0placed on the bare highway to give it that snow-covered look.\u00a0 Additional elements were taken to build a feature that looked like the pile of material\u00a0struck by the vehicle.<\/p>\n

          The touched-up photograph was very realistic in portraying the snow-covered\u00a0road with the almost invisible pile of light coloured material in the driver’s lane.\u00a0 Invisible until just moments before the pile\u00a0was\u00a0struck by the jeep.<\/p>\n

          The pile of material was seen by the driver in those last moments as suggested by the angled tire tracks on the pile.\u00a0 The tracks\u00a0indicated the driver braked and skidded sideways on the snow-covered road\u00a0just before\u00a0the pile was\u00a0driven over.<\/p>\n

          5. Research engineering literature for methods on the investigation of obstructions on a highway<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

          I had a technical library research the literature in North America and\u00a0overseas for methods\u00a0of investigating obstructions on highways and the effects of these on drivers.\u00a0 Nothing specific was found but we did come\u00a0across a\u00a0reference to research on speed bump design.<\/p>\n

          I had that Eureka..!! moment when I realized that\u00a0a pile of material\u00a0several inches high on\u00a0a highway was a\u00a0“speed bump”.<\/p>\n

          6. Research scientific literature on speed bump research and design<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

          I went back to the technical\u00a0library and searched the literature on speed bump research and design in Canada, the U.S., England, and Australia.\u00a0\u00a0I struck gold.\u00a0 I found original research papers on work carried out in California.\u00a0 One paper was quite detailed in describing the precise layout of a\u00a0test site.\u00a0\u00a0An objective of the research was the evaluation of the effects of different configurations and heights\u00a0of speed bump on the control of vehicles travelling at different speeds.<\/p>\n

          This was precisely my situation: The effect of a speed-bump-like pile of material on\u00a0the control of a vehicle on a highway.\u00a0 I had my forensic engineering investigative method.<\/p>\n

          7. Research transportation authorities in North America and Europe<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

          I was asked to evaluate the severity of the pile of material as a hazard – if it was found to be such.<\/p>\n

          I went\u00a0back to researching the scientific literature, particularly the various transportation authorities and agencies for information on assessing the\u00a0severity of hazards on our highways.\u00a0 Groups like these set the standards for our highways. \u00a0I found reference to “severity indexes”.<\/p>\n

          I did\u00a0not pursue this research because, as you are certain to\u00a0appreciate, I was starting other\u00a0tasks in the engineering investigation,\u00a0particularly planning, design and construction of a “speed bump” test site.<\/p>\n

          As\u00a0you will see in the following,\u00a0I did not need a severity index classification system to tell\u00a0the RCMP that the pile of material involved in the accident was a hazard and a severe one.<\/p>\n

          8. Design a full scale preliminary re-enactment of the accident on bare roads<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

          I decided to carry out a full scale re-enactment of the accident, initially on bare roads in the interests of safety.\u00a0 I wanted to learn how the vehicle would behave on bare roads and use the data to refine the\u00a0design before planning to carry out similar tests on more dangerous snow-covered roads.<\/p>\n

          A full scale field test that simulates conditions during an accident – a re-enactment, is simple, practical, visual, and\u00a0the\u00a0results are easy to understand\/see by non-technical people.<\/p>\n

          My design consisted of a simple modification of the speed bump research sites that I found in the literature.\u00a0 The modification included the dimensions of the pile of material and the highway lane width at the accident site.\u00a0\u00a0It was a fairly simple design to think\u00a0through and portray in a drawing to guide\u00a0construction.<\/p>\n

          The design consisted of\u00a0the\u00a0lane of a “highway” with the pile of material and\u00a0its dimensions\u00a0shown on the drawing part way along the lane.<\/p>\n

          The\u00a0area of the\u00a0lane beyond the down-highway\u00a0end of the pile of material\u00a0was marked off in one foot graduations across the lane.\u00a0\u00a0Like a\u00a0large ruler on the lane.<\/p>\n

          Similar graduations were marked off on a\u00a0large sheet of plywood\u00a0but\u00a0at six inch\u00a0intervals.\u00a0 This was to\u00a0form a vertical ruler set off to the side of the lane opposite the pile of material.<\/p>\n

          The test lane was about 400 feet long with the pile of material near the middle.\u00a0\u00a0The lane was made the same width as at the accident site.\u00a0 The pile\u00a0was cone-shaped in section along the lane.\u00a0\u00a0It extended across the lane and about 10 feet along the lane.\u00a0\u00a0The pile\u00a0was about 15 inches\u00a0high.<\/p>\n

          The re-enactment would involve driving the jeep-like vehicle down the lane at different speeds and over the pile of material.\u00a0 It was expected the jeep would be airborne after hitting the pile of material, as found during the speed bump research.\u00a0 The rulers would measure how high and how far the jeep travelled airborne\u00a0before landing back on the lane.\u00a0 It was expected that the height and distance would vary depending on the speed.<\/p>\n

          9. Plan a full scale re-enactment of the accident on a snow covered test site implementing refinements to the re-enactment including safety measures derived from the preliminary testing<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

          This was the plan – taking full scale testing in stages – first on a bare road then on a snow-covered road, and learning as we progressed.\u00a0 But testing\u00a0wasn’t carried out on a snow-covered site for a very good reason as explained below.<\/span><\/p>\n

