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Following a serious road collision, the police are required to investigate the circumstances to establish if anyone involved has committed a criminal offence. In the most serious of cases, a Forensic Collision Investigator will be assigned to reconstruct the collision to establish those factors that caused or contributed to it. Historically, collision investigators were referred to as Accident Investigators; whilst it is accepted that collisions are preventable, the term accident was still often used. This term implied an inevitability when in fact the causes of a collision could be prevented; it was, and still is, the job of collision investigators to determine those causes, so a shift from Accident Investigator to Collision Investigator sought to reflect this. It is now much more common for the newer term to be used.
Of course, a key part of the role is to assist the criminal process seeking to achieve justice for victims, but collision investigators work across the road safety landscape, including helping insurance companies and the legal industry in civil proceedings; they also undertake research activities. Although the skills employed by collision investigators are comparatively similar regardless of whether they are seeking to assist a criminal investigation, civil investigation, or research activity, the processes themselves have very different aims. Whilst grossly oversimplified, the criminal process is about getting justice for the victim, the civil process is about supporting the victim’s needs, and research is about making sure there are no more victims in the future.
Criminal proceedings are focussed on determining if anyone involved is criminally liable for the events that unfolded during the collision. Most often, this is focussed around determining whether the standard of driving fell below – in the case of careless driving – or far below – in the case of dangerous driving – the standard expected of a careful and competent driver.
Where collision investigators are involved in civil proceedings, this is most often because the victim (or their representative) is seeking compensation for the injuries or damage caused because of the collision, or it could be that they are defending a claim made against them. The word ‘compensation’ can be very divisive and often conjures up images of somebody trying to make quick money; that is not the reality, and the actual reality is rarely reported. The process can help to provide victims with the financial support required to return their lives to a point where it is as close as possible to how it was before the collision. This may involve adjusting the home to allow wheelchair access, or providing specialist psychological treatment to deal with the emotional trauma. Clearly, when somebody has been killed, getting back to the way things were can never be achieved. I recall a conversation I had with the wife of a man who had been killed in a road collision whilst riding his pedal cycle. She told me one of the most difficult things to deal with was having to think about money when she was mourning the loss of her husband; while financial help for those left behind will not help directly with reducing grief, it will help with the practical aspects of supporting family members.
Even once the legal processes have concluded, there is a hope from all of us that the circumstances never repeat themselves. As we strive to reduce the number of collisions on our roads, research comes to the fore. Research such as the RAIDS project managed by TRL carries out an in-depth analysis of collisions to enable researchers to have access to a huge database of information. This database helps researchers understand the factors at play during a collision, and this can inform change makers, and those responsible for road safety.
Collision Investigators working in projects like RAIDS, and the Expert Witness teams utilise a range of skills and assess all the available information to draw conclusions about how the collision occurred. To draw conclusions, collision investigators can analyse CCTV footage or other digital data, critique the accounts of witnesses, examine the vehicles involved, and apply theoretical physics and mathematical calculations to gain a thorough understanding of how the collision occurred. When this is done for research purposes, this can feed into the Safe Systems approach, which allows those with road safety responsibilities to work towards preventing as many deaths and serious injuries on our roads as possible.
As part of TRL’s support for Road Safety Week, we will be posting a series of blogs written by our in-house experts, looking across the different themes Brake has identified as encapsulating the overall theme of ‘Safe Roads For All’. TRL’s experts have focused on some specific road users and topics within these themes and have tried to think about how all of this relates to a future in which transport is safe for everyone. The blogs cover active travel (Monday); how we teach children and young people about road safety (Tuesday); speed (Wednesday); road users with differing needs (including a focus on mental health and motorcyclists – Thursday); the future of driving (Friday); and the importance of learning from collisions (Sunday).
Check out TRL’s website and social channels for the latest blog.
Road Safety week runs from 14th to 20th November 2022, to find how out you can support Brake visit Road Safety Week | Brake
About the Author
Craig Arnold is a Consultant in the Investigations Group at TRL, specialising in road accident reconstruction and providing consultancy advice. Craig holds a Master’s degree and is researching the use of big-data and machine learning to reduce road collisions whilst studying for a PhD in Criminology.
Craig has over a decade of experience working in road safety and has investigated road collisions both within the UK and internationally. Prior to joining TRL, Craig was a serving police officer and was Chair of the board of trustees for a charity in the North-West of England which supported those affected by road collisions. He currently specialises in the forensic analysis of digital data and CCTV to reconstruct road collisions; latterly this has included providing consultancy on projects involving connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV).
