The Role Accident Reconstruction Plays in Personal Injury Cases
Michael Babboni
Personal Injury
After a car accident, it can be difficult to determine at times who was actually at fault. That is when accident reconstruction can step in and become a valuable tool for helping demonstrate where the fault lies as you pursue compensation for your injuries and other damages.The Cause of an Accident
Identifying who was at fault for the accident is an important step in the process if you are seeking compensation. Your personal injury attorney should be able to understand the different principles needed to start unraveling the events that took place leading up to the accident.
Expert Testimony
To help prove fault, lawyers often turn to experts and work closely with investigators to figure out exactly how an accident happened. Many seek counsel from automobile, engineering, and accident reconstruction experts. They know how to evaluate all the evidence available and can then testify about their expert findings in court.
What Is Accident Reconstruction?
So, what exactly is accident reconstruction? It is the process of investigating, analyzing, and then drawing conclusions about the cause of an accident and the events that transpired during the collision.
It is often considered a key element in determining the cause and the fault of an accident. It helps identify negligence and if the accident was caused due to carelessness, aggressive driving behavior, road hazards, or even equipment failure, among others.
The Process
Accident reconstruction has many steps as the experts gather all the evidence they can. One step of the process is the vehicle inspection. Studying photographs from the accident is important, but they can get even more information when inspecting the collision vehicles themselves.
Through this inspection, they can put together a vehicle crush profile and consider the extent as well as the direction of the structural damage that might provide some insight into the severity and type of the collision.
Investigators will also often visit the accident scene, look at as much physical evidence they can, review photos and video, and read through police reports. All of the information they gather is then used with reconstruction software to simulate the accident and determine who is at fault.
They make their conclusions based on the evidence, the accounts, witness reports, and the simulations they were able to create. Some experts also use diagrams and video simulations in court to show people what they believe happened. This helps people further understand what might have happened, leading up to and during the collision.
Do the Police Investigate?
The duty of a police officer following an accident is to document basic information about what happened. They can try to determine fault by interviewing each party involved and any witnesses on the scene to see if any traffic laws may have been violated leading up to and during the collision.
However, few accidents are investigated in more depth by the police if there are no fatalities involved. This means that the details needed to reconstruct the accident are severely lacking in many cases.
Whether you choose to use expert witnesses or accident reconstruction or not, you still want to have an experienced personal injury attorney on your side, especially if the person at fault is still being determined. Your attorney can help you gather all the evidence and documentation you need to prove your case while walking you through the process from beginning to end.