A recent accident involving an ambulance and a 2005 Saturn claimed the life of the car’s driver, whose car collided with the ambulance during a left turn onto a major street. While officials on the scene completed detailed reports at the time of the accident, crash investigators are still lacking critical information regarding the cause of the accident. Situations such as this can create major problems in criminal investigations and civil suits to recover damages.
Reconstruction team tackles difficult collisions
To fill in evidentiary gaps in this recent fatal collision, a statewide team of crash investigators was brought in to carry out elaborate accident reconstructions. Consisting of five to six state troopers, the Arkansas State Police (ASP) Reconstruction Team includes nationally certified investigators who perform digital and computer-assisted investigations of traffic accidents. In this case, the team hopes to pinpoint the precise cause of the crash.
The team often uses information gathered from vehicles’ event data recorders, which are the equivalent of a plane’s black box recorder. These devices contain critical data regarding the moments leading up to and during the accident itself. Other information such as weather conditions and speed are also used to paint an accurate portrait of collisions. When the team is successful, it is able to determine with precision what occurred at the exact moment a collision occurred.
More accurate than eyewitnesses?
Accident reconstruction can be so accurate that it can actually cause law enforcement officers to change their initial reports and determinations of cause. In one recent case, an initial investigation indicated that a pickup up truck had been pushed into another lane via a side collision. The crash reconstruction revealed that no side collision could have taken place, completely altering theories of what caused the accident.
When accidents occur, qualified personal injury lawyers can work with you to determine cause and establish fault.
