Animations are useful visual tools that can help jurors understand how an incident could, or could not, have occurred. Simply describing an event in court, or showing still pictures, may be insufficient to explain a complex sequence of events. Animations tend to capture the juror's attention and facilitate their remembering an image that you want them to understand and recall easily. Animations also allow you to observe an accident from a variety of vantage points, putting the viewer in the driver's seat to see what the participants saw. Often, an effective animation is valuable during mediation and can prompt a settlement based on its expected impact with a jury.
We have experience in many aspects of animation including:
Through scientific analysis, we can help you answer pertinent questions such as:
Fall Over Low Wall:
A hotel guest fell over a low outside wall into a 14' pit and broke his neck when he backed up a few steps to observe a low flying plane overhead. The hotel owners offered the victim $1.5 million. Not satisfied with this offer, the man's attorney turned to Drs. Ojalvo and Yanowitz to develop a computer model and animation of the event. After viewing their dynamically accurate video recreation of this event, the hotel agreed to close the case for $4.5 million.
Rear Seated Sedan Passenger:
A woman seated in the rear of a sedan claimed that she was severely injured when the car she was riding in went off the exit ramp and rolled onto the unpaved side of the road. We performed an accident reconstruction and created animations of the vehicle's roll for scenarios of the passenger with and without her seatbelt. These animations convinced the Plaintiff to settle the case since they revealed that she could not have been wearing her seatbelt.
Kristopher J. Seluga, PE, is a Mechanical Engineering, Accident Reconstruction, Biomechanics, and Safety Expert with over 20 years of experience. He received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the Mechanical Engineering department at MIT where he worked on the development of novel three-dimensional printing technologies. Mr. Seluga is also a licensed Professional Engineer in New York and Connecticut, and has served as a member of the ANSI engineering committee for the Z130.1 and Z135 standards for golf cars and PTV's. His research interests and peer reviewed publications span the topics of Motor Vehicle Dynamics, Product Safety, and Biomechanics.
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7/31/2009· Accident Investigation & Reconstruction
Forensic Engineering Experts: Occupant Injuries
In many vehicle accident investigations, it is necessary to know not only the speeds and motions of the vehicles involved, but the causes of injuries suffered by their occupants as well. Such investigations seek to answer questions regarding occupant ejection, effects of seatbelt use, airbag deployment and body-interior impacts.
2/14/2014· Accident Investigation & Reconstruction
Automated Retrieval System Failure Results in Catastrophic Fire at Storage Facility
By: Bill O'Donnell
The largest storage rack/ retrieval system, larger than two football fields and eighty feet wide was constructed to store 108 million pounds of paper products. On July, 2002, after two months of use, the facility collapsed and sparked a fire that destroyed the entire structure and 45 million pounds of paper. Nearly 50 fire departments responded to the inferno, which burned for three weeks. The owner of the facility sued a number of companies that included the contractor that designed and built the structure, a subcontractor, and the company that supplied the 110 foot steel columns.
7/31/2009· Accident Investigation & Reconstruction
Forensic Engineering Experts: Doors & Gates
Doors and gates, whether automated or manual, can pose a serious hazard to users if not designed, manufactured, installed and maintained properly. The different types include automatic doors, overhead garage doors, elevator doors, sliding doors, swinging doors, and automatic gates.
