Biomechanics Expert Witnesses: 7

Carl Berkowitz, PE, Ph.D., AICP, is a Transportation and Traffic Engineering expert with almost 50 years of expertise. He's held various managerial and administrative positions in the transportation industry, government, private, and academic sectors.

Dr. Berkowitz has extensive multi-modal experience in planning, design, engineering, safety, security, construction, maintenance, operations, and management. He has written and edited numerous reports, studies, articles, and columns for major publications, journals, newspapers and scholarly periodicals.

Background Experience:

• Transportation and Traffic Engineering Consultant, 1988 - Present
• New York City Department of Transportation, New York, 1970 – 88
• New York State Office of Planning Coordination, New York, 1967 - 70
• New York State Department of Transportation, Babylon, NY, 1963 - 67
• New York City Transit Authority, New York, 1962 - 63

Litigation Support - Dr. Berkowitz has served as a litigation consultant since 1997.  He has the background and experience to make him ideally suited to contribute important information at every stage in the litigation process. Dr. Berkowitz is able to explain complex issues in layman terms, suggest strategies, investigate and uncover facts, perform literature reviews, research, and prepare safety evaluations. He has been deposed / testified over 50 times in the last 5 years.

Dr. Kevin A. Rider, PhD, PE, CPE of Forensic Human Factors, LLC., providing forensic engineering and specializing in catastrophic motor vehicle collisions, illumination and conspicuity, driver behavior/attention/distraction, workplace safety, machine guarding, slips, trips and falls, and the adequacy of product warnings and instructions. His work focuses on identifying the Human Factors that lead to unfortunate incidents, and what should have been done to prevent them. 

Dr. Rider is a Licensed Professional Engineer and Certified Professional Ergonomist, and has studied human movements and behavior, and served as a human factors consultant since 1999, including five years teaching industrial engineering and occupational safety courses at West Virginia University. He has presented at professional conferences, both nationally and abroad, and his research is published and cited in a number of peer-reviewed journals. He continues to serve as a reviewer for conference and journal manuscripts. 

Dr. Rider has testified over 250 times, and excels at educating attorneys and jurors. His services are available to attorneys for both Plaintiff and Defense. 

Auto • Airbag • Bicycle • Boating • Bus • Chair Design / Safety / Failure • Diving and Drowning • Electrocution and Shock • Elevator • Escalator • Fires and Explosions • Forklift • Gate • Golf Cart • Highway Design and Safety • Ladder • Law Enforcement • Lighting & Illumination • Loading Dock • Metallurgy • Motorcycle • Paintgun • Playground Safety • Press • Ramps • Rollercoaster • Safety Guards • Scaffolding • Seatbelts • Slip / Trip and Fall • Spas • Stairs • Swimming Pool Design and Safety • Tractors • Trailers • Trucks • 3D Scans

The four PhD and registered PEs at Miller Engineering are celebrating 40 years of Professorships at three universities along with providing services to Government, Insurance, and Industry—through research, publications, presentations, and expert testimony. We have a dedicated office with a full time staff of engineers, researchers, and technical writers. The span of our collective academic and experiential expertise covers well the Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical, Agricultural, Industrial, Human Factors, Ergonomic and Safety fields of engineering. The areas listed below are from actual projects completed in our 40 years of history. 

Page Engineering is a professional consulting firm that combines Ergonomics, Industrial Engineering, and Health and Safety expertise. They have served industry leaders in the areas of Transportation, Shipping, Manufacturing, and Health Care throughout the United States and Canada. Established in 1994, their approach is bolstered by years of litigation scrutiny and backed by extensive application of ergonomics, human factors, epidemiologic, and occupational medical scientific literature. They specialize in human factors and ergonomics assessments, including both acute and cumulative exposures and their hands-on approach is backed by extensive research and measurement of actual work exposure to occupational physical factors and workplace design.

Litigation Support - The professionals at Page Engineering provide forensic engineering and root cause analysis expert witness services to counsel representing both Plaintiff and Defense. Their areas of expertise include:

George B. Page, CPE, is a Certified Professional Ergonomist. Since founding Page Engineering, Mr. Page has been providing ergonomics services, integrating multiple disciplines (industrial engineering, safety, health, business, regulatory) to provide effective results, whether in the application of job analyses and job improvement processes or in physical job demands analyses. His experience includes conducting ergonomics analyses and research in the railroad industry, primarily, and in heavy industry, in general, for over 30 years. Clients include Union Pacific Railroad, Kansas City Southern Railways, Association of American Railroads, FedEx, American Petroleum Institute, Food Marketing Institute, Food Distributors International, Blue Water Bridge Authority, USPS. His expertise includes job exposure assessments, physical demands assessments, accident reconstruction, and forensic engineering.

Greg G. Weames, CPE, CCPE, CRSP, is a Certified Professional Ergonomist who provides forensic services regarding Musculoskeletal Injury / Disorder Risk and expert testimony. Since joining Page Engineering, Inc., Mr. Weames has been asked to provide consulting services in ergonomics for over 500 cases involving civil lawsuit work-related injury/disorder claims. With training, education, and experience in musculoskeletal injury and musculoskeletal disorder as a focus, he applies generally accepted methodology in his analysis of causation to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty. Mr. Weames has his expert witness experience from within the railroad industry, which includes transportation, construction maintenance, mechanical shop, communications, and office environments that support a large variety of jobs and work tasks. Over the past 20 years of providing expert witness services, Mr. Weames has relied on independent, objective measurements of claimed exposures to occupational physical factors and the epidemiologic scientific literature, relevant ergonomics guidelines, and standards to support his opinions. Mr. Weames has given depositions and has appeared at jury trials in both State and Federal US courts during his years doing expert witness work.

