Confidential Settlement: Utility Truck Hits Trailer Into Pedestrian

A police officer sitting at a red light perpendicular to the collision testified that the truck struck the trailer at the moment the police officer’s light turned green. The defendant driving the utility truck testified that his light was still yellow, and did not turn red until the defendant was already halfway through the intersection. 

Shannon Clark tasked our forensic team with building a series of animations that would establish the defendant’s liability in running the red light, and show how the defendant’s argument for when his light turned red was mathematically impossible - based on police reports, on-site inspections, and Airbag Control Module data from the defendant’s vehicle.

The first trial graphic establishes the scene and the positions of vehicles from an aerial perspective. A white pickup truck is seen waiting to turn left in the intersection facing east. A police officer waiting at the red light facing north provided eyewitness testimony for what happened next.

The camera zooms into an aerial oblique perspective of the intersection, introducing the young boy and the defendant approaching from the east. The light turns red as the defendant decides to maintain his speed and continue through the intersection. The pickup truck turns left and clips the back corner of the defendant’s trailer, which then rotates counter-clockwise across the intersection and into the teenager. The animation freezes at impact, and concludes with photographs taken after the incident (Not included in this example).

The second animation demonstrates what happened from the perspective of the eyewitness police officer. The officer testified that his light turned green at the moment of impact when the truck hit the trailer. We calibrated this testimony of when the light turned green with speed data collected from the Airbag Control Module and, using evidence collected from onsite inspections, we were able to accurately recreate when and how this collision occurred in relation to the color of the light.

Once we had established what happened from both an aerial perspective and the police officer’s point-of-view, this next animation shows how the defendant’s argument for when the light turned red doesn’t comply with police testimony or Airbag Control Module data.

The defendant argued that the light turned red when he was already halfway through the intersection. Traveling at a speed of 45 mph, that would have placed the defendant 211 feet past the intersection by the time the light turned green for the police officer. This animation helps anchor that fact in vivid detail.

MediVisuals + High Impact’s team of visual strategists, artists and developers can build and customize your demonstrative exhibits for any case involving any subject involving complex information.

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