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Detailed,
Accurate Diagram Worth a Thousand Words in Court
By Bob Galvin
PRINTABLE
VERSION
If Perry Mason
had been an accident reconstructionist instead of the hard-charging
attorney we relished watching in his television courtroom, he
no doubt would have created the most accurate and detailed diagram
of his time for that notorious "Exhibit A." Perry would
have diagrammed his scene with the same veracity with which he
fought to win his clients' cases on primetime, minus the benefit
of today's total station or CAD drawing programs.
Nevertheless,
it's safe to say that a Perry Mason exactitude applies to accident
scene diagrams more than ever today now that technology is able
to give a diagrammed scene a compelling, "you are there"
look and feel. Yet, while drawing software programs and total
station systems abound in the marketplace, technology is not the
cure-all for presenting a complete and factual diagram in court.
Equally important is the painstaking research required of the
reconstructionist to create the diagram. After all, an overlooked
detail, misplaced object, or erroneous measurement can quickly
skew the whole scene once it is finally diagrammed. And when a
flawed diagram is exposed in court, it can be disastrous both
for the reconstructionist and his client.
Document
Carefully, Photograph Everything
So, what are
some rules to follow for ensuring that your methodology for preparing
a diagram and diagramming the scene itself will be credible enough
to withstand courtroom scrutiny?
"The
first thing I can tell anybody to do is document, document, and
document some more," says John Howell, CEO of John Howell
& Associates, an accident reconstruction firm based in Las
Vegas, Nevada. Howell, a former reconstructionist for Washoe County
Sheriff's Office in Reno, and for the Nevada Highway Patrol, always
starts his documentation by making a field sketch-what he calls
the "first level" of documentation. The sketch should
be complete, clear and easily understandable, and as accurate
as you can make it. The field sketch, he notes, is basically notes,
measurements, and information. "Very seldom will it be seen,"
Howell explains, "but if you can't have a firm base from
which to start preparing a diagram, you're going to wind up with
problems, and with a diagram that is not a proper view or reconstruction
of the scene. If this happens just once, your reputation suffers
greatly."
Next, Howell
continues, it is vital to photograph everything at the scene,
especially if you're fortunate enough to be able to visit the
scene while it's still intact. "The photos give a little
more of a clue as to where everything is. This gives you a feeling
when you're actually preparing the diagram of what occurred in
the accident," said Howell." If you cannot actually
photograph the scene, which is most common since reconstructionists
often are assigned an accident case two or three years after it's
happened, collect every photograph you can.
Mike Bann,
who operates Accident Measurement Mapping/West Mark Engineering,
Inc., in Yuma, Arizona, agrees with Howell on the pivotal importance
of taking or obtaining photos of an accident scene. "The
photos should reflect what's on the drawing," says Bann.
"If the corner of the fender, the light pole, and the corner
of the house line up, these items must also line up in the drawing."
Since
Scenes Can Change, Research Many Sources
Of course,
the older the accident, the more detective work is required of
the reconstructionist. This could mean that evidence will be sparse
and need to be collected from numerous sources. In this instance,
you'll have to use any diagrams or field sketches that were made
on the scene at the time by law enforcement agencies. You also
will have to use photos that were taken by law enforcement personnel
or insurance agents.
To further
complicate the research, roadmaps can change over time due to
an area's urban growth. Therefore, the original scene may change
- an intersection may have widened, lanes restructured or re-striped,
and traffic signals installed or changed. Such changes may require
that you obtain aerial photos that may have been taken at the
time of the accident to recreate the intersection.
Choose
An Accurate, Tailored Drawing Program
Another consideration
important to building a solid diagram is its overall look, according
to Bann. "There are always a ton of pictures," he said.
"What you really need to be sure of is that you give the
diagram the most realistic look because what you're trying to
reconstruct is the actual scene." To achieve such a realistic
diagram requires a reliable and feature-rich software drawing
program. Both Bann and Howell use The Crash Zone Version 6.0 from
The CAD Zone of Beaverton, Oregon. While they acknowledge that
other drawing programs on the market are good software tools,
they prefer The Crash Zone because it is well tailored to the
needs of today's reconstructionist, is quick and easy to learn,
and yields a highly accurate diagram when used correctly.
Get
Lost In The Details
Bann likes
The Crash Zone because it allows him to recreate an accident scene
as vividly as possible with symbols like curbs, guardrails, fences,
vehicles, trees and shrubs. After all, Bann said, "If you're
having trouble with your scenes in court, it may be because there's
not enough information in them and you've made them too simple."
Just how crucial
it is to be thorough with diagramming is evident when witnesses
give their testimony and it doesn't quite match with where they
were standing at the scene at the time the accident occurred.
For example, Bann recalls one case that his firm handled for the
City of Yuma involving an intersection, gas station and a convenience
store. The area covered a quarter-mile-by-quarter-mile distance.
"It (the diagram) had to show the windows and elevations
of objects because people were standing around from 50 to 1,000
feet away, claiming they saw certain things," Bann explains.
"In reality, when we used Crash Zone to produce the diagram
showing shrubbery, gas pumps, and all the poles, they could not
have seen much with these obstructions," Bann added.