Stephen D. Fleming, CPE, CXLT, is an Industrial Engineer / Ergonomist whose background includes analyzing work environments and work tasks using industrial engineering work measurement methods and risk assessment models for different body regions. His expertise is in assisting industrial clients in applying ergonomics to workplace processes, tools, and equipment, including all major North American railroads, FedEx, Ford Motor Company, Lear Seating, USPS, and the Blue Water Bridge Authority. Mr. Fleming has been acknowledged for developing and implementing a methodology for measuring and analyzing exposure to whole-body vibration (WBV) and hand-arm vibration (HAV).

View Page Engineering's Consulting Profile.

Quality Forensic Engineering, LLC is a full-service forensic engineering firm, providing engineering support to clients in the areas of accident reconstruction, biomechanics, fire investigations, patent litigation analysis, premises liability, product liability, and tire failure analysis. We use the latest technology and industry proven techniques to provide thorough analysis, expert testimony, and conclusions for the most difficult engineering questions. Our forensic engineers are strategically located throughout the U.S. to support clients nationwide.

Dr. Brian Pfeifer, PhD, PE - Dr. Pfeifer is an Engineering Expert with over 27 years of experience investigating thousands of cases involving a variety of forensic engineering issues. He is a leading expert in accident reconstruction, roadside safety, maintenance of traffic, commercial vehicle accidents, pedestrian accidents, bicycle accidents, and the analysis of mechanical systems and product failures. Dr. Pfeifer has a strong background in the design, development, and implementation of roadside safety hardware including guardrails, bridge rails, and crash cushions. Over 30 patents have been filed worldwide on behalf of Dr. Pfeifer and associated colleagues who invented safer guardrail systems, vehicle storage systems, shipping container handling systems, and material handling and storage methods. He has also utilized his technical knowledge and understanding of patents to assist in a number of matters involving patent litigation.

Dr. Pfeifer has published numerous papers to various organizations, covering topics such as new guardrail systems, energy absorbing guardrail terminals, breakaway sign mechanisms, and material handling technology. He has shared his expertise with many organizations on topics including vehicle collisions, bicycle accidents, roadway construction zones, and accident reconstruction expert witness utilization. Dr. Pfeifer is a registered Professional Engineer in nine states and he continues to refine his skills and knowledge of accident reconstruction and roadside safety by staying current with new technology and best practices. Dr. Pfeifer has extensive experience with providing deposition and trial testimony as an Engineering Expert. See Dr. Pfeifer's Full Bio & CV.

Expertise:

Dr. Ian M. Zeller, PhD, PE, ACTAR, is an accomplished engineer with more than 14 years of experience in Biomechanics and Computational Dynamics fields. He has investigated hundreds of cases ranging from motor vehicle accidents, recreational incidents, medical device designs, as well as injuries from product liability all across the United States. 

Dr. Zeller has graduate level experience in computational dynamics and orthopedic biomechanics with a specific emphasis in dynamics, vibrations, joint contact mechanics, and muscle control during static and dynamic loading applications. Dr. Zeller’s past research includes clinical and computational analysis of the human body with respect to the design and implantation of orthopedic devices for the knee, hip, and spine. He has published in peer-reviewed journals and presented research at both technical and surgical conferences in North America, Europe, and Asia. Dr. Zeller also worked with surgeons across the United States in the design and assessment of knee replacement devices, including personalized and prototype devices to optimize for efficacy and safety. 

Dr. Zeller is also accredited as a traffic accident reconstructionist and continues to conduct research as well as maintain a current knowledge of developing trends and best practices in the biomechanics and engineering fields. Dr. Zeller has published to various organizations on topics ranging from knee replacement design, forward solution modeling, joint mechanics, personalized joint replacements, material structures and properties as well as biological modeling of disease distributions. He also has an extensive testifying history including depositions, trials, and arbitrations. See Dr. Zeller's Full Bio & CV.

Expertise:

Dr. Michael Hill, PhD, PE, has over 20 years of experience in the field of Biomechanics, including over 6 years of experience investigating, analyzing, and professing matters involving a variety of forensic engineering issues. He is an expert in experimental, theoretical, and computational tissue biomechanics, with a focus on injury mechanisms, human tissue damage, and nonlinear soft tissue mechanics. In his current role, Dr. Hill applies a biomedical perspective to a variety of cases, including vehicle and pedestrian collisions; biomechanical analysis and injury consistency; occupant and pedestrian kinematics; product and machinery failures; and slip, trip, and fall investigations.

Dr. Hill is a registered and licensed Professional Engineer in multiple States and holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Bioengineering with a focus on Biomechanics. He has investigated hundreds of cases involving motor vehicle accidents, slip, trip, and fall accidents, medical device failures, and industrial accidents across the United States. 

Dr. Hill has collaborated with cardiovascular and orthopedic surgeons, engineers, and scientists in the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom on various medical research projects. He has lectured in the field of biomechanics and numerical methods, and his research has been presented at over 40 international and national scientific conferences and published in 17 academic articles with over 1,000 citations. Dr. Hill also has an extensive history of testifying in depositions and trials. See Dr. Hill's Full Bio & CV.

Expertise:

View Qforensics' "Tire Defect & Fire Origin and Cause" Forensic Engineering Expert Witness Profile.

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.

Litigation Support - Mr. Seluga has been working as a forensic engineer at Technology Associates since 2001. He has investigated 100s of accidents for both plaintiffs and defendants. Mr. Seluga has been qualified to testify as an expert in state and federal court and is experienced in testifying in depositions and trials. He has successfully defeated Daubert / Frye challenges and can prepare and explain compelling exhibits at trial.

Areas of Expertise: