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Creating Crash Diagrams in Minutes at Scene, Linking Them to Electronic Reports Is Goal for Law Enforcement Agencies

By Bob Galvin

Filling out an accident report is probably considered by most traffic officers as a kind of prison sentence—one with no hope for parole. Such drudgery is understandable. These cumbersome, multi-page forms request lots of detail, and, in their hardcopy state, are tedious to fill out. As part of his report, an officer always must draw a diagram of the crash scene—another time-consuming step. Even sharing the forms is inconvenient, assuming they don’t get lost in paperwork maze. The entire process is painfully slow, requiring tremendous time. While police departments in many states continue using only a hardcopy form, other departments have replaced drudgery with efficiency and built an electronic version of their report form.

Although such electronic forms certainly have lightened the burden of accident reporting, there remains a stumbling block: until now, electronic diagrams of crash scenes have been tough to integrate into the completed accident report. Technology is addressing this dilemma so that drawing programs can be fully integrated into almost any electronic record management system. This allows the completed diagram to be automatically inserted into the final accident report.

Electronic Crash Report Shows Promise for Ottawa PD

Some police departments, like the Ottawa Police Department, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, already have successfully used (on a trial basis) an electronic accident reporting program provided by Canadian-based Versaterm. Versaterm equipped the Ottawa Police Department with its Records Management System (RMS) plus an in-car crash diagramming program it purchased from The CAD Zone, Inc., of Beaverton, Oregon. The CAD Zone’s software, Quick Scene Version 2.5, enables police officers to easily create professional looking crash scene diagrams in 5 to 10 minutes. This software enables officers to quickly create accident diagrams right at the scene on their laptops. While Quick Scene is a simpler version of The CAD Zone’s Crash Zone program, it is still a very powerful tool that includes many automatic features for drawing streets, intersections, text, and dimensions. Also, in its new Version 2.5, Quick Scene can even create incredible 3D views with a single click.

Sample Diagram

The Ottawa PD considers Quick Scene to be just the right kind of software for use at routine crash scenes considering that the department responds to roughly 50 accidents a day during summer, and more than 200 in winter. Once a crash scene diagram is created, it can be electronically attached to the Versaterm RMS. Eventually, Quick Scene will be integrated into Versaterm’s program. According to Ottawa PD Officer Lance Bennett, the Versaterm program “has shown promise.” Now, he adds, “We want to see a moreseamless integration of the two programs (Quick Scene and the RMS).” Once that happens, Officer Bennett foresees a big spike in the volume of accident reports being electronically generated. The Quick Scene program, he adds, “gives a more professional drawing than officers can achieve with pen and paper. They can create a higher quality report. It’s a program that someone without a lot of CAD experience can learn how to use quickly, and produce a good diagram,” Officer Bennett says.

Texas PD Finds Way to Link Diagram with Report

The Pasadena, Texas Police Department has taken a different approach to marrying a crash scene diagram to its accident report form. First, the department has electronically recreated the official State of Texas paper accident form. Second, Microsoft Word was used to place a “protected field” in the section of the form where the diagram is to be placed. Then the officer can electronically insert his Quick Scene drawing file into the empty box on the form. Each crash diagram file is saved under the corresponding intersection name so it can be easily found and cross-referenced.

According to Bob Lockmondy, a veteran patrolman and advanced accident investigator with the department, “If we lose a printout of the electronic report, we only need to access the report on our computer and there it is with the diagram already done.”
Investigator Lockmondy also is an avid user of CAD Zone’s Quick Scene diagramming program. With it, he diagrams mostly fatalities and police-involved car accidents and vehicular homicides, all of which number four to five a day or week, to 2000 a year.

Creates Own Intersection Templates

With this volume of diagramming, Investigator Lockmondy finds the ability to create and re-use his own templates for intersections in his area a particularly valuable feature of Quick Scene. He first uses the program’s Easy Streets feature, which allows him to create a multi-lane street. From there, he can build an intersection using Quick Scene’s Easy Intersection Toolbox. Lockmondy can build intersection templates for each intersection so that they can be easily retrieved for future use with electronic reports. “Over the last few years,” says Lockmondy, “it’s been nice to look at my diagram file by intersection or major street. By having the intersection template already created saves us about 15 minutes right off. You already have the roadway or intersection done, so you just have to put the vehicles in there in the right position,” Lockmondy added.

Colorado Patrol Cars Create Electronic Diagrams on the Scene

Sometime this year, the Aurora Police Department, in Aurora, Colorado, expects to have their accident reporting package in place, and to use it with the Quick Scene diagramming program. If all goes well, says Traffic Officer Brad Stelter, “Officers
can diagram their accidents (in patrol cars), write their reports, attach it all together, then send it electronically to the main records system via the department’s computer.” That will be a quantum leap for Aurora PD considering that it now has mobile computers in 10 patrol cars for use in diagramming crash scenes on the spot. “I’ve been field testing the
computers for a year and a half,” notes Officer Stelter. “They work well in the field.”

