Gary Mauney

WHAT HAPPENED?

Gary Mauney, Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney - The Importance of Accident Reconstruction in Proving Your Case.

When a vehicle accident occurs, the people involved may be unable to recall the exact events that took place, or there may be conflicting versions of what actually happened. The most common statements at the scene of an accident are: “It happened so fast!” and “Where did that other car come from?”. It is essential that a qualified attorney familiar with accident reconstruction be contacted as soon as possible to help investigate the accident and build a strong case in your favor. Charlotte attorney Gary Mauney of Mauney PLLC has 25 years of experience litigating cases that require the painstaking reconstruction of accidents. To prove an accident case in court, it is often necessary to hire an accident reconstruction expert. After a serious injury or a death, you and your family need a lawyer who has the experience and ability to prove your case using every available tool.

Don’t hire an attorney looking for a quick, easy settlement.

Some attorneys operate from the presumption that a serious personal injury case will settle quickly. Sometimes cases do settle quickly and on reasonable terms. But as often as not, when there is a significant personal injury or a wrongful death, you need to prepare for a fight, and you will be well served by hiring a law firm that will properly prepare for that fight. This means that prove your case after an auto accident or workplace injury, you will often need the help of an expert in the field of accident reconstruction. Mauney PLLC will make sure you have the experts that your case requires.

What is accident reconstruction?

Accident reconstruction is the process of investigating, analyzing, and drawing conclusions about the causes of and events that transpire during a vehicle collision or a workplace accident (examples are construction sites, manufacturing plants). Typically, the expert that reconstructs the accident is an engineer or a scientist in the pertinent field. Mauney PLLC may hire an accident reconstruction expert to conduct an in-depth analysis of your automobile accident to identify contributing factors in different types of collisions, such as the role of the driver(s), vehicle(s), roadway, traffic, lighting, and the environment. Likewise, an expert may be hired to reconstruct the events that led to a workplace injury or death. It is essential, if not mandatory, that accident reconstruction be done in cases where death and/or personal injury are involved if evidence is ambiguous, missing, or incomplete.

Investigation

There are multiple phases of an accident reconstruction investigation. Listed below are the key components of the investigation experts would undertake after being retained by Mauney PLLC:

Visit the scene of the accident and examine all vehicles involved in the collision.
Inspect and photograph any other objects involved in the collision. For example, bicycles, animals, trees, buildings or poles.
Collect visual evidence such as scene photographs and traffic videos of the collision.
Review all victim, eye-witness, and police reports.
Examine physical evidence such as gauge and tire marks.
- The length of a skid mark can often indicate the original speed of vehicle. Experts are often able to pinpoint speed to within a couple MPHs of the actual speed.
- Tire marks also provide information about whether the drivers involved in the collision reacted to danger or were unaware of the impending crash.
Review environmental conditions at the time of the accident.
Inspect the road surface, especially when traction has been lost due to snow, black ice, diesel fuel, or obstacles such as road debris.
Inspect positioning of road signs and/or signals and identify possible visibility issues.
Investigate any unaddressed safety recalls that may have contributed to the crash and examine the involved vehicles’ headlights, brake lights, and other safety equipment to determine whether they were working properly at the time of the collision.

Analysis and interpretation of data

Once all the evidence has been collected, the accident reconstruction experts employed by Mauney PLLC can create a second-by-second analysis of the accident by evaluating possible hypotheses, creating models, recreating accidents, and utilizing software simulations.

Our experts summarize points of impact, vehicle movements, including speed estimates and vehicle points of rest. Our team has found that vehicle speed is frequently under-estimated by a driver, so an independent estimate of speed is often essential in personal injury accidents where evidence of speed is incomplete or contested.
Experts apply laws of physics and occupant kinematics to explain occupant movement or ejections.
Other evidence is examined such as skid marks, witness testimony, and other clues that help identify driver errors that may have contributed to the accident such as excessive speed or failure to yield the right of way.
Diagrams are generated with aerial photo overlay and/or 3-D animation of the accident to create a collision simulation.

Why use an accident reconstruction expert ?

By utilizing accident reconstruction tools, the personal injury team at Mauney PLLC can clearly and effectively present your side of the events in negotiations and in the courtroom, helping you achieve the best settlement or jury verdict possible for your case. Through accident reconstruction we able to help you obtain greater compensation for your medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other damages related to your personal injury. Accident reconstruction can be expensive, and attorneys overly focused on early settlement may not want to make an expensive outlay to support and prove a case. Look out for that kind of law firm.