Truck Accident Reconstruction in Indianapolis, IN
Among the knowledgeable professionals that we may consult to understand how a complex semi-truck crash or car crash happened is a car accident reconstructionist. A reconstructionist is a forensic investigator who can help us answer questions about driver actions, mechanics, and other contributing factors associated with large commercial truck accidents.
At Craig, Kelley & Faultless LLC, in Indianapolis, our attorneys have successfully handled many personal injury cases stemming from car and truck accidents. We have the resources to identify what occurred in a crash and the determination to pursue the full compensation our clients need to rebuild their lives.
Driver negligence and other issues lead to car and truck accidents that cause serious injuries every day in Indiana. In a truck accident, the consequences of an 80,000-pound, fully loaded 18-wheeler colliding with a passenger car can be devastating to those in the smaller vehicle. If you or your loved one has been the victim of a motor vehicle accident in Indiana, contact our team at Craig, Kelley & Faultless for help recovering compensation for your losses.
What Is a Truck Accident Reconstruction?
After a car or truck accident, it is not unusual for those involved to have different recollections of what happened. People’s memories can be tricky, especially after the shock of being injured.
Accident reconstruction is one of the tools investigators use to find out what happened in accidents that are not easily explained. Techniques used to re-create a crash rely on principles of physics, engineering, mathematics, and photogrammetry (interpreting photographs, patterns of electromagnetic radiant imagery, and other phenomena).
An accident reconstructionist will examine a variety of technical data to develop a detailed analysis of a car or truck accident and present their findings to our attorneys in narrative form. If an accident claim goes to court, the motor vehicle accident reconstructionist can testify as an expert witness and supplement their testimony with a multi-media animation of their findings. An experienced motor vehicle accident reconstruction expert can prove very persuasive to a jury.
What Evidence Is Used In a Motor Vehicle Accident Reconstruction?
Reconstructing a car or truck accident is a methodical undertaking. The reconstructionist will begin by reviewing the evidence we have gathered, including the:
- Police report that typically contains the responding officer’s description of what happened and any readily identifiable cause, as well as weather, road, and traffic conditions.
- Accident scene photos, which show the final resting positions of vehicles involved in the crash, their damage, and crash debris, such as broken glass, skid marks, scrub marks, and gouges.
- Statements from our client and any accident witnesses
- Our client’s medical records describing their injuries
- Any video surveillance footage that shows the crash or crash scene within a relevant time frame
At the crash scene, the truck accident reconstructionist can use electronic surveying equipment to produce a computer-generated scale diagram of the accident.
If we have been contacted soon enough after a crash, we will move to have the vehicles involved in the accident preserved so they may be examined. In addition to recording damage in detail, our expert will inspect vehicle components such as brakes, steering, tires, suspension, and lights to determine whether their condition contributed to the accident.
We also can download data from a car or truck’s Event Data Recorder (EDR). These black box devices record technical information about the vehicle’s movement before, during, and after a collision. Most commercial truck manufacturers have been installing EDRs in large trucks since the late 1990s. They have been required in passenger vehicles made since 2013.
A vehicle’s EDR records such data as:
- Date and time
- Vehicle speed
- Engine speed
- Change in velocity (Delta-V)
- Longitudinal acceleration
- Lateral acceleration
- Steering wheel angle
- Brake application
- Anti-lock braking system activity
- Seatbelt usage
- Percent throttle
- Yaw rate
- Roll angle
- Gear selection
- Tire pressure
All of this information allows the truck accident reconstruction specialist to develop various scenarios for how the accident may have occurred. For example, by applying principles of physics, a forensic investigator can determine the speed of each vehicle and/or their relative positions just before the collision, at the point of impact, and afterward.
In addition to speed, the motor vehicle accident reconstructionist can create different scenarios of how the accident could have occurred based on mathematical equations applied to:
- Pre- and post-impact direction of travel
- Length of pre-impact skid marks
- Distances moved following the impact
- Friction values for the various surfaces the vehicles traveled over
- Point of impact
- Impact angles
- Vehicle weights
As part of the report, a truck reconstructionist can create animated computer simulations of each probable crash scenario with detailed depictions of each vehicle and how vehicle occupants were affected by the initial impact of the crash, secondary impact within the vehicle, and ejection from the vehicle.
In their report and testimony, a truck accident reconstruction specialist will establish a timeline of what happened at each point in the accident and identify how driver error, a defective vehicle part or system, and other factors caused or contributed to the crash.
We Can Help Reconstructing a Truck Accident Scene in Indianapolis, IN
Contact an attorney as soon as you can after being injured in a car or truck accident so that the vehicles and the accident scene can be examined in a timely manner and information in the black box data recorder can be retrieved as possible evidence. In Indiana, Craig, Kelley & Faultless LLC can move quickly to conduct a thorough investigation of a serious accident, identify the parties at fault, calculate your losses, and pursue all of the compensation available to you under Indiana law.
Contact Craig, Kelley & Faultless in Indianapolis, IN, today at (800) 746-0226 or online for a free, no-obligation review of your accident and injuries. Our firm serves clients throughout Indiana. We will set up an appointment in your home or at a location convenient for you.