While having electronic accident reports, and, eventually, integrating crash diagrams into them, is the ultimate goal for Aurora PD and many other departments across the country, it has been a challenge for many officers just to create a diagram—back at headquarters. Now that officers can not only create crash diagrams quickly and simply with a program like Quick Scene, and do it in their patrol cars, this will enable them to respond to and diagram more accident scenes, plus provide and share complete reports more efficiently.

On-Scene Diagrams Can Confirm Accident Data

One of the problems that Aurora PD’s officers have experienced in the field is occasionally shooting a crash scene with a Laser Measuring System and data collector, then discovering back at their desktop computers, using The CAD Zone’s Crash Zone diagramming program, that they forgot some data points. Of course, when this occurred, it meant returning to the crash scene to reshoot it and capture all pertinent data.

“That could be fairly time consuming,” laments Officer Stelter. Fortunately, the Laser Measuring System integrates with Crash Zone, which means it also integrates with Quick Scene.

As a result, says Stelter, “We are able to, in the field, attach the data collector to the mobile computer, download it into the drawing program (Quick Scene), and look at the drawing in the field to see if we missed anything while we’re still there and set up.”

Crash Zone can accomplish tasks for reconstruction purposes that Quick Scene cannot. “One big advantage Crash Zone has over Quick Scene is when we do a vector momentum analysis on a traffic accident, we have to be able to plot the approach and departure angles of the vehicles,” explains Officer Stelter. “Crash Zone is capable of that, Quick Scene is not.” The file formats of Quick Scene and Crash Zone are also completely compatible, so any drawing created in Quick Scene in the field can be easily opened in The Crash Zone back at the station. This means a reconstructionist can open the initial Quick Scene diagram in The Crash Zone and add final details, create an accurate 3D model of the scene, obtain profiles and slope values.

Despite Quick Scene’s limitations, Officer Stelter, who also is a professional reconstructionist, is quick to point out that his department purchased this program for use in the patrol cars “to be able to do basic accident diagrams, and to download our data from the accident scenes into the desktop computer so we can see it, which it also does.” Quick Scene, he notes, meets all the requirements that the department has for it in the field.

Officer Stelter is a big fan of Quick Scene’s Easy Streets feature due to the ability to save pre-drawn diagrams as templates. “When we go out to handle a wreck at an intersection that we’ve never been to before, we’ll draw it up, the officer will save it on a disk and give it to me, and I’ll install it on our computer as a template,” says Stelter.

Then, he continues, “the next time they have a wreck at that intersection, they have a pre-drawn diagram of the intersection, so all they have to do is stick in their measurements and their cars. That’s absolutely fabulous,” Stelter said. So far, Aurora PD has about 300 diagrammed intersections installed as custom templates. The department responds to between 20,000 and 25,000 accidents per year.

In addition, Aurora PD uses Quick Scene’s symbols library and unlimited undo/redo features constantly. “You can click on the vehicle you want and size it,” Stelter notes. Once a car’s axle points are measured, he notes, a user can make the car in the Quick Scene diagram have the exact size it is supposed to be.

New Electronic Reports Available From CAD Zone

The CAD Zone, publisher of Quick Scene and The Crash Zone drawing programs, has teamed up with Essociates Group, and AMGRAF, to create a powerful state traffic accident report system called STARS. These two firms are experts in form creation and editing systems. They previously have created browser-based reporting systems for the IRS and the Missouri Highway Patrol. Together, these companies are now offering an affordable solution for police departments who wish to have completely paperless crash reports.

All of the STARS State Accident Reports are seamlessly integrated with The CAD Zone’s crash diagramming programs: The Crash Zone and Quick Scene. When the user creates and saves his diagram, a high-resolution image of the crash is embedded into the report. The text portion of the complete report and the diagram are saved as a single file so they can be easily emailed or digitally submitted.

One big advantage of using STARS is that the completed reports (including the diagram) can be easily saved to an Adobe Acrobat Reader program which is available for free.

View Sample Reports in PDF

1. Sample Arizona Report
2. Sample Florida Report

For more information please contact the CAD Zone
Web Site: www.cadzone.com
Toll Free: (800) 641-9077

Accidents, as the old saying goes, will happen. But when it comes to vehicle accidents, they’ll happen more frequently as cities grow and more cars populate freeways and city streets. With today’s budget restraints, police departments have a shortage of human resources, but they still are expected to respond to an increasing number of accidents. Therefore, they must take advantage of technology to help each officer be more efficient and productive than ever before. Electronic crash reports with an integrated drawing program are one proven way to make the traffic officer’s job just a little bit easier.

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