OPP Cruiser Impact in London Ontario Demonstrates Complexities of Enforcement
Not much is known at this time however an OPP police cruiser collision on Southdale Road in London, Ontario has reportedly resulted in critical injuries to two passengers of a taxi. It is reported that Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) has commenced an investigation.
In police pursuits the perceptions of visibility and hearing may be relative. What may appear visible and loud to police may be experienced differently in the unique environmental circumstances of each case.
Police pursuits have always been lightning rods of disagreement with respect to the necessity to enforce laws that protect the public while also enforcing over-reaction of police that also protects the public. When events unfold quickly police are no less human. Anyone needing to make a quick and important decision may not respond ideally. On the other hand the consequences of police pursuits may not result from unavoidable necessities but due to improper supervision or poor judgment. Above all, after analysis of an individual incident, the most important matter is that what has been learned is reflected back into improvements so that the possibility of future incidents of unintended consequences is reduced. This process cannot be performed in a police or political vacuum. The public has a stake in the issue and thus must be informed.
As part of the City of London’s Community Safety and Crime Prevention Advisory Committee, Gorski Consulting will continue our efforts to guide other members of the Committee and the representatives of the City of London about the important need to inform the public on all issues of their safety, including police pursuits.
City of London Appoints Zygmunt M. Gorski To Advisory Committees
Upon a review of applicants a City of London striking committee has appointed Zygmunt M. Gorski to membership in two of its advisory committees.
Zygmunt M. Gorski has been appointed to two City of London advisory committees commencing in 2019.
The Community Safety and Crime Prevention Advisory Committee “…serves as a resource, information gathering and advisory body to the Municipal Council on matters pertaining to safety and crime prevention in the City of London”.
The Transportation Advisory Committee “…will advise and support City Council in the implementation of the City’s Transportation Master Plan (TMP), including the Active Transportation and Transportation Demand Manage(with the exception of the cycling components of these City plans and programs), and the London Road Safety Strategy (LRSS) aspects…”
As Zyg Gorski has been involved in the road safety research and accident reconstruction fields for the past 39 years these appointments should prove beneficial to the City’s operations. Zyg Gorski has been involved in the technical analysis of a variety of transportation incidents that have required a detailed evaluation of expert reports, uncovering of objective evidence and the technical analysis of these incidents. The public’s protection, whether from criminal acts or via inadvertent circumstances that develop in transportation are vitally important to any community. The causes of these drains on the public’s welfare are complicated and require a patient evaluation of all potential sources.
Data From Recent Testing Added to Gorski Consulting “Road Data” Webpage
After posting several news articles on recent road testing, the subject data has now been uploaded to the Gorski Consulting “Road Data” webpage. Two datafiles have been added.
Substandard road surfaces can cause unwanted reactions of vehicles travelling over them. Testing by Gorski Consulting reveals the extent of these reactions.
One datafile relates to the testing that was performed this spring on the Red Hill Valley and Lincoln Alexander Parkways. This file is under the heading of “Road Conditions Data – City of Hamilton”.
The second datafile related to testing that was performed this spring on Highway 401 between London and Tilbury, and along Highway 402 between London and Strathroy.
The content of both datafiles has been discussed in recent news items posted on the Gorski Consulting News webpage.
Did Heart Condition Cause Collision or Did Collision Cause Heart Condition?
Medical episodes are convenient explanations for fatal collisions. But they are not always the correct explanations.
The cause of a double-fatal incident where vehicle was driven into Lake Ontario in Burlington, Ontario, was announced by Halton Regional Police. It was stated that “Medical factors may have contributed to this incident and the coroner has listed a medical condition involving the heart as the cause of death on the preliminary report”. It was said that this conclusion was consistent with the observation of a witness who “…described the driver as appearing to either be suffering a medical issue or being panicked, noting the man’s arms were locked on the steering wheel”. Compelling evidence indeed. But what demeanor would be expected from anyone if they knew they were headed toward a body of water at high speed but could not prevent the occurrence?
As the population of drivers ages, there is an understandable increase in the number of reported fatal collisions related to medical conditions. On the other hand, as the complexity of vehicle technology increases there is also a greater difficulty in detecting whether that technology was a cause of a crash.
