In some car accidents and truck accidents, it may be clear who caused the wreck. There are many accidents, though, where it’s not clear how the accident occurred or who is responsible. In some cases, both drivers may be partially at fault – though the driver that struck you was much more negligent. In multiple-car accidents, it’s often unclear how the chain reaction of collisions occurred.

When the way the accident happened isn’t clear or when the insurance carrier denies liability even though the cause of the accident is clear, an experienced car accident lawyer arranges for an accident reconstruction expert to determine the cause of the accident.

Accident reconstruction evidence is usually considered more reliable than the testimony of the witnesses and even the parties to the case because memories are often unreliable and fade with time. While emergency situations may increase our adrenaline, emergency situations aren’t reliable indicators that a driver’s memory was good at the time of the crash. Accident reconstruction evidence is more scientifically-based.

How do accident reconstruction experts perform their analysis?

According to Expert Institute, an “accident reconstruction specialist, as the name suggests, can recreate the scene in a way that answers unknown questions about the incident.” Accident reconstruction uses scientific principles including physics, engineering, and mathematics to determine how the accident occurred. Using these principles; the reconstruction professional can “form opinions as to velocity, collision angles, driver visibility, and other causal factors of the accident.”

The sooner an accident reconstruction expert is called to the accident scene the better. This means that if you are injured in a crash, you should contact an experienced Knoxville car accident lawyer as quickly as possible. The expert needs to examine skid marks, the placement of road signs and shrubbery, the weather conditions, road debris, and other evidence that may be cleared away or disappear with time. Reconstruction experts also inspect the roadway surfaces and “airbag control modules (the “black boxes” which sometimes store data on speed and other variables) [that] are critical pieces of the puzzle.”

If you’re involved in an accident, you should try to take videos or pictures of the accident site. Those images will be of great help to the accident reconstruction expert.

The crash reconstruction expert also needs to inspect the vehicles involved in the crash – before any repairs are made. The car can provide information that shows how the accident likely happened – based on where the damage to the car is and the severity of the damage. The car “may also contain human hair, skin, and blood that can provide insight as to the driver and passenger movement.”

Once the reconstruction expert visits the accident site and inspects the damaged cars, he/she can apply the appropriate scientific principles to determine how the accident happened. Once it’s known how the accident happened, the reconstruction expert can also give an opinion as to which driver was negligent and why.

How the speed of the car can be determined?

One of the most important statistics the accident reconstruction expert looks for is the speed of the vehicles when they collided. The expert uses different methods to determine speed such as energy analysis, which refers to the mathematical description of the vehicle’s speed and weight. A vehicle’s kinetic energy, or motion energy, is decreased by factors such as the road surface and vehicle damage:

A vehicle’s energy can also be transferred upon impact to another piece of property (i.e., a car hitting into a wall or utility pole). The speed of a vehicle pre-impact – an important factor when determining driver negligence – can be mathematically calculated by figuring out the energy loss of each factor, such as the road surface, and then adding the equivalent speeds of all factors to find the “combined speeds equation.” Because some energy cannot be quantified, the combined speeds equation typically yields the minimum speed of the driver.

The accident reconstruction expert may also use:

• Drag factor analysis, which analyzes the length of the skid marks on the ground from the tires.
• Crush analysis, a “replication of the accident on the point of impact to compare damage.”
• The point of impact of the object – like a car or a telephone pole – to determine the speed the vehicle was traveling at the time.
• Time distance analysis, which “can be used to determine numerous factors surrounding the accident such as the initial distance from the impact, the time available for action and to avoid the collision, and any potential reaction delays or inattentiveness of the driver.”

The accident reconstruction expert will also examine the driver’s visibility which includes the weather, the lighting conditions, the location of the cars in relation to the light, and any warning of oncoming traffic.

The testimony of the accident reconstruction expert

All the work the expert does to determine how the accident occurred doesn’t do any good unless the expert can present the evidence in court.

The expert witness needs to show he/she is qualified to give an opinion about the cause of the accident based on his/her education and experience. Generally, the expert’s basis for making the determination about how the accident occurred should be reliable and comply with certain professional standards. The expert’s opinion can’t be speculative.

It’s not enough that the expert’s opinion be admissible. Accident reconstruction experts should understand how to make their testimony clear and understandable by the jury. It takes a certain art to explain scientific principles. Computer graphics and other visual aids can make the explanation easier to understand.

At Banks & Jones, our Knoxville personal injury lawyers have been fighting for injury victims for nearly 30 years. We work aggressively to determine who caused your injuries or the death of a loved one. We demand compensation for you pain and suffering, lost income, all your medical expenses, the damage to your car, and all other damages Tennessee law permits. To speak with an experienced car accident lawyer in Knoxville, please complete our contact form or call us at 865-546-2141 to schedule a free consultation. We represent injury victims throughout Tennessee.