Gorski Consulting

Gorski Consulting is a forensic motor vehicle accident reconstruction firm offering expert analysis and opinion to the legal, insurance, and private plaintiff/defendant communities for the resolution of civil and criminal litigation issues.

Since 1980, Zygmunt Gorski, the principal of the firm, has worked in the safety research and accident reconstruction fields. He has provided reconstruction analysis and expert opinions and testimonies for hundreds of vehicle accidents.

Services

Vehicle Examinations

Site Surveys

Crash Data Recorders

Video Analysis

Accident Analysis

Expert Reports

Trials and Testimony

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Site and Vehicle Examinations

If possible, call us immediately after an accident occurs so we can attend the crash site and document evidence before it is altered and destroyed. We can also provide examinations after vehicles are moved to a holding compound.

During examinations, we use still and video cameras to document evidence and measure the site to create a scale diagram. Any evidence found is secured for analysis. At the holding compound, vehicles are photographed and the location of collision evidence is measured along with the profile and magnitude of crush. The status and functioning of safety devices are documented – the Crash Data Retrieval toolkit is used to download crash data from air bag control

Accident Analysis

If required, we re-attend the collision site or vehicle for additional observations and analysis. At a collision site we may set up a roadway grid to document the speed, position, and specific behaviours of drivers – captured by video camera mounted to a 20-foot pole. The output displayed from a radar gun is videotaped to assess the likely speed of typical vehicles, which is used as a reference toward estimating the actions of an accident-involved driver.

We re-create night time accident scenarios using similar vehicles and lighting conditions. Police assistance may be used to close a road segment or natural reactions are obtained without a driver’s awareness of the testing.

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NASS

The National Automotive Sampling System (NASS), a division of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), is an invaluable database to those in the insurance and legal industries.

The Crashworthiness Data System (CDS) of NASS keeps data on thousands of crashes. Research teams at Primary Sampling Units across the country study 5,000 crashes annually. Skid marks, fluid spills, broken glass, and bent guardrails are studied at crash sites. Vehicles are then located to be photographed, measured, and to identify the interior locations struck by occupants. Researchers then interview crash victims and review medical records to determine the nature and severity of injuries.

There are more than 140,000 crash files in the NASS CDS. Although they are designed for analysis with a specialized statistical analysis package, analysis can also be conducted simply by going to the Web site and selecting a list of cases meeting specified criteria.

Recent Posts

Traffic Speed Cameras – Do They Improve Safety?

Traffic Speed Cameras – Do They Improve Safety?

It seems like a pointless question to most observers but do traffic speed cameras improve safety at the locations where they are installed? Traffic speed cameras should cause more drivers to travel at or below the speed limit at the locations where the cameras are...

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Safety Technology That Fails Must Be Reported

Safety Technology That Fails Must Be Reported

It seems logical that, when a technology fails resulting in the crash of an airliner, there should be a public revelation of that fact. Three or five hundred deaths in one incident makes us aware of that importance. But what happens when a technology fails over a...

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Bridge Abutment Impact By Tractor-Trailer on Hwy 401

Bridge Abutment Impact By Tractor-Trailer on Hwy 401

While the large destruction caused by heavy truck impacts draws our attention, we fail to acknowledge the danger that truckers face when the roadway infrastructure is insufficient to protect them. The above photo uploaded on the OPP Twitter account shows two...

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Cycling Path Usage in London, Ontario

Cycling Path Usage in London, Ontario

London Ontario, like many North American cities is working quickly at upgrading and expanding their network of cycling paths. However the City have installed these facilities in a piecemeal fashion. Some newer sections of the Thames Valley Parkway, a network of paths...

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Disturbing Fire & Deaths in Crash on Hwy 427 In Toronto

Disturbing Fire & Deaths in Crash on Hwy 427 In Toronto

The lack of useful news regarding the death of two occupants in a fiery collision on Saturday evening, November 14, 2020,  should be disturbing to anyone concerned about public safety. Yet this comes on, November 15th, that is internationally marked as a day of...