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety warns of knowledge gap between technology and driver comprehension.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) published an article in June 2019 issue of their Status Report which provides some indication of the confusion between what drivers believe about automation technology and the reality of what the technology actually does. The example used involved questions put to drivers about the meaning of various driver automation functions of new vehicles. The article indicated:
” Vehicles are getting increasingly sophisticated, with more and more of them able to stay in a lane and maintain speed and following distance with minimal driver input. But this kind of automation has limitations that can be tricky for drivers to grasp…”
That “trickiness” does not just apply to drivers, it also applies to investigators who are increasingly relied upon to provide a definitive answer about the cause of a crash without having sufficient knowledge about the inner workings of advanced vehicles.
Sudden unintended acceleration is often blamed on foot pedal error without sufficient knowledge or investigation about possible vehicle malfunctions. (Photo by Peel Region Paramedics of house impact, July 7, 2019 in Mississauga, Ontario)
Sudden unintended acceleration is a frequent incident that leads to serious collisions and this is commonly attributed to driver foot pedal error. Yet those who make that determination have limited knowledge about the inner workings of the modules and sensors that control modern vehicles. Whether a vehicle plunges into a house, drives into roadside water or collides with another vehicle, the pre-crash functioning of steering, acceleration and braking may be stored by various onboard recorders and can sometimes be downloaded and evaluated. Conversely, not all the data that is stored is available to investigators as some is viewed a proprietary to the manufacturer. When the manufacturer is the only one who can access the full data it cannot be certain whether certain tell-tale problems will be detected by investigators working with a limited set of data.
What is often sufficient to the general public is that a seemingly knowledgeable person with a uniform, credentials and an important title reports that he/she has conducted an investigation and has drawn a conclusion. While the basis for the conclusion is rarely known.
An impressionable old mother was once asked about the suitability of her perspective son-in-law and she remarked “Well, I don’t know what he does, but he carries a briefcase”.
Beer Case Used As Child Booster Cushion Publicizes A Wider Safety Issue
Mis-use of appropriate child restraints and use of inappropriate child restraints are important issues that are overlooked.
The Ontario Provincial Police posted the above photo on their Twitter account showing how a case of beer was being used as a booster cushion for a 2-year-old child seated in the front seat. The photo is eye-catching and garners some publicity of what would appear to be a rare and unusual occurrence. However this provides an opportunity to point out that mis-use of appropriate restraints and use of inappropriate restraints is not rare or unusual. But when it causes unnecessary injury there are many reasons why its consequences are kept from the public’s knowledge.
Even use of the beer case is not the worst that adults have done to their innocent children. Without the availability of a child seat anything that can elevate the child and increase the angle of the lap belt as it leaves its floor anchorage is better than simply placing a 2-year-old child in an adult-fitting seat-belt. There is no way that the anatomy of a 2-year-old child will allow the lap belt to be placed appropriately below the illiac crests of the child’s pelvis. In the event of crash of any significance the child’s abdomen will move against the webbing potentially causing major organ ruptures. This would need immediate emergency treatment in an operating room. Sadly such immediate treatment will not take place in a large number of cases when a collision occurs some distance from a major medical facility.
What is also misunderstood is that seat-belt abdominal injuries do not exhibit themselves in open wounds that provide an immediate indication of a problem. Minor head wounds will produce much bleeding and obvious signs to witnesses at a collision site that an injury has occurred.
But even paramedics can be misled by the lack of obvious signs of injury when abdominal organs sustain seat-belt injuries and the patient progresses into shock without a clearly identifiable reason. In those instances paramedics could be trained, not only to look for signs of injury on the patient but to look at the seat-belt and vehicle interior for additional vital clues.
It has been over 30 years since Zygmunt Gorski presented a research paper at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in Philadelphia entitled “Examination and Analysis of Seat-belt Loading Marks”, which was subsequently pubished in their journal in 1990. In that paper it was demonstrated how investigators could examine the physical evidence left on restraint systems to determine if, and how they have been used in a crash. Physical evidence is created at the tongue (latch plate) and D-ring of the system and tranferred onto the seat-belt webbing. That evidence provides an indication of the length of the lap and shoulder (torso) belt used in the crash. Not only this, but specific characteristics of those markings can be used to determine how the system was used, whether it was misused and/or whether it performed improperly during a crash.
An example of seat-belt markings documented during an investigation by Zygmunt Gorski in the 1980s.
Thus this data has been available for at least 3 decades. Yet very little attention has been paid to its existence. Paramedics could easily gain valuable information about possible injuries to a patient even without taking any vital signs by simply looking at the physical evidence on a restraint system. Similarly evidence of occupant contact with the vehicle interior can provide further clues as to possible restraint problems. Paramedics could be taught to recognize certain telltale signs of occupant contact that would not exist if a restraint was used or performed properly. Unfortunately this is the kind of evidence and training that remains unexplored.
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