When people seek our help after they've been involved in a car crash in Miami, it's essential to start investigating their case as soon as possible and see whether they have a valid claim.
Therefore, we go to the scene of the accident, where we try to reconstruct the collision's circumstances for a better understanding of the events. To do so, we rely on a team of experts who can help us determine the state of the road and the car.
The three key professionals that ensure the accuracy of our car crash investigations are the reconstruction engineer, the mechanical engineer, and the biomechanical engineer.
1. Miami Accident Reconstruction Engineers
With the help of accident reconstruction engineers, we inspect what caused the vehicle to trip or roll over. We determine if the accident was caused by:
- Something on the road
- Something on the median
- Something on the shoulder of the road
- Something in the bank the vehicle traveled down or rolled down
Other things we look for on the roadway itself:
- We look for yaw marks or marks that the tires leave on the road as the vehicle is trying to recover or the driver is trying to get the vehicle back in a straight line in the lane where they were traveling.
- We look for parts of the vehicle that may be leftover on the roadway.
- We take measurements of the roadway.
- We look at guard rails.
- We look at different aspects of the highway or the road where the accident occurred.
On the whole, we try to go back in time and recreate or reconstruct the accident to understand what occurred.
Accident reconstruction engineers will detail the nature of the crash site, car actions, and possibly driver conduct in their reports. These experts specialize in:
- Full site investigations
- Determining who was driving
- Pedestrian impact
- Police report precision
- Seat belt/seat/airbags failure
- Product and systems breakdown
- Research and testing
- Speed and fault calculation
- Visibility/line-of-sight examination
They study the physical evidence and the witness' testimony. Reconstruction engineers take the measurements necessary for roadway and vehicle analysis. From the data gathered, they can often calculate a vehicle's velocity. They measure:
- The road
- The marks on the road
- The vehicles
- Any damages present
If they can determine the speed of one vehicle, they can get the speed of the other. They do this by measuring the extent of crush damage that each vehicle suffered and comparing that with control data on related vehicles to determine the change in acceleration between the vehicles.
When the vehicle has an event data recorder installed, the expert can extract and use a lot of data to identify a driver's actions. Event data recorders, which are anything from airbag modules and VORAD systems to powertrain modules, can show:
- The exact speed of the car
- Steering
- Throttle
- Braking input
Depending on the system and the manufacturer, the data collected can even be more precise; for example, the VORAD system may register the exact place of other vehicles and objects for several seconds before the collision.
Accident reconstruction engineers can calculate the speed and actions of the vehicles involved in the crash with incredible precision.
2. Miami Mechanical Engineers
Certain types of vehicles are not designed efficiently and have a defect that causes them to roll over when they encounter a typical roadway surface. The other thing we analyze immediately is the vehicle itself. The vehicle must be preserved because that is key evidence for us.
If the vehicle has been preserved, then we go out and:
- Measure
- Take pictures
- Videotape
- Physically look at the dimensions of the vehicle itself
We look at the tires, at the roof, at the internal components, including the seat belts and other vehicle safety features. We download the electronic data recorder to determine what electronic information is available for the vehicle.
Electronic data analysis - The information from the electronic data recorder can tell us if:
- The vehicle was being driven at the speed limit.
- The person we represent or the people in the car were wearing their seat belts.
- The airbag or airbags deployed as they are supposed to.
- There was breaking before, during, or after the accident sequence was taking place.
- Sometimes we can determine the orientation of the vehicle.
- We gather all this information while we're investigating the case.
Tire analysis - The other things we look at are the tires. Four tires keep the vehicle on the road, and if the tire has a problem, whether it is a blowout or the tire delaminates, the tread separates and comes off. Sometimes when the tread comes off, it wraps around the vehicle's axle, making it impossible to steer in a straight line or to correct.
Mechanical parts inspection - The mechanical parts of the automobiles such as brakes, steering, suspension, tires, lights, ejectors, control valves can be inspected and tested to find out if their state was a factor in the rollover. The expert will research events and situations before, during, and after the rollover, providing:
- Documentation and photography
- Analysis of equipment failure
- Accident reconstruction
- Technical explanation of documents & drawings
- Analysis of manufacturing anomaly
- Fire & explosion analysis
- Computer simulations and animations
3. Miami Biomechanical Engineers
Biomechanics unites the fields of physics and engineering with anatomy and physiology to analyze the impact of force on the human body. The experts we collaborate with use accepted standards to assess injury causation. Assessments by doctors about the cause of injuries are not complete because they do not consider the forces of an event. Biomechanics is a specialty that can evaluate rollover injuries.
Biomechanical experts can determine and test the mechanism of injury for:
- Brain injuries - The biomechanics consult can reveal the direction, rate, and total impact on a passenger's head and neck.
- Spinal injuries - Experts will investigate the direction and magnitude of forces applied to the body.
- Fatal injuries - In a rollover with multiple impacts to a car, experts can identify where the fatal injuries appeared and what factors led to death in the sequence of impacts.
- Soft tissue injuries - Experts determine how such injuries occurred and the nature of the forces to cause a system for such injuries.
- Orthopedic injuries - Biomechanical experts can test the cause-effect relationships in such injuries. Direct, blunt trauma can cause injuries, or they can be induced through incidental loading.
Contact The Law Offices of Sean M. Cleary if you Were Involved in a Car Accident in Miami
At The Law Offices of Sean M. Cleary, we conduct a thorough investigation of each Miami car accident case we work on.
We rely on expert engineers to provide us with more insight into how the accident occurred to help our clients get the best outcomes from their claims.
With the help of our reliable collaborators, we make sure that each detail of the accident scene is carefully analyzed with extreme accuracy and professionalism.
Get in touch with us today if you have been involved in a car crash, and we'll immediately proceed with the investigation.