Posted 11:20 pm Monday, November 26, 2007
Texas DPS Troopers Reconstruct Deadly Accidents
By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer
They use surveying equipment, tape measures and high-tech computer programs to map all fatal accident scenes, which aid Texas Department of Public Safety troopers in understanding how an accident happened and why.
Wednesday morning, troopers with the Tyler DPS district gathered on Farm-to-Market Road 2493 a few miles north of Flint to gather information to map out an accident scene where a 43-year-old Tyler man was killed earlier this month. The indications of the accident are not noticeable to the untrained eye, but easy to find for the troopers.
The orange paint on the pavement marks the spots where troopers working the fatality the night of the accident used the paint to indicate skid marks, where the vehicle left the pavement and where the vehicle came to rest.
The troopers begin to assemble pieces of what is called a total station, which is used for forensic mapping. The tools include the station, which is a measuring device using lasers, a prism pole with a prism mounted on top and a tracker.
Staff Writer
They use surveying equipment, tape measures and high-tech computer programs to map all fatal accident scenes, which aid Texas Department of Public Safety troopers in understanding how an accident happened and why.
Wednesday morning, troopers with the Tyler DPS district gathered on Farm-to-Market Road 2493 a few miles north of Flint to gather information to map out an accident scene where a 43-year-old Tyler man was killed earlier this month. The indications of the accident are not noticeable to the untrained eye, but easy to find for the troopers.
The orange paint on the pavement marks the spots where troopers working the fatality the night of the accident used the paint to indicate skid marks, where the vehicle left the pavement and where the vehicle came to rest.
The troopers begin to assemble pieces of what is called a total station, which is used for forensic mapping. The tools include the station, which is a measuring device using lasers, a prism pole with a prism mounted on top and a tracker.
DPS troopers Frank Bonilla (right) and trooper Barry Evans set up the Total Station, a forensic mapping instrument that pinpoints each plotted spot that has been marked after an automobile accident in order to reconstruct it. Using this device and making calculations using specific mathematical formulas, they can recreate the speed, direction, point of impact and final position of the vehicles after impact. They then feed the coordinates into a computer and get a two-dimensional image of the accident.
Trooper Barry Evans said the total station determines a distance and an angle between itself and a prism and can do multiple measurements in the fraction of the time needed with a tape measure.
"This gives us a two-scale diagram of every accident, and in high-profile cases or where multiple fatalities occurred we do a complete recreation," he said.
He explained the system needs at least two people for operation, but many times there is a team of troopers to help and control traffic to ensure safety.
The measurements are recorded and stored by a small data collector, which is then taken back to the DPS office. Thrn the information is downloaded from the data collector into a computer with mapping software.
Evans said that after the information is downloaded, he is able to print a completed sketch with an inserted legend or use other software to create a "movie" that shows the vehicle actually crashing.
"It's really pretty cool stuff, and it helps us a lot to know how everything happened," he said.
Mapping the second scene of the day on Farm-to-Market Road 1804, Evans directs troopers Chad Skidmore, Frank Bonilla and Glenn Davenport as Davenport places the prism pole on each orange dot on the roadway.
Skidmore calls out letters and numbers that represent skid marks, where the vehicle left the pavement and other important factors. Bonilla writes the information down, and Evans uses the laser to gather the measurement and enter the information into a keypad on the tracker.
The entire process takes about 35 minutes at the scene, and the results have been used in criminal cases and are sometimes sent to Austin where they are studied by engineers working on bettering highway safety.
"Years ago it would take a lot longer using just tape measures, but after we get this set up then it really doesn't take any time at all," he said.
Evans said he also uses the total station at various crime scenes, including shootings, such as the Smith County Courthouse incident in 2005.
He has also been called to the scene of both Whitehouse police officers involved shootings in the past year, and troopers also did the crime scene on Texas Highway 155 earlier this month where a Gilmer man was gunned down by a suspect or suspects armed with automatic assault rifles.
Evans said he believes the science will continue to evolve and newer computer programs will assist law enforcement even more in the future.
However, science is not the only way troopers determine the cause of fatal accidents.
Trooper Joe Birt said troopers do a 24-hour background check on those killed in car accidents.
Birt said the information gathered can tell where a person has been, who they talked to and what state of mind they might have been in.
"Sometimes we can learn the person had been in an argument and was upset when the accident happened or that they were not feeling well," he said. "Anything that gives a look at what happened helps us understand the accident."
"This gives us a two-scale diagram of every accident, and in high-profile cases or where multiple fatalities occurred we do a complete recreation," he said.
He explained the system needs at least two people for operation, but many times there is a team of troopers to help and control traffic to ensure safety.
The measurements are recorded and stored by a small data collector, which is then taken back to the DPS office. Thrn the information is downloaded from the data collector into a computer with mapping software.
Evans said that after the information is downloaded, he is able to print a completed sketch with an inserted legend or use other software to create a "movie" that shows the vehicle actually crashing.
"It's really pretty cool stuff, and it helps us a lot to know how everything happened," he said.
Mapping the second scene of the day on Farm-to-Market Road 1804, Evans directs troopers Chad Skidmore, Frank Bonilla and Glenn Davenport as Davenport places the prism pole on each orange dot on the roadway.
Skidmore calls out letters and numbers that represent skid marks, where the vehicle left the pavement and other important factors. Bonilla writes the information down, and Evans uses the laser to gather the measurement and enter the information into a keypad on the tracker.
The entire process takes about 35 minutes at the scene, and the results have been used in criminal cases and are sometimes sent to Austin where they are studied by engineers working on bettering highway safety.
"Years ago it would take a lot longer using just tape measures, but after we get this set up then it really doesn't take any time at all," he said.
Evans said he also uses the total station at various crime scenes, including shootings, such as the Smith County Courthouse incident in 2005.
He has also been called to the scene of both Whitehouse police officers involved shootings in the past year, and troopers also did the crime scene on Texas Highway 155 earlier this month where a Gilmer man was gunned down by a suspect or suspects armed with automatic assault rifles.
Evans said he believes the science will continue to evolve and newer computer programs will assist law enforcement even more in the future.
However, science is not the only way troopers determine the cause of fatal accidents.
Trooper Joe Birt said troopers do a 24-hour background check on those killed in car accidents.
Birt said the information gathered can tell where a person has been, who they talked to and what state of mind they might have been in.
"Sometimes we can learn the person had been in an argument and was upset when the accident happened or that they were not feeling well," he said. "Anything that gives a look at what happened helps us understand the accident."