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Expressway Rear-End Impacts Need Better Evaluations

Expressway Rear-End Impacts Need Better Evaluations

In a December 16, 2018 article posted to the Gorski Consulting website the results of observations of tail-gating vehicles on Highway 401 were shown from videotaping sessions at four different sites. Without funding or additional help it was not possible to analyse...

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Did A Young Mother Die In A Vehicle Fire? We Must Know

Did A Young Mother Die In A Vehicle Fire? We Must Know

Everyone is devastated when a young life is lost due to the actions of an impaired driver. And we want to prevent its recurrence. Why does that same concern not apply to post collision fires? News media reported that yesterday, October 3, 2020, a head-on collision...

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Silence About Post-Collision Fires

Silence About Post-Collision Fires

While the OPP are helpful in submitting basic photos of the collision sites they investigate, there is an apparent lack of information provided by all police forces regarding the large number of post-collision fires that are occurring in the region. In the example...

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Speed Can Be Irrelevant In Injury Causation

Speed Can Be Irrelevant In Injury Causation

While the title of this article sounds completely wrong it is an important lesson to understand why it is mostly right. It is never convenient to discuss the results of real-life motor vehicle tragedies because they always involve real people. Yet a failure to educate...

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Was it a Death of a Bomber or a Simple Car Fire?

Was it a Death of a Bomber or a Simple Car Fire?

We can swallow what we are told fully and completely or we can critically evaluate what we are told. Such is our intent is commenting on the reported explosion of a car in front of the Kitchener courthouse on Duke Street yesterday. The site photos show the exploded...

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Trench Warfare in the Expressway Construction Zone

Trench Warfare in the Expressway Construction Zone

We have all seen it. The battles of the expressway construction zone. But rarely do we discuss it. The battles and dangers that exist in the line-ups approaching construction zones on high-speed expressways are something that is rarely discussed or detailed. As part...

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Is Speeding In Toronto OK If You Are Rich?

Is Speeding In Toronto OK If You Are Rich?

Starting on July 6th no demerit points will be added if you are caught by Toronto's speed cameras, only a fine will apply. So If you are the owner of a Ferrari and you have some wealth, will you care if you have to pay a $600 fine? Likely not. But the owner of a...

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Nine Motorcyclists Killed in 18 Days of May

Nine Motorcyclists Killed in 18 Days of May

Averaging at least one motorcyclist fatality every two days is not a good record. But that is the strange Ontario reality during the Covid-19 Pandemic in this month of May. The following list represents some of those killed although it may be not complete. On May 1st...

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Public Deserves Honesty in Collision Reporting

Public Deserves Honesty in Collision Reporting

Local news media have reported on an OPP new release claiming that Middlesex County Roads in the Province of Ontario are more dangerous and that fatalities are on the increase. Some of the reported statistics include the fact that in the past 10 years, 115 people died...

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Ontario Expressway Collisions During Covid-19 Pandemic

Ontario Expressway Collisions During Covid-19 Pandemic

  In an article ("Overall Safety of Ontario's Expressways Hides Chronic Safety Problems") posted on the Gorski Consulting website on January 9, 2020, we listed 21 collisions that were reported by official news media which occurred on Ontario's expressways in...

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Puzzling Road Safety Results During Pandemic

Puzzling Road Safety Results During Pandemic

Covid-19 is a science experiment that no one wanted, but once it's over, we will ask some large questions about how it affected road safety and transportation in general. An article published by CP24 News in Toronto today reported that "Police report thousands fewer...

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New Video Documentation on Highway 401 at Graham Road

New Video Documentation on Highway 401 at Graham Road

The effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on traffic characteristics was documented yesterday, April 20, 2020, on HIghway 401 at Graham Road near West Lorne, Ontario. This documentation is subsequent to an article posted on the Gorski Consulting website showing the effects...

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Why is the Trumpet Section Impossible to Play With?

