Rooting out cause and effect
Constable Jim Gill has spent nearly five years honing his skills in establishing the causes of road traffic collisions, but he would sooner consign those skills to the classroom than visit the scene of another fatal crash, writes Caroline Brodie
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ESTABLISHING cause has become an increasingly important part of what the police do at serious collision scenes in recent decades.
Evidence collected by collision investigators not only provides answers which can help heartbroken families come to terms with the sudden death of a loved one, it also supplies crucial evidence in ensuing fatal accident inquiries and court cases.
Constable Jim Gill, of Grampian Police, who became a collision investigator nearly five years ago, said 95% of collisions were caused by human error and it was up to the police to establish the cause and investigate whether or not anything could be done to prevent the same thing happening again.
Constable Gill said: “The police are duty-bound by law to investigate all traffic collisions, but more so when death or serious injury is involved.”
He said investigators worked meticulously at the scene to make sure no stone was left unturned. The position of the vehicles, the lay of the land, the location of signposts and trees, the time of the day and year, as well as victims’ injuries are all taken into consideration.
Constable Gill said this could take several hours, but stressed it was vital to examine every possibility before the road reopened.
He said: “It is not like a murder where the whole scene is closed off for as long as it takes. We are talking about roads which people want reopened as quickly as possible. We get one shot at it.
“Once everything has been moved and cleaned up and the road reopened, we cannot go back.
“We’ve got one chance, so we’ve got to get it right.
“To us it is a crime scene.”
Collision investigators are sent only to serious incidents and those where there has been a fatality.
In the case of a single car crash, with no witnesses, the evidence they collect can provide the only clues as to what went wrong.
Grampian Police has two dedicated vehicles – both Ford Galaxies, kept at Nelson Street, in Aberdeen, and in Elgin – which are sent to serious incidents with two collision investigators.
At the scene, they walk through what has happened, gathering witness evidence, and finding out important details, such as whether or not anything has been moved.
Constable Gill said it was surprising how often people did move cars and other vital evidence.
“I have been at a collision scene where boulders knocked off a wall had been moved off the road by a motorist who drove past,” he said.
“All these things tell us something. If there was enough force in a collision to knock boulders off a wall, it shows us there has been some kind of energy involved, like speed.”
Officers use maths and physics when examining the scene, and computers to plot an exact map of it.
Constable Gill said: “The result is the collision and we work our way backwards from there to find out the cause.”
He said no matter how obvious the cause may seem initially, assumptions could never be made.
“You have to plot it all out and establish what has happened because it is amazing what little things can appear during the course of an investigation and throw a spanner in the works,” he said.
Pathologists can also offer valuable insights and clues based on the victims’ injuries and vehicles are also impounded and examined to see if damage has happened during the collision or if it was there before.
“We get service records and find out about the history of the vehicle,” said Constable Gill. “We find out if anything has been done recently – whether the vehicle has been serviced and the handling was different to what the driver was used to. There are so many different ifs, buts and whats.”
Following every fatal collision, police investigators also meet with local-authority road engineers at the scene to investigate whether or not anything can be put in place to avoid another incident.
Grampian Police is working in partnership with the Press and Journal in its Young Driver of the Year campaign, which aims to cut the death toll on our roads by promoting advanced driving skills.
Constable Gill said: “As a collision investigator, I never want to have to go to the scene of another collision, so if young drivers enhancing their skills means I never have to use mine, that’s just fine – I’m happy with that.
“I would prefer to keep those skills in the classroom than to use them on the streets.
“It is not a very nice task, but it has to be done because families want to know what has happened.”
Constable Gill also stressed the road safety message and urged people to realise their cars were not “big solid boxes” and to wear seatbelts at all times.
He added: “We find that in quite a lot of collisions, people who are not wearing seatbelts are thrown about inside the car or ejected and it is what they might hit outside the car.
“At least a seatbelt keeps you in the seat and gives you a chance.”
Alcohol and drugs, including prescription medication, continue to be a big factor in collisions. Last year in the UK, one in six road deaths were drink related and one in four were drug related.
But excessive and inappropriate speed remains the single biggest cause of death and serious injury on our roads.
Constable Gill said: “Nine times out of 10, you can tell by the marks on the road that a vehicle has been going too fast for the conditions, whether it is the road, weather or driver.
“The marks quite often show the driver has tried to correct what they have done before they go off the road, but it has been too late.”
