How do you get evidence about the speed\u00a0of a car\u00a0from cracks in the pavement or trees at the corner?\u00a0 How do you get reliable, quantitative\u00a0evidence from\u00a0the qualitative data on a mobile phone?\u00a0 Evidence that will stand up in court?<\/p>\n
This is being done now by a new forensic investigation method<\/strong>.\u00a0 It requires knowing what to look for in the phone’s video, some measurements with a carpenter’s tape, Google earth, a little junior high math and\u00a0lots of software.<\/p>\n It’s called video velocity analysis, <\/em>a scary\u00a0title but remember: Carpenter’s tapes, junior high math\u00a0and modern technology\u00a0make it happen.<\/p>\n Video of aircraft accidents taken by witnesses has been analysed since 2008.\u00a0 The crash of TransAsia flight 235 on February 4, 2015 in the Keelung River shortly after takeoff from the Taipei Songshan Airport\u00a0was caught on three separate witness cameras, and was subsequently analysed.\u00a0 Video of traffic accidents is now being\u00a0done the same way.<\/p>\n Reliable forensic evidence<\/strong><\/p>\n The qualitative data on traffic cameras and car dashboard cameras is also being used, as well as mobile phones to learn the speed of a\u00a0car at the time of\u00a0an accident.\u00a0 In fact, it was\u00a0the cross checking of\u00a0an assessment of car speed from three different sources of soft data –\u00a0mobile phone, traffic camera and dash camera –\u00a0in field trials with a car with\u00a0a speedometer and GPS, that has\u00a0demonstrated the accuracy\u00a0of this new method.<\/p>\n How accurate is an assessment of car speed using these types of simple cameras?\u00a0 Depending on the circumstances, within about 2 km\/hour – pretty hard evidence in a court case.<\/strong><\/p>\n Google Earth\u00a0sometimes figures in this type of\u00a0assessment as well.\u00a0 How accurate is the quantitative data from the eye in the sky, kilometres high?\u00a0 How about within a few centimetres on the ground in urban areas.<\/p>\n Evidence based on junior high math\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The basic principle is simple enough.\u00a0 Measure the distance between two\u00a0points on the ground seen in\u00a0mobile phone\u00a0video, note the time on the video for the car to travel this distance, divide one by the other – junior high math – and you’ve got your car speed.\u00a0 Photogrammetry, the science of making reliable measurements using photographs, is sometimes\u00a0used\u00a0in this work but the principle is simple.<\/p>\n What does the analyst look for in the\u00a0mobile phone\u00a0video, traffic camera or dash camera?\u00a0 Basically, anything on or near the ground that can give distance that can be\u00a0correlated with time which is also taken off the camera.\u00a0 Things like the distance between construction cracks in the pavement, dashes on road centre lines and lane markings.\u00a0The analyst\u00a0is\u00a0also interested in anything that can be\u00a0seen on Google Earth.<\/p>\n Car speed in accidents has been measured other ways for years and continues to be.\u00a0\u00a0Using mobile phones\u00a0is new, can be more accurate and provides an\u00a0opportunity for the\u00a0cross checking essential to good engineering and applied science.\u00a0 I had the\u00a0cross checking of data drilled into me by Major James A. H. Church when I studied land surveying at the College of Geographic Sciences. (Ref. 1)<\/p>\n Explained in Moncton, NB in 2017<\/strong><\/p>\n This all came out in a lecture I took last\u00a0fall\u00a0in Moncton by Major Adam R. Cybanski, Gyro Flight and Safety Analysis,\u00a0Ottawa, on a new technique for learning car speed in an accident.\u00a0(Ref. 2)<\/p>\n Major Cybanski\u00a0has been\u00a0instrumental in developing the technique using the simple, inexpensive mobile cameras that are\u00a0everywhere today.\u00a0 He specializes in video analysis and accident reconstruction for aircraft and auto accidents.\u00a0\u00a0Adam flew all manner of aircraft in the air force over the years, slowly moved into the investigation of the cause of\u00a0aircraft accidents and more recently into auto accidents.<\/p>\n And used in court cases<\/strong><\/p>\n He\u00a0believes he is one of a few in the world using this analytical technique.\u00a0 In 2016\u00a0he had\u00a0one case, but this grew to 14 cases from different accident sites in the world in 2017.\u00a0 Video speed analysis has been used in several court cases and as of March, 2017 has not been contested.<\/p>\n An analysis took him many months initially when he was developing the technique using witness video.\u00a0 It is something he can now do in a few days, depending on the location of the accident and the features visible in the video.\u00a0 Time is spent cross checking an analysis; getting the car’s speed from more than one camera.<\/p>\n Vehicle speed is just one element in accident reconstruction but an important one.\u00a0 Adam gets camera data sent to him from the principle investigator wherever he or she is\u00a0in the world, analyses the data and sends the auto speed back to the investigator.\u00a0 He doesn’t need to visit the site in most cases.\u00a0 His speeds have been validated using speed radar guns, GPS and Event Data Recorders – the “black boxs” installed in some cars to get information during accidents.<\/p>\n The lecture was\u00a0organized by CATAIR, the Canadian Association of Technical Accident Investigators & Reconstructionists, Atlantic region.\u00a0 Dr. Stuart Smith, secretary of CATAIR knew of Major Cybanski and his technique and suggested inviting him to Moncton to speak.\u00a0 Stu reconstructs traffic accidents in his practice including analysing vehicle speed. (Ref. 3)<\/p>\n The take-away<\/strong><\/p>\n What’s the take-away from this blog?\u00a0 A new and\u00a0accurate\u00a0method is available to check vehicle speed in an accident as determined in more conventional ways.\u00a0 The results are reliable and accepted as evidence in court.\u00a0 And expertise is as near as your e-mail.\u00a0 The speed of anything that moves can be analysed if caught on a mobile camera.<\/p>\n References<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How do you get evidence about the speed\u00a0of a car\u00a0from cracks in the pavement or trees at the corner?\u00a0 How do you get reliable, quantitative\u00a0evidence from\u00a0the qualitative data on a mobile phone?\u00a0 Evidence that will stand up in court? This … Continue reading \n