BIOMECHANICS AND INJURY CAUSATION
Was the driver or passenger wearing their restraint?
How and in what direction did the occupant's body move due to the forces of the collision?
Did the occupant contact portions of the interior of the vehicle?
If the occupant had been belted, is it even possible that he could have contacted those portions of the vehicle's interior?
What was the change in speed (or delta-v) that the vehicle and the occupants experienced due to the impact?
What were the forces that the occupants experienced due to the impact?
Are the reported injuries consistent with how the human body would have moved in this accident?
Are the reported injuries consistent with the forces generated from this accident?
By inspecting the vehicle and analyzing the medical documents, usually many of these questions can be answered. We use a sophisticated 3-D computer accident simulation program to determine and illustrate the movement of each occupant involved in a collision. In many cases we can demonstrate that the forces and the injury levels could have been reduced by wearing an available seat belt or by lowering the impact speeds of the vehicles.
