Confidential Settlement: Animation Magnifies Liability After Semi Pancakes Pickup

In a case like this - where liability is both obvious and egregious - the best strategy for the defendant is usually to admit liability and sweep as many damaging facts under the rug as possible. Why? Because if a jury were to decide who’s liable, egregiously reckless negligence would expose the defendant to punitive damages.

The best strategy for a plaintiff attorney in this case is to maximize this leverage in mediation by driving home the magnitude of the defendant’s gross negligence. When you can show that a horrific disaster was easily avoidable, your audience will understand and believe with more conviction why the defendant’s reckless conduct must be punished.

In mediation, over-proving liability shows the defense how vulnerable the defendant is to facing punitive damages if the case were to go in front of a jury. It also encourages the defense to pay more in compensation to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Jacobson Forensic Engineering analyzed evidence from the scene and vehicle data to determine speeds, motions, and important vehicle mechanics. MediVisuals + High Impact’s technicians then performed additional site inspections, which included area laser scanning and photogrammetry techniques. Once all the information was collected, JFE processed everything into simulation data, which our artists used to build the animation.

The first animation follows the semi from an oblique angle a little more than eight seconds before impact. It enables the audience to evaluate the driver’s actions, and determine whether the impact could have been avoided - or in this case, easily avoided. It also anchors the audience’s understanding of the destruction that ensued with a powerful visual that would be remembered.

The next animation enables the audience to evaluate the driver’s actions from the exact perspective he had the day of the crash. We collaborated very closely with Jacobson Forensic to recreate exactly what this perspective looked like, from the bumps in the road to the collision mechanics that occur after impact. Everything you see is grounded in real-world data collected from the vehicles, 3D scanning, and expert analysis of the wreckage.

Finally, we conclude with one more oblique angle of the crash - this time from a fixed perspective as a hypothetical traffic camera. The purpose of this animation was to put the audience at the scene as an eye-witness to the catastrophic events that transpired.