subject: Trial Graphics: Skid Mark Analysis: Accident Investigation: TMBA [print this page] Trial Graphics: Skid Mark Analysis: Accident Investigation: TMBA
Skid Mark Analysis
Automobile Accident Investigation
A car crash involving security personnel during Queen Elizabeth's visit to California left three Secret Service agents dead. A local police department is found liable but contests the findings, laying blame on the agents. Using accident reconstruction and forensic techniques to reenact the scene and recreate the fatal crash, the police department sets out to prove its case.
TMBA was asked to recreate several animations of the accident scene based on expert testimony and the accident scene data.
>>
When Queen Elizabeth II visited the Yosemite Valley in March 1983, Sinclair, a deputy sheriff in central California's County of Mariposa, was appointed to "clear the way." He was driving his 1978 Chevrolet Impala west on State Route 132, a two-lane country road winding through open grasslands in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Familiar with the road, Sinclair drove quickly. He may have thought no one else was using it. He was wrong.
Coming the other way, in the van of the royal party, was a convoy of three rented cars driven by Secret Service men. Stuck behind this convoy was a lady truck driver, Mona Crocker, going home. The day was overcast, the road damp.
Ranger Dwayne Bartlow had stopped his pickup truck near the junction of Jalapa and State Route 132 to watch the queen go by. He saw Sinclair's Impala pass and disappear over a crest. When he glanced back a moment later, he saw dust and smoke rising.
Alarmed, he jumped into his pickup truck and raced toward the curve. He came over the crest of the hill to see Sinclair's Impala badly damaged and facing back. Resting against it was a brown Dodge St. Regis. A few feet from the edge of the roadway lay the demolished, twisted remains of a blue Dodge Aries. Ranger Bartlow ran to it and immediately saw the front seat occupants were beyond help. Nearby, a third man lay on the ground. Another man was desperately trying to revive him. Bartlow hurried to them, knelt, and administered CPR. Bartlow was heard to say, " . . . the pulse, where is the pulse?" Dazed and injured, Sinclair kept asking, "Where did they come from? Why were they in my lane?
Sometime after, before the cars were moved, a California Highway Patrol MAIT (Multi-Disciplinary Accident Investigation Team) arrived, consisting of an accident investigation expert, a California Department of Transportation engineer and a mechanical engineer. This team was led by Sgt. Robert Schilly, an experienced California Highway Patrol (CHP) crash investigator.
MAIT responds to major accidents, accidents involving school buses and the like. Since the queen was tangentially involved in the affair, the whole world had heard about this crash. MAIT, realizing that it was being watched, responded by calling a press conference. In a 177-page report, the team announced that Mariposa County's Sgt. Sinclair, driving at 74 mph around a blind curve, had panicked, lost control of his vehicle, locked his brakes, skidded across the center line, and collided with a car carrying three Secret Service agents, killing them instantly.
The Secret Service convoy, according to the testimony of the only independent witness, Mona Crocker, had at no time left its lane and, therefore, Sinclair and his employer, the County of Mariposa, were solely to blame for the fatalities. MAIT recommended that Sinclair be charged with criminal negligence.
>>
TMBA is a New York City animation studio known for providing factual, forensic & investigative animations. We provide flexible, affordable 3D trial graphics that communicate quickly and clearly the key details of any case.
Our specialty is taking factual documents, photos of physical evidence, expert testimony and eye witness accounts and creating computer animated scenes of complex details and events with 100% accuracy.
Our firsthand experience includes creating animations for scenarios that include: personal injury, wrongful death, disaster, mechanical and engineering failures. The TMBA team has extensive experience in building the most challenging 3D elements such as water, floods, fires, storms etc.
TMBA can provide 3D animation for any area of law: Environmental, Aviation. Commercial litigation, Antitrust, Pharmaceutical, Product liability, Accident reconstruction, Construction law, Intellectual property, and Wrongful Death. Whether you choose to use our animations as settlement tools or demonstrative aids, TMBA is the leading producer of high quality 3D animation for use in the courtroom and beyond.