  We're all entrapped in our own homes. I understand that. But why should a band come marching through my neighbourhood and force me to listen to what they play? An irritating conductor with no sense of rhythm who loves trumpets above all else is in town. He has...

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What Was The Launch Speed Of This Polish Rocket?

What Was The Launch Speed Of This Polish Rocket?

This photo is (apparently) not a gimmick. It is the actual trajectory of a polish car that was recreated by a collision reconstructionist from a short video clip taken by bystander yesterday. The car reportedly struck a tree on the far side of the roundabout and then...

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Day-Dreaming Lessons on the Highway

Day-Dreaming Lessons on the Highway

I get on the highway and, as luck would go, I end up behind a vehicle doing barely the speed limit, on rare occasions, but mostly and unmercifully below. The road is hilly and curved and unsafe to pass.  I think to myself "What the hell, what are you doing?". The...

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Highway 401 Truck Barrier Impact Is Not A Success Story

Highway 401 Truck Barrier Impact Is Not A Success Story

The fact that only minor injuries occurred may seem like a success story, but this is just Russian Roulette.  A tractor-trailer struck a construction barrier, rolled over and caught fire on Highway 401 near Winston Churchill Blvd in Mississauga in the afternoon of...

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Hwy 404 Fatal Impact of Bridge Pillar Should Not Occur

Hwy 404 Fatal Impact of Bridge Pillar Should Not Occur

The superior design of expressways such as Highway 404 in Toronto should not result in a fatal impact to a bridge pillar. Yet, from the scant description provided by the OPP on their Twitter account this is what reportedly occurred. The collision likely occurred in...

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A Head-on Collision In Huron County – A Review

A Head-on Collision In Huron County – A Review

Although the most severe, head-on collisions also provide the greatest opportunity to use the structure of vehicles in riding down the destructive forces of that impact. This was clearly shown in the OPP photo shown above, relating to a serious head-on that occurred...

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Pandemic Puts Road Safety News In Last Place

Pandemic Puts Road Safety News In Last Place

If this were a horse race, all would be losers except Pandemic, the horse who came from behind quick, and from nowhere. Unfortunately this is not a horse race, a test drill, or a Hollywood script. It's the real thing. Hopefully, in a year or two we will look at these...

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Preliminary Data on Reactions to Traffic Signals

Preliminary Data on Reactions to Traffic Signals

Some preliminary results are available from our documentation of driver's reactions to the change of a traffic signal from red to green. This data is for the year 2018 and includes 174 observations. The analysis involves examining the videotape of scenarios such as...

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A Formal European Garden? What Do We Wish To See?

A Formal European Garden? What Do We Wish To See?

Today, January 27th, has been marked by the United Nations as the international remembrance day commemorating the liberation of the remaining victims of the most notorious Nazi murder camp of WWII in southern Poland. After an unspeakable life of surviving WWII my...

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Do We Ignore Speed Advisory Signs? – More Results

Do We Ignore Speed Advisory Signs? – More Results

Three days ago Gorski Consulting posted results from videotaped observations of vehicles passing through a curve in the fall of 2009. Those results showed that the average speed of vehicles passing through the curve was 75.2 km/h, or over 15 km/h higher than the...

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Do We Ignore Speed Advisory Signs?

Do We Ignore Speed Advisory Signs?

Governments spend money to post various warning signs on highways but do drivers heed these warnings? It would seem to be a waste of money if these signs were ignored. Gorski Consulting has conducted testing that reveals some interesting results. In 2009 Gorski...

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Vehicle Drowning in Peterborough? No One Knows

Vehicle Drowning in Peterborough? No One Knows

How much confidence is given when police search for a submerged vehicle and find a second one? Where did this second vehicle come from? Was there an unreported drowning? The OPP reported on Thursday, December 12, 2019 that they attended the Otonabee River on Monaghan...

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The Fast and The Furiously Burning

The Fast and The Furiously Burning

A fatal vehicle fire in Fort Lauderdale Florida is reminiscent of the fire death of Paul Walker from the "Fast & The Furious" But it also illuminates some confusing issues. Two young men Barrett Riley and Edgar Monserratt died in the crash. A third male occupant,...

