Vallejo Accident Reconstruction Training
I’m Ed Smith, a Vallejo car accident lawyer. Last week in Vallejo, beginning on Tuesday, June 13, 2017, and continuing until Friday, June 16, 2017, a team of engineers worked to gather data and train police officers with the goal of improving officers’ abilities to determine the circumstances of auto accidents.
The Engineers
The engineers who work on the project are from a group called the California Association of Accident Reconstruction Specialists (CAARS). CAARS is a non-profit organization of professional engineers started in Davis, California. Their goal is to provide quality accident reconstruction training to their 400 members as well as to police forces around the state.
What do they do?
CAARS uses a wide variety of data recording tools including high-speed cameras, accelerometers, and drones to help them better understand the effects of collisions on vehicles.
The group takes vehicles and crashes them into each other under varying circumstances. During the controlled collisions, researchers record crash data such as velocity, distance, mass, speed, and time. After the collisions, they use their tools to see what sorts of accident factors cause certain types of damage to vehicles. These comparisons can help them know, for instance, if a driver had been speeding in an accident where there were no witnesses to confirm if that was the case.
Training Officers
The research took place on a deserted part of North Railroad Avenue on Vallejo’s Mare Island. Research and training sessions occur quarterly, and this is the first time Vallejo has hosted the event. Officers from the Vallejo Police Department, along with officers of the Santa Rosa, San Francisco, Alameda, and Los Angeles Police Departments were in attendance in order to learn from the experts how to accurately reconstruct crashes.
Unkown Variables
Head of the Vallejo Motorcycle Unit Lt. Mike Nichelini spoke about the event, saying that investigating crashes is like “trying to figure out the unknown.” Nichelini noted that he has been to many accident scenes where it was obvious that drivers had been driving over the speed limit. However, he also told reporters that there are some accidents in which knowing precisely what speed a driver was going could mean the difference between a citizen being acquitted or determined guilty of gross negligence.
Putting the Pieces Together
This training will enable officers to more accurately determine whether or not to convict people of crimes. The training includes things like looking at shortened wheelbases and using data such as the weight of vehicles to determine circumstances of the impact. With help from the engineers of CAARS, VPD is using the most cutting-edge technology to be able to better serve the community.
Community Effort
Many members of the community contributed to the research and training event. The city government, Vallejo tow companies, and some Vallejo businesses donated their manpower and services in order for the event to be successful.
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I’m Ed Smith, a Vallejo car accident lawyer. If you, or someone that you love has been hurt in an accident, call me at (707) 564-1900 for some free and friendly advice. You may also reach me free of charge at: (800) 404-5400.
Vallejo residents with cases involving wrongful death and personal injuries have trusted me to help them recover damages for more than 3 decades.
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I founded AutoAccident.com and am happy to report that it is the leading site in Northern California for finding accurate, useful info on personal injury and auto accidents.
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