Accident Reconstruction


Accident reconstruction is an important tool for forensically determining the cause of a serious injury or death. It also puts into place procedures and safeguards that will prevent a reoccurrence of the accident.

The Purpose of Accident Reconstruction

Construction sites of all types and sizes are subject to federal, state, and local safety rules designed to protect workers and visitors alike, but accidents will and do still happen. Knowing all the possible causes and ramifications of those accidents is of vital importance to owners, contractors, investigators, and the general public. Accident reconstruction serves as an important way of making the worksite a safer environment for workers, visitors, and even trespassers (whose unlawful presence on a site might lead to injury to themselves or others as well as damage to the property itself).

Types of Accident Reconstruction

In preparing for any litigation that stems out of a construction site accident, accident reconstruction experts will attempt to document the circumstances of a given accident through the accounts of any eyewitnesses to the incident as well as thorough an on-site investigation of the incident in question.

Photography and Accident Reconstruction

One way to document the accident scene is through the taking of photographs. Every conceivable angle will be covered in the aftermath of the accident, documenting any equipment that might have been involved and any other variables that might come into play.

Video and Accident Reconstruction

Video photography of the scene is another good tool for accident reconstruction as it can show not only the scene but how any machine or equipment that might have been involved in the accident works, sounds, and moves when it is being operated. Video also has the added benefit of allowing for expert narration to explain and interpret what is being seen—this is extremely valuable, of course, for trying to make things clear for lay people who might be on a jury considering the ramifications of a construction site accident.

Computer Animation and Accident Reconstruction

A powerful forensic tool for accident reconstruction is computer animation, which can reconstruct the accident based on the facts as they are known and/or on the testimony of qualified experts surmising what they believe has happened. A visual reconstruction of the accident gives people a better idea of how the accident happened (or at least how it could have happened). It also makes it somewhat easier to root out causes, assign liability, and, most importantly, computer animation makes it easier to determine how to avoid future accidents of the same nature. Computer animation, which has come down in cost and has become much easier to produce, is a cost effective and powerful alternative to the expensive, time-consuming, and bulky practice of creating scaled down 3-D models of accident scenes that used to be commonplace in the field of construction accident reconstruction.

By Michael Willis