Overview

Human factors consultants are often called upon to assist accident reconstruction experts when complex questions arise regarding the pre-impact stage of the accident reconstruction process. These include addressing driver behavior, perception-response time, attention, distraction, driver expectation, and driver error. Typical questions addressed by our human factors experts may involve:

• Was the hazard visible?
• When was the hazard detected?
• Could the driver detect the slow moving or stopped vehicle?
• Was the driver distracted by others in the vehicle or a cell phone? Was the driver fatigued, or sleepy?
• How fast could the driver react to another vehicle or a pedestrian’s actions?
• Did the driver respond reasonably? Did the pedestrian respond reasonably?
• What is the effect of cell phone usage, impairment, lack of sleep, etc. on accident causation?
• Was the event a case of pedal confusion? If so, for how long did the driver press the accelerator pedal rather than the brake?