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Barrier Impacts Causing Rollovers of Large Vehicles

Barrier Impacts Causing Rollovers of Large Vehicles

Whether you drive a heavy truck or bus, or happen to be a passenger, you are provided with essentially no warnings regarding your danger when your vehicle strikes a roadside barrier. As an example, a tractor-trailer struck the end of a concrete barrier on Highway 401...

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What is a Life-Threatening Motor Vehicle Collision?

What is a Life-Threatening Motor Vehicle Collision?

Police and news media provide the public with small glimpses of fatal motor-vehicle collisions while providing very little explanation whether any of these are of a suspicious nature. While the vast majority of these collisions are accidents and not criminal...

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Road Testing Delays An Impetus To Fraud

Road Testing Delays An Impetus To Fraud

A driving instructor in Richmond BC who reportedly hacked into provincial computers to accelerate appointment times for his clients illustrates a general fact of human nature. It has been reported that the average wait time for BC provincial driving tests was 70 days....

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Testing Of Re-Paved, Northbound Red Hill Valley Parkway

Testing Of Re-Paved, Northbound Red Hill Valley Parkway

No obvious problems were detected when the re-paved, northbound Red Hill Valley Parkway was re-tested on June 16, 2019. This is the conclusion drawn after Gorski Consulting conducted testing in response to a driving instructor's complaint to the Hamilton Spectator...

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Some Collision Scenarios Are Challenging

Some Collision Scenarios Are Challenging

There are some collisions scenarios where seat-belts, air bags and crumple zones will not help, but there are still escape routes! The above photo demonstrates that, despite the propaganda, there are limits to what vehicle safety design engineers can accomplish to...

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Additional Road Data From Westbound Highway 401 Testing

Additional Road Data From Westbound Highway 401 Testing

What road surface conditions could make our vehicle go out of control and kill us? That should be an important issue to anyone who travels on any roadway. Gorski Consulting has been gathering data on this issue for the past 5 years and this has been posted on the Road...

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Preliminary Road Data For Westbound Highway 401

Preliminary Road Data For Westbound Highway 401

Preliminary results are available from road surface testing of westbound Highway 401 conducted on May 5, 2019. The full testing commenced at Wonderland Road to Tilbury, Ontario and then the test vehicle turned around and continued from Tilbury back to Highbury Ave in...

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OPP and News Media Sensationalism is Not a Virtue

OPP and News Media Sensationalism is Not a Virtue

The public must be able to depend on police and news media to report facts much like Sergeant Joe Friday in the 1950s and 60s TV show "Dragnet". "Just the facts ma'am" was a popular phrase attached to Jack Webb, the actor who portrayed Friday. While it was a fictional...

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Roadway Surface Safety Problems Are Not Just Potholes

Roadway Surface Safety Problems Are Not Just Potholes

Influences of the road surface and geometry toward motor vehicle collisions are not easily detected. They are not restricted to the seemingly innocuous reference to "potholes" used in popular, public, news media. While the popular Canadian Automobile Association...

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London Ontario Proposes 30 km/h Speeds in School Zones

London Ontario Proposes 30 km/h Speeds in School Zones

Various persons and groups have resorted to a propaganda campaign portraying a direct relationship between travel speed and safety as the only issue of importance. In London, Ontario for example a local city councillor is petitioning for lowering City speed limits...

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Posted Speed,  Operating Speed and Speed Enforcement

Posted Speed, Operating Speed and Speed Enforcement

While maximum speeds are posted along almost all roads and highways in Ontario that has little to do with the operating speed, which is the average speed that vehicles are observed to travel. Speed enforcement is the police function of controlling the speed of...

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Vehicle Fires – 5 Fatalities & No Concerns

Vehicle Fires – 5 Fatalities & No Concerns

Three collisions involving vehicle fires and five fatalities occurred in less than a week in southern Ontario - yet there has been no expression of official concern. Late Wednesday, May 1st,  a vehicle exited Oil Heritage Road in Lambton County and burst into flames...

