Case Studies The following are examples of the many interesting and diverse investigations carried out since working in private practice:- Case Study One In Majorca a coach engaged in transferring tourists from their hotels to the airport at the end of their holiday caught fire injuring six of the 52 passengers and destroying most of their luggage. The tour operator responsible for the tourists instructed me to investigate the circumstance of the incident and I arrived in Majorca later the same day. I went straight to the coach operator's workshops where the vehicle had been taken and discovered repairs to the braking system were already underway. The English courier who had been on the coach at the time of the fire was interviewed along with some of the passengers at the hospital. I gathered information that after collecting passengers from the first hotel they began to notice smoke in the passenger cabin and the courier alerted the coach driver. At the next pick-up point whilst more passengers were boarding, the driver was seen to crawl under the rear of the coach and he then informed the courier that the problem had been fixed. After several more hotel stops and now nearly full of tourists, the coach commenced the journey towards the airport. Again the cabin started to fill up with thick smoke and as the driver pulled over to the side of the road, the floor, seats and side curtains ignited. All the passengers escaped from the burning vehicle although several sustained serious burns. During my investigation it was discovered that the rear left brake had been seizing in the on position after the brake pedal was released, causing the brake shoes and road wheels to overheat. The driver had identified the problem when he crawled under the vehicle and he pulled the brake rod back so that the brakes were fully released. However on the next occasion the brakes were applied and then released the rod again stayed in the on position causing the brakes to became so hot that the tyres ignited and set fire to the floor of the coach. With the assistance of an interpreter I interviewed the coach driver who admitted trying to fix the brakes outside the first hotel and then continuing to drive the vehicle knowing that the brakes were defective and there was a serious risk of fire. By reaching the location of the damaged coach so quickly after the incident occurred I was able to identify the cause of the fire before the coach operator hastily carried out the repairs clearly intending to complete the work before blame could be apportioned. My report on the incident placed the tour operator in a favourable position to claim back from the coach operator the significant compensation they had paid out to the tourists. Case Study Two Late evening a man was driving his small hatchback motorcar along a rural road approaching a residential area and the start of a 30 mph speed restriction. From his left a group of youths unexpectedly ran into the road and directly in front of his vehicle. With quick reaction he swerved around them, but one youth who was on the far side of the group and unsighted continued to run directly into the path of the car. The driver applied emergency braking but a collision occurred and tragically the youth sustained fatal injuries. In shock, anger and the mistaken belief that the driver was responsible for the collision, the group of youths attacked the car driver and his vehicle was vandalised. Marks found on the road surface indicated that the front wheels of the car started skidding just before the impact and its initial speed was calculated at 42 mph. The photographs below show the car in its post impact position with the front wheels still positioned on the end of the skid marks. The damaged windscreen and horizontal surface of the bonnet are typical of a pedestrian impact and in this instance illustrate that the deceased was aligned near the vehicle's offside headlamp when he was struck, rotated onto the bonnet and his head impacted high up on the windscreen. The car driver was charged with the offence of causing death by dangerous driving and I was instructed to investigate the incident by lawyers acting for the defendant. My investigation and report showed the car was not driven at an excessive speed, could have comfortably reduced sufficient speed to pass the speed limit signs at 30 mph and the driver reacted quickly to the initial unexpected hazard. At the trial the driver was acquitted of the charge. Case Study Three During a foggy morning on the M25 motorway, congested traffic was moving fast and closely bunched together when vehicles in all three traffic lanes slowed abruptly. The articulated lorry with the orange container stopped without difficulty but the red car following close behind drove into the rear of the lorry. It can be seen that the blue car has driven under the back of the red car which is typically found when both vehicles are braking fiercely causing the fronts of both cars to dip and the rear of both cars to lift. The front of the blue car acted like a wedge to pass under the back of the red car and push it upwards, the situation being exacerbated by the blue lorry driving into the rear of the blue car. The ropes tied between the red car and the central barrier were needed to steady the vehicle whilst rescue services cut it open to extricate the injured occupants. Case Study Four After dark in a rural area a student returning home from evening classes was riding his pedal cycle along a country road when he was struck from behind by a car travelling in the same direction. The collision occurred close to a turning on the right that leads to the cyclist's home. The impact was severe, the cyclist being thrown backwards over the roof of the car and his cycle projected forward over a tall hedge. There were two parallel tyre skid marks on the road surface made by the car and a short thin tyre skid mark found between these two marks. Having placed the pedal cycle against the front of the car it was immediately apparent that the cycle's rear wheel had been crushed on impact with the front of the car such that it would immediately have stopped rotating, thus causing the thin tyre skid mark found on the road surface. The position of the thin mark was some distance after the start of the car's skid marks indicating that the car was under emergency braking for some distance prior to the collision. The corresponding damage between the front of the car and rear of the cycle together with the location of the skid marks relative to the edge of the road showed that the cyclist was near the centre of the road when the collision occurred. It was alleged by the car driver that the cycle was not displaying lights and could not be seen on a dark road in an unlit area. The remains of the cycle rear light and its two batteries were found scattered around the scene and when reassembled it was found to be capable of working with further evidence that the bulb was illuminated when it suffered an impact. The driver of the car was later convicted of careless driving and driving whilst impaired through excess alcohol. The Photographs to the right show how the cycle was repositioned against the front of the car to reconstruct the collision, whilst damage to the car shows how the cyclist fell back onto the windscreen, crushing the roof downwards before falling onto the road behind the car. The cyclist survived the collision but never fully recovered from his severe injuries. Case Study Five Late at night a police traffic officer stopped a Porsche motorcar at the roadside and it was alleged the Porsche had been followed and recorded by VASCAR speed detection device at an average speed of 99 mph along a stretch of dual carriageway where there is a 70 mph speed restriction. In his prosecution report the officer identified the start and finish reference points and the distance over which the check had been carried out. The case went to Magistrates court where the Porsche driver was convicted of driving at excess speed and disqualified from driving. Having been instructed by the driver's defence team to investigate the circumstances of the incident prior to an appeal hearing, I discovered that the distance between the two reference points used by the police officer was almost double the distance shown in his report. In these circumstances if the Porsche had travelled double the distance in the same time span, it follows that its average speed would have doubled. An average speed approaching 200 mph was totally unrealistic for the nature of the road and the vehicles involved. At the Crown Court appeal hearing the crown prosecution offered no evidence and the appeal was successful. Case Study 6 A collision occurred on the busy A127 dual carriageway just outside the Borough of Southend-on-sea in Essex. The resultant backlog of slow moving traffic soon tailed back to just below the brow of a hill and a multiple collision occurred when traffic came over the brow too fast with insufficient distance in which to stop. Several people were injured and many vehicles extensively damaged. I was jointly instructed to investigate the incident by four firms of solicitors acting for clients involved in this incident. As in most multiple collisions, the sequence of impacts can be broken down into small groups of collisions within the same general area. I was concerned with what appeared to be a group of seven vehicles at the front of the collision. A police accident investigator attended the scene soon after the collision occurred and recorded important information, but in accordance with police policy he did not prepare an investigation report. During a formal interview with this officer I discovered he had photographs, a scale plan and a record of the damage and paint transference from all the vehicles involved. This information combined with copies of press photographs and further interviewing of witnesses, enabled me to deduce the precise sequence of the collision and identify the guilty drivers. It was discovered that during the collision three of the vehicles spun around and were each involved in at least two impacts with other vehicles. The car at the front of the collision almost certainly sustained considerable rear end damage, but strangely its apparently blameless driver failed to stop at the scene and was never traced.