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Drink and drive?
Australian 5 minute YouTube video. Graphic content of what really happens when drinking is mixed with driving. Highly recommended for teens or twenty-somethings with an invincibility complex.
read moreNuclear icebreakers
Just in case you are wondering, here is a link to a gizmag article on nuclear icebreakers. It gives a nice overview of the state of the art and where the industry is...
read moreStolen, recovered, burned
The case of the month involves a vehicle that was reported as stolen and then was subsequently recovered. Unfortunately, it was badly burned. GEI was assigned by the insurance company to inspect the vehicle for signs of forced entry, compromised door locks or steering locks, defeated ignition systems, and to determine the origin & cause of the fire. The vehicle was inspected at the impound yard. While the engine compartment suffered only minor fire damage, the fire consumed all of the combustibles of the interior. Forced entry marks were...
read moreEvidence photography by Bill Sommers
Here you are, at the scene of an accident, autopsy, or you are at an insurance vehicle storage yard, and you have with you, your camera. You are going to take pictures of the evidence that lies before you. Why? Why are you going to take photos of the evidence at hand? Every peace officer, accident investigator, reconstructionist, insurance adjuster, or other person with an interest at stake takes pictures of the vehicle, or injuries to persons. The reasons fall into two main categories. These reasons are, generally, (1) preservation of...
read moreA freeway chain reaction
The case of the month involves a four-vehicle series of impacts that occurred on a freeway before sunrise. The first vehicle, a Ford F150, stalled. It displayed no vehicle or hazard warning lights. The second driver in a Camry failed to see the Ford quickly enough and rear-ended it in the darkness. Our client’s son was driving his dad’s Mercedes-Benz, and he, too, failed to slow for the stopped vehicles, neither of which displayed any lighting. At the last moment when he did see them, he swerved to the left in an effort to avoid...
read moreCan failed retaining walls be safely rebuilt?
The insured’s back yard retaining walls failed. A concrete deck was cracked, one retaining wall was tipped, two retaining walls had collapsed, and a water line was broken. The client had two questions for GEI. First, did the walls fail first, breaking the pipe or did the water line fail first, causing the walls to fail? Secondly, the client asked GEI to inspect the insured’s site to identify the slope soil conditions and determine if the walls could be safely rebuilt. The answer to the first question was that the damages to the...
read moreThe teenaged vehicle theft – Oh really?
The insured’s daughter parked her vehicle at school and when she came out of class the vehicle was gone. Then she noticed that she had lost her key. The vehicle was later recovered by the police and returned to the owner. The owner then filed a claim with their insurance company for transmission damages and damage to both the exterior and interior surfaces. GEI was assigned to inspect the vehicle and determine if the claimed damages to the exterior, interior, and transmission were a result of the theft. Our expert examined the vehicle...
read moreI see – that’s a problem
by William Sommers Fully Accredited Traffic Accident Reconstructionist (ACTAR #268) Editor’s note: The following article was written for Gold Wing magazine, and bears reprinting. “But officer, I…I didn’t see him. I just didn’t see him”. In my 30+ years of investigating accidents for two Southern California law enforcement agencies, as well as my own private practice, I have heard something like the previous statement a hundred times. I am an ACTAR accredited traffic accident reconstructionist, and a NHTSA certified police Drug...
read moreMay 2011 ARCCSI Conference
This May I attended this year’s ARC-CSI conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Monday was spent at the track crashing cars into each other (seven crashes, including two Toyotas), and Tuesday – Thursday was spent in presentations on various accident reconstruction topics plus analysis of Monday’s staged crashes. As usual, the presentations were excellent. Much of it was so specialized as to not be of interest to most of our readers, but there were a couple of tidbits that I think are worth passing on. In particular, I’ll summarize...
read moreTransponders bypassed?
Guest Article: Transponders Bypassed? by Thomas G. Seroogy, Certified Forensic Locksmith A 2005 VW Passat was reported stolen and was soon recovered. The steering column had been attacked, and the wiring on the back of the ignition switch was pulled off. The insured stated that law enforcement had told him the wires were pulled off of the ignition lock and hotwired to start and steal the vehicle. A forensic examination of the ignition lock and immobilizer system proved otherwise, and it was determined that the damaged wiring could not have...
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