Many accident victims never want to live through the details of their ordeal ever again. This is understandable as serious accidents cause pain and hardships and are emotionally exhausting. But, there are instances when the details of accidents, although harrowing, must get collected, analyzed, and scientifically studied – in essence, reconstructed. This “accident reconstruction” requires specialized experts and the process can have an enormous impact on the value of your case.
What is Accident Reconstruction?
The phrase is perhaps best understood when we think of an accident as a story book. Within that book, we’re going to have chapters that describe the: victims in the accident, cause of the accident, weather at the time the accident happened, direction and speed of elements involved in the accident (e.g., cars, trucks, and pedestrians), and many technical components of the accident – points of impact, impact angles, friction values, etc. Now, imagine holding this accident book in a breezy field, ripping every single page out (the pages are un-numbered by the way), and letting the wind carry the pages in every direction. If you had to hire a person and task him with both finding every single page that was ripped out and putting each page back in chronological order, you’d require an accident reconstruction expert. See, it’s simple right?
Maybe the above is a little simplified, but accident reconstruction is basically the process of experts using physics and scientific principles to re-enact the way an accident occurred. Accident reconstruction experts have proven skills with forensic mapping, crash simulation and 3D animation. Technically, lawyers and experts can utilize the process in any accident case. However, accident reconstruction is mostly used in complex cases.
Why is Accident Reconstruction Used?
There are two main reasons. The first is that the process reveals valuable evidence regarding a given accident. Within reconstruction, experts will have to determine (or at least verify): the speeds of any vehicles involved in a collision, where and how certain impacts occurred, the weather and visibility at the time of an accident, the location of any pedestrians or witnesses, and much more. All of this equates to extremely important evidence that only helps personal injury lawyers.
Reconstruction is equally important because it tells a story. Reconstruction experts generate data; and, with the help of technology, they can display this data in the form of charts, graphs, photographs and computer animations. The use of any one of these can help tell a judge or jury the story behind an accident. We are no longer limited to words and numbers within a police report. Reconstruction can show, not merely inform, us as to how and why an accident occurred.
Why is Accident Reconstruction Valuable to a Case?
The main source of value ties back to the fact that the process provides evidence. Some of this – like speeds and weather conditions – we’ve covered. But, this evidence then gets analyzed by experts and personal injury attorneys to help provide further evidence and theories on such critical topics as accident cause and fault and even equipment/automobile failures. In the absence of reconstruction experts, personal injury lawyers would have the difficult job of trying to determine the same via conflicting testimony, obscure facts, and perhaps inaccurate data. The evidence the reconstruction process generates helps parties identify and clarify some of the most important and controversial components to accident cases.
If you or a loved one is injured or involved in an accident, it’s of significant importance that you hire a personal injury attorney with the resources to hire an accident reconstruction expert to help advance your case. Fortunately, Hancock Injury Attorneys has the knowledge, experience, and resources to generate legal results that matter. We have a skilled team to gather, preserve, and reconstruct evidence to ensure effective and smart representation. Contact a personal injury lawyer now at Hancock Injury Attorneys to get a free consultation.
