Special Accident Investigators Reset the Scene to Find Crucial Answers

It was 2 a.m. on a Sunday when California Highway Patrolman Jesse Cavazos sighted a stalled sport-utility vehicle on the shoulder of the northbound Golden State Freeway in East L.A. He pulled over and got out to help.

Soon after Cavazos approached the driver and three passengers, all standing on the shoulder, a Chevy van barreled up the freeway at high speed. Suddenly, the driver lost control. The van careened onto the shoulder and hit the patrol car, which then slammed into Cavazos, throwing him against the windshield. The patrol car dropped off the freeway shoulder, with Cavazos still atop the hood, and plunged down the adjacent slope, finally coming to rest in the dirt and grass below.

Soon after medics tended to Cavazos, investigators from the California Highway Patrol’s Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team--MAIT, for short--arrived at the scene.

Quickly but carefully, they began snapping photographs, measuring skid marks and interviewing the drivers and passengers. The investigators’ reconstruction of the November 1997 accident, pieced together from many bits of information, ultimately produced evidence that the van driver was drunk, that his vehicle was traveling at least 62 mph when it hit the patrol car and that the patrol car was traveling about 15 mph when it hit Cavazos.

Eventually, the van driver was convicted of felony drunk driving and sentenced to prison. Today, Cavazos, who suffered multiple injuries, including a broken arm, is back at work on limited duty.

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MAITs, called out to help “reconstruct” major accidents, were first established in 1979, but they still are not widely known to motorists. Today, eight teams operate statewide, says Sgt. Kerri Hawkins, supervisor of the MAIT for the CHP’s Southern Division, which serves as a resource to the division’s 10 area offices. These days, most of the area offices also have at least one staff member experienced in accident reconstruction.

In addition, growing numbers of entrepreneurs conduct accident reconstruction, sometimes publicizing their services via their sites on the World Wide Web. They most often are hired by attorneys representing motorists, but sometimes they are retained by individuals.

Consumers who become savvy about the role of accident reconstruction specialists can better help the teams do their work, should that ever be required, and choose wisely if they ever need to retain a private specialist (see accompanying box).

In general, Hawkins says, the CHP’s team is called out for accidents involving a CHP or state Department of Transportation employee in which a major injury or a fatality has occurred; for accidents involving private passenger vehicles in which four or more fatalities have occurred; for commercial vehicle accidents with two or more fatalities; for accidents involving hazardous material spills; and in other instances decided on a case-by-case basis.

Last week, a MAIT unit was called to Gardena after El Segundo police pursued a 34-year-old woman suspected of traffic violations. She sped away, first on Imperial Highway and then on the Century Freeway. After exiting the freeway, police say, her vehicle broadsided the car of a 32-year-old Rolling Hills Estates woman, who died immediately.

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The MAIT will conduct a full investigation, says Officer Dale Stephens, one of the first team members on the scene, with the goal of completing it in 90 days.

“We average about 80 cases a year in the Southern Division,” Hawkins says. Usually the team arrives within 30 to 45 minutes of being called. “The majority are in the middle of the night.’

Even if a CHP reconstruction is done, private accident reconstruction specialists also may be hired by an attorney involved in a lawsuit or by an individual.

Their conclusions might agree or conflict with those in the CHP report.

Fees vary, but typical hourly charges are $100 to $200. A typical case can cost $2,000 to $2,500, says Bert Rogers, a former CHP officer who now works as a Carlsbad-based private accident reconstruction specialist.

But they can easily cost more, notes Edward Phillips, an Oceanside accident reconstruction specialist. “I’ve seen them total $60,000,” he says, noting that the costs can rise with the amount of travel involved and fieldwork to be done.

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Whether done by CHP’s MAITs or a private specialist, accident reconstruction includes in-depth interviews with the people involved, mechanical computations involving the vehicles and evaluations of environmental factors such as the weather at the time of the accident.

“We try to develop a 24-hour profile of persons involved,” Stephens says.

He’ll ask subjects to describe what they ate and drank in the hours before the accident and what medications they may have taken.

Asking a variety of questions can shed light on the driver’s state of mind, he says: “Did they just get into an argument with someone, for instance, and their mind was on something else besides driving?”

Specialists also evaluate brakes, steering and other mechanical features, keeping alert for defects such as balding tires that might have contributed to the accident. They note vehicles’ mileage and weight, use of seat belts and the positions of drivers and passengers.

Taking into account such facts as the length of the skid marks and factoring in friction information, investigators can evaluate the speed at impact, often within 2 or 3 mph, Rogers says.

In the Cavazos accident, investigators plotted their measurements and with the help of a computer program made a diagram of the vehicles involved and the pathway of the speeding van.

Phillips, the Oceanside specialist, recalls a case in which he showed that a police officer’s car entered an intersection at near-freeway speeds and that the signal had been red for some time before the car entered the intersection.

Besides answering specialists’ questions truthfully, how can consumers lend a hand in accident investigations? Phillips advises consumers to carry a disposable camera and in the event of a serious accident take pictures of the vehicles involved.

“Write a clear and thorough chronology of the incident as soon as possible,” he says. That will make it easier to document evidence before it fades--from the scene or from memory.

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Good Carma is a guide to automotive-related health and consumer issues. Highway 1 contributor Kathleen Doheny can be reached via e-mail at kdoheny@compuserve.com.

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Resources

Consumers who are considering hiring an accident reconstruction specialist should do their homework first. One place to check is the Yellow Pages under the headings “accident reconstruction services” or “accident investigations”:

“Anyone can hang a sign and say he or she is an accident reconstruction specialist,” says CHP Sgt. Kerri Hawkins.

To choose a competent specialist, Hawkins suggests that consumers follow these steps:

* Ask for a resume, taking note of the mix of practical experience, education and training.

* Ask about the total number of cases the specialist has investigated, but don’t make a selection based on sheer quantity. Take education and training into account too.

* Ask if the specialist has testified in court (and how many times). To do so, they must prove they are qualified.