          10. Design a videotaping and measuring of the re-enactment<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

          It was decided to film the field tests to\u00a0get a record of the jeep’s behaviour as it drove down the test lane and over the pile of material.\u00a0 The filming would also\u00a0record the measured height\u00a0and distance the vehicle would be airborne during the test.<\/p>\n

          A camerman would be stationed opposite the pile of material to record the height and the distance the jeep travelled airborne.\u00a0 Another was to be positioned in the bucket of a boom truck down the\u00a0lane and\u00a0approximately 50\u00a0feet above the lane to film a birds-eye view of the travel of the vehicle as it drove over the pile of material and on down the lane.\u00a0 A third was to ride in the jeep with the driver to record the behaviour of the vehicle as experienced by the driver.<\/p>\n

          Finally, a camerman was\u00a0to fly\u00a0over the test site in a helicopter to record the layout of the test site.\u00a0 The camerman would also film the vehicle\u00a0stationary\u00a0on the pile of material at the angle suggested by the tracks in the pile at the accident site.\u00a0 The RCMP\u00a0provided the helicopter.<\/p>\n

          11. Construct a\u00a0full scale test\u00a0site on an airport taxiway<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

          A full\u00a0scale test site was constructed on an airport taxiway according to the\u00a0design and dimensions described above.\u00a0\u00a0Permission to use the taxiway was arranged by the RCMP.<\/p>\n

          12. Re-enact and videotape the accident on the test site<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

          Tests were carried out and filmed driving the vehicle over the pile of material at speeds of 20 km\/hr initially and then at 30 km\/hr.\u00a0 The jeep was driven across\u00a0the\u00a0pile at right angles instead of at an angle as thought to have\u00a0occurred\u00a0during the accident.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

          Tests were planned at higher speeds including the 50 km\/hr travelled by the vehicle during the accident as concluded by the RCMP.\u00a0 These tests were postponed because they would have been too dangerous without safety provisions for the driver.<\/span><\/p>\n

          I drove the vehicle during the tests.\u00a0 I was struck by the erratic behaviour of the jeep on\u00a0driving over the pile\u00a0of material at 30 km\/hr and\u00a0the measure of\u00a0difficulty controlling the jeep to avoid\u00a0hitting the boom truck down lane.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

          13. Analyse the videotape for evidence respecting the technical issues<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

          It was enough experiencing the\u00a0erratic\u00a0and dangerous behaviour of the jeep during the test at 30 km\/hr on bare highway, and viewing this on film, to\u00a0conclude that the pile of material was a hazard on a snow-covered highway at 50 km\/hr.\u00a0 This resolved Technical issue #1 above.<\/p>\n

          There was insufficient information to assess the severity of the risk except to suspect it was high by whatever standard\u00a0of evaluation was used.\u00a0 Technical issue #2.<\/p>\n

          There was insufficient information to conclude if the pile of material caused the fatal MVA.\u00a0 Technical issue #3.<\/p>\n

          14. Edit the videotape to portray the re-enactment in a report<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

          There was approximately 30 minutes of film recorded by the three cameramen during the testing in this case.\u00a0 This was edited to approximately 4 minutes for each camera and transferred to a DVD with voice overlay describing what was being viewed in each of three\u00a0windows.\u00a0 The DVD accompanied a report on the testing.<\/p>\n

          15. Report on the preliminary findings including safety issues<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

          A report was\u00a0prepared on the testing generally as outlined above.\u00a0 The report basically concluded that it was too dangerous to continue the testing without safety\u00a0precaustions for the driver.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

          The report was presented to the RCMP and reviewed in a meeting.\u00a0 The RCMP stopped the testing all together stating, “You’ve told us all we need to know”.\u00a0 Presumably, the testing addressed all the technical issues to the satisfaction of the client.<\/span><\/p>\n

          Cause<\/h1>\n

          The RCMP indicated, by stopping the forensic engineering investigation at the conclusion of\u00a0an abbreviated preliminary stage, that the technical issues\u00a0had been resolved and that they knew the cause of the fatal MVA.<\/p>\n

          Post mortem<\/h1>\n

          The matter was settled out of court.<\/p>\n

          Lessons learned<\/strong><\/h1>\n

          1. The importance of researching the scientific and engineering literature.\u00a0 It’s easy today and there’s lots out there.<\/p>\n

          2. Full scale field tests are practical, and the results are easy to see and understand by non-technical people.<\/p>\n

          3. Professional cameramen should be retained to film\u00a0all\u00a0field testing, particularly cases where movement is involved.<\/p>\n

          4. The value of generating a picture of the\u00a0scene of an\u00a0accident or an engineering failure\u00a0at the\u00a0time of the incident using programs like Photoshop.<\/p>\n

          References<\/strong><\/p>\n

          1. “Technical” visual site assessments: Valuable, low cost, forensic engineering method.\u00a0 My blog posted on this site, September 4, 2012<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          (The following is one in a series of cases I have investigated that illustrate the different forensic engineering methods I use to investigate the cause of failures and accidents that result in civil litigation.\u00a0 The update is a very detailed, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1253"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1253"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1286,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1253\/revisions\/1286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}