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Crash Drawings Made Effective

"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail."
-- Abraham Maslow (1908-70), American psychologist

For a tool to be considered "effective", it must "produce a desired effect, be ready for service or action, or be operative". Jaws of Life, ladders and hand cuffs are all examples of effective tools. Unfortunately, in the world of crash scene diagramming, we are all too often without software or saddled with software that's ineffective or prone to "crashing" itself.

As a result, Trancite Logic Systems began the development of Easy Street Draw ten years ago with the goal to effectively deliver a crash drawing solution to the average officer in the field. In this time of exploding technologies, it is important to ask whether the tools with which we are equipped are innovative or effective. To accomplish both would be great; too often we are exchanging one for the other. Ten years, and thousands of users later, our goal of developing an effective crash drawing has resulted in a product proven as an industry leader. Is this because it employs the most innovative technology? In part, yes. Primarily, though, it is the commitment to building an effective tool.

Producing a Desired Effect

Easy Street Draw is first and foremost a crash scene drawing application. Certainly it has the ability to draw ordinary objects and create lines, but its symbol sets, intersection templates and measurement tools speak to its primary purpose.

The user interface for Easy Street Draw begins with a selection from a library of intersections. These libraries can be customized for particular situations in an individual city (e.g. heavy accident intersections). Once a template is chosen, the user can manipulate each section of the street: its name, number of lanes, width of lanes, and so on. The user also has the ability to add curves to the street, dividers, lane markings and appropriate signage.

Once the "street" layer is complete, the user can then begin adding elements to the accident. These include a full library of cars, trucks, trains, animals, bodies, skid marks, and debris. Measurement tools are available throughout the program, and the dimensions of all objects are clearly presented and adjustable.

Upon completion of the drawing (which normally takes about 5 minutes from start to finish), the drawing can be saved in its native file format (which is a paltry 3k bytes) or exported as a .jpg, .bmp, .tiff, .png, .wmf or .tga file. What begins as a crash diagramming application delivers in the end a complete drawing that is clearly readable and accurate in scale and delivery.

Ready for Service or Action

Easy Street Draw was developed, from its inception, to be used by officers in the field. Two goals guided development of this program: (1) it had to be easy to use and learn and (2) the file size of the drawings needed to be small to aide wireless transmission in the mobile patrol environment. The first goal was accomplished by including a complete electronic user guide in Easy Street Draw, which includes all the basic instructions as well as tutorials for learning basic operations. Brett Murrell, Distribution Manager for Trancite Logic Systems, referring to the ease with which officers pick up on the program, states: "The training on Easy Street Draw for our clients is a 22-minute instructional class followed by one hour of the officers producing great drawings by themselves. I have yet to find an agency that has not fully grasped the software in that time frame."

The second goal, small file size, was accomplished by keeping the native drawing file to about 3k bites in size. Since small files transmit more effectively than large files in a wireless environment, Easy Street Draw has become the software of choice for major wireless patrol systems.

"Easy Street Draw has streamlined our crash scene drawing needs. In our wireless patrol environment, it has been efficient and easy to use."
- Lt. Jim Matthies, Utah Highway Patrol.

Too often, software can be used by all but understood by only a few. This is not the case with Easy Street Draw. Officers both use and understand the program, and feel comfortable using it in their often hectic service in the field.

Being Operative

How does this software fit into my current records management system? How do the drawings integrate with our forms? Can I import a .DXF file from my laser measurement tool? These are good questions that demand answers.

Easy Street Draw is made available as a stand-alone application and as an ActiveX component. It can be integrated through a Developer's Toolkit from Trancite to embed the tool into any Windows-based system. Such installations have already occurred statewide for North Carolina, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Idaho, Maine, Nebraska, Louisiana, Utah and Massachusetts.

Reporting forms for accidents vary widely in format between agencies. While it would be great to adjust forms to fit our drawing software, the fact is that the drawings themselves need to be providing the flexibility. The native file format for Easy Street Draw is a vector-based format which allows for numerous sizing adjustments with no loss of resolution. This is helpful when integrating to the diversity of standard agency forms.

View an Example of a Scene Integrated into a Report

Easy Street Draw also has an engine for importing .DXF files from laser measurement tools, such as those produced by Laser Technology, Inc. This tool is important when exact measurements need to be taken and imported quickly into the crash scene drawing. The vehicles, skid marks, witnesses and other crash symbols can then be added to this imported "streets" layer.

Easy Street Draw: An Effective Tool

Software can be evaluated simply on its effectiveness alone. The best software, however, is that which is able to operate effectively within an existing system. Easy Street Draw answers the question as to whether it is truly effective by its basic commitment to seamless integration into existing crash reporting formats.

Easy Street Draw was developed to be an effective crash drawing tool for the public safety sector. We at Trancite Logic Systems were committed to developing a crash drawing program that was easy to learn, easy to use, easy to wirelessly transmit, and easy to integrate into existing systems. We believe we've honored these commitments to the public safety community in Easy Street Draw.

"Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value."
-- Albert Einstein (1875-1955)

We applied this philosophy to the development of Easy Street Draw. We understood that if our program's design and purpose brought value to the user, then success would surely follow. This has, indeed, been the case.

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