Background

A pedestrian went to grab the side handrail to go down steps. The pedestrian claimed that they fell due to a large planter and vertical ashtray that obstructed the walking area along the steps leading down the staircase. A security video of the accident appeared to be consistent with the claim.

Services Provided

Rimkus Consulting Group was requested to review the accident. During the course of our investigation, we measured and photographed the area where the accident occurred and reviewed testimony of the pedestrian who fell and the testimony of others. We created a three-dimensional computer model of the scene and we reviewed the security video which captured the accident.

Upon close review of the video, we determined that the pedestrian was not as close to the hand rail as what appeared in the surveillance video. This was due to the elevation and angle of the camera. There was a unique floor tile pattern that the pedestrian was walking on. We collected field measurements of the tiles and steps and a three-dimensional computer scale model of the scene was created. The pedestrian was placed on the tile in the three dimensional computer model which agreed to the location of their feet in reference to the floor tile pattern as seen in the video. Through the use of a three-dimensional camera match, it was shown the pedestrian was actually 4 feet from the handrail when they fell.