As part of
his diagrams, Bann uses The Crash Zone's 3-D feature to provide
optimal views of all angles, objects, people and locations. "When
you build the scene to scale and put it in 3-D, it really changes
the outlook of what is in the scene and if what was stated to
have occurred really did or could have," Bann said. "The
3-D capability eliminates an attack by the opposition in court."
Howell, who
also teaches reconstruction classes, favors The Crash Zone because
of its short learning curve. He said he can get a student up and
running on the software and producing a first reasonably accurate
diagram in under 20 hours of classroom time. Other diagramming
programs on the market, which are not designed for accident reconstruction,
can require 200-plus hours just to master the basics, Howell noted.
Anticipate
Questions of Scale
Bobby Jones,
a police officer and accident reconstructionist in Knoxville,
Tennessee for more than 20 years, offers some tips on using scale
to your advantage in an electronic diagramming program. While
Jones measures and then draws the entire scene with complete accuracy
when using The Crash Zone, he often only prints a portion of the
drawing so that he can highlight important points on one page.
For courtroom presentations, he prints the diagrams at an odd
scale so the opposing legal team will have to do their own measuring.
In one of
Jones' courtroom battles, the opposing team tried to challenge
the scale of his diagram by overlaying their printed version on
an aerial photograph to show that it didn't match. That posed
a problem, however, since Jones' original diagram was printed
at a scale of 1" = 17.654'. It turns out that the opposition
had used a copier to make a transparency of the diagram, reducing
and enlarging it to approximate the photograph's scale. Jones
informed the jury that a copier had been used to manipulate the
scale of their transparency making it inaccurate. Then he overlaid
a transparency he created from the original Crash Zone diagram,
which, of course, had the correct scale and matched the photo.
Says Jones: "The attorney I was working for took full advantage
of the slip by the defense and absolutely just spanked the opposing
expert."
This
diagram of an intricate accident scene was contested in court
by the opposing legal team who claimed it was not accurate.
However, veteran Tennessee police officer and reconstructionist
Bobby Jones, who created the diagram, revealed they had reduced,
then enlarged it using a copier, distorting the scale of the
diagram. Consequently, Jones' diagram, created to correct
scale with The Crash Zone drawing program, was completely
accurate.
Total
Stations Help, But Not Critical
What about
total stations? How critical are they to creating a faithful diagram
of an accident scene's details? Although Howell and Bann each
use a total station with their diagramming software, it's not
essential. In fact, Howell notes that only 25 percent of accident
reconstructionists use a total station. "The total station
is nice to have," Howell said, "but in many of the smaller
reconstruction firms it's an expense that can be prohibitive (total
station costs can range between $6,000 and $30,000)."
Just the same,
Bann is a hearty advocate of total stations. "When you take
the Nikon total station and marry it with The Crash Zone, once
you import the data from the total station you cannot alter the
dimensions," Bann explains. "So, what we measure with
the total station proves that the CAD Zone drawing system is accurate
and it works." For this reason, Bann said his diagrams go
unchallenged 99 percent of the time.
Perhaps the
icing on the cake with carefully documenting an accident scene,
then using a reliable drawing program to recreate it, is the money
this can save if a case heads to court. Bann estimates that by
using The Crash Zone coupled with his careful scene documentation
and measurements, his firm has saved hundreds of thousands of
dollars for various municipalities.
Generous
Labeling Strengthens Diagram
If there's
one aspect of an accident case with which the prosecution will
get hung up, it's arguing over inches, Howell said. His advice?
"Understand the limits of the medium (the diagramming program).
You're not going to be able to diagram down to a quarter of an
inch. Don't split hairs over it." In other words, be realistic
when arguing about the accuracy of your diagram. Even though points
entered into The Crash Zone have coordinates that are accurate
to more than + or - .00000001", it is obviously not practical
to measure the physical points at the scene to that kind of accuracy.
The
vehicle was westbound on SR-215 in the #1 eastbound travel
lane. The vehicle went off the roadway and into the center
median, striking the end of a center retaining wall with a
sideswipe meeting and continuing down the center median going
up onto an overpass. The vehicle then struck the wall at the
top of the overpass and vaulted down onto the roadway beneath,
leaving the gouges and bouncing across the center median.
The vehicle then left the lower roadway and crossed the sidewalk,
striking the abuttment wall of the overpass and coming to
rest. This
was a single vehicle accident, and resulted in a successful
prosecution.
-
John Howell & Associates, Las Vegas, NV
The only other
target for wrangling within a diagram, Howell added, seems to
be the location of where the diagram was created. "They (the
opposing attorneys) try to harp on accuracy," he said. "Be
sure you label everything, keep it clear and concise, and make
sure it matches the photographs." This is particularly important
to a jury. Why? "Because the first time that one of the jurors
looks at the diagram and sees a discrepancy, you won't get his
mind off of it," Howell cautions. "You'll lose everything
you said to this juror. Then you've lost all of your credibility.
And credibility is everything in this business."
PRINTABLE
VERSION
CadZone
will be a vendor at the ARC-CSI
2003 Crash Conference in Las Vegas. There will also be a breakout
presentation covering this in more detail and more...
Return
to April 2003 Newsletter
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