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Pedestrian and Pole Impact in 40 km/h School Zone

Pedestrian and Pole Impact in 40 km/h School Zone

It may be of little interest to the general public that a car reportedly struck a pedestrian in a school zone and then struck a utility pole. But to an accident reconstructionist the facts are intriguing. It has been reported that yesterday afternoon a Nissan Altima...

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School Bus Low Speed Rollover Could Have Been Deadly

School Bus Low Speed Rollover Could Have Been Deadly

A very low speed rollover of a school bus in north-west of Toronto yesterday could have been deadly - so what made it a successful non-event? To begin with, there was no information about the specific location of the mishap. It reportedly occurred on Cold Springs Camp...

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New Head-Up-Display On Windshields Is Not A Distraction?

New Head-Up-Display On Windshields Is Not A Distraction?

What do we define as distraction? Is it additional information that is processed thus slowing a drivers perception/response to the outside environment? If so then more detailed information being displayed on windshields of new vehicles could be viewed as distractions....

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Police Nab One Tail-Gater But 87 Others Missed

Police Nab One Tail-Gater But 87 Others Missed

A London Free Press website article discussed the OPP use of an aircraft to catch tailgating vehicles. A photo was displayed showing a tractor-trailer that was travelling along Highway 401 east of London, Ontario on the afternoon of Sunday, March 24, 2019. The truck...

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Cycling in London Ontario: An Island In A Large Sea

Cycling in London Ontario: An Island In A Large Sea

Cycling is becoming ever more popular in Southern Ontario. In the City of London Ontario a multi-use trail system provides safe cycling from three connected prones of trail extending from downtown. One segment, approaching 10 kilometers in length, takes cyclists from...

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Vehicle In Ditch Causes Massive Police Reaction

Vehicle In Ditch Causes Massive Police Reaction

There must be some further reason why a massive police presence was required when a vehicle was found stopped in a Highway 3 ditch near Windsor yesterday. The Windsor Star newspaper reported that two occupants fled after their vehicle "rollover" in a ditch of Highway...

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Vehicle Fire Warning Continues

Vehicle Fire Warning Continues

Gorski Consulting has posted a number of warnings about the apparent increase in the numbers of fires occurring in motor vehicle collisions, or sometimes when vehicles are not even being driven. The latest incident on King Street in Toronto had significant...

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Move Over Law Sometimes Creates Traffic Safety Problems

Move Over Law Sometimes Creates Traffic Safety Problems

Moving over for stopped emergency vehicles can create rather than avoid traffic safety problems. A recent photo of the scene of a traffic collision on Highway 401 exemplifies one of the problems. The photo below shows that some vehicles have stopped on the right side...

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Gentlemen, Start Your Computers!

Gentlemen, Start Your Computers!

The unnerving reality is that your new car is a computer on wheels. Do you have anti-virus protection? A March 7, 2019 article by Jim Motavalli of the New York Times entitled "Locking More Than the Doors as Cars Become Computers on Wheels", gives us an insight of what...

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About

Zygmunt Gorski has been involved in the analysis of motor vehicle accidents since 1980.  Initially employed as an accident investigator with the University of Western Ontario Multi-Disciplinary Accident Research Team (1980-90), Gorski then worked as an Accident Reconstruction Consultant with a forensic engineering firm in Kitchener and Toronto (1990-95), before opening his own consulting business in 1995 which he continues to operate to this day. Although Gorski’s interest has always focused on the physical evidence resulting from motor vehicle collisions, he has been involved in a variety of analyses ranging from injury assessments in his earlier times to the use of multiple video cameras and roadway safety issues in more recent years.

…download CV and Court Experience for Zygmunt Gorski

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Gorski Consulting
361 Hale Street
London, ON
N5W 1G5
P: 519.453.2773
F: 519.457.1730