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.
Recent Posts
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...
Do we Move On, Until the Next Highway 401 Fatality, No Better Informed?
A fire and two collisions, one involving a fatality, that occurred on Highway 401 near Chatham, Ontario on March 4, 2019, have now been given some scant publicity by local news agencies. The Chatham Daily News newspaper has been the most prominent and the London Free...
The Godfather Returns?
Why is it that we have this feeling about current politics of not waking up from some nightmare where the family of Don Vito Corleone has taken over?
What is a Poor, Bumpy or Rough Road?
"Roll-Up-The-Rim" has a different meaning when, every spring, Ontario drivers pay thousands of dollars to replace rims damaged from striking roadway "potholes". The meaning conveyed to the public is that this is some kind of God-sent, but innocuous, plague that we can...
Hiring of a Ford Friend And Firing of a OPP Deputy Commissioner is Just Plain Wrong
No matter how you spin the story, the notion that the OPP Commissioner should be a good friend of the Premier of Ontario is just wrong. Independence between the top of the Ontario's police and the top of the Ontario government must be a fundamental necessity for...
Three Incidents That Did Not Happen on Highway 401 East of Chatham
Thousands of vehicles, including heavy trucks carrying valuable cargo were stranded in Chatham yesterday when a series of "Three Incidents" did not occur - or at least from an official news point-of-view. Social media provided photos showing major destruction between...
No News Of Highway 401 Incidents East of Chatham
Something happened on Highway 401 east of Chatham, Ontario sometime yesterday, or the day before that. We are not really sure. But something happened. The best that the London Free Press could accomplish on their website was to provide a historical view of Highway 401...
Consequences of Truck Crash Through Hwy 401 Median Barrier Generally Ignored
Do we need fatal consequences before the public is informed of a potential safety problem? Given the lack of reporting of a truck recently crashing through a Highway 401 barrier it would appear so. There was no coverage of the incident by official news media other...
Winter Changes in Road Surface Conditions Remain Challenging To Most Drivers
Recent multi-vehicle pile-ups on Highway 400 and 401 in southern Ontario demonstrate the challenges that exist when road surface and weather conditions deteriorate. The extent of those problems is rarely publicized as government agencies that are responsible for...
Some Police Going 170 km/h Are Charged, Others at 200 km/h Are Not
"The message has to be sent that officers can't put the public at risk by driving in this manner" (Prosecutor), but what message is sent when others travelling at higher speeds are not charged? Consistency in the application of the law is critical to the justice...
Staying In Your Vehicle After A Collision Is Irresponsible Advice
An irresponsible news item shown on the local CTV News channel in London Ontario claimed that police and "experts" both advise motorists to stay inside their vehicle after an accident because the vehicle is designed to take any additional impacts. Furthermore a local...
Collision Avoidance When Design Safety Reaches Its Limit
Although great improvements in vehicle design have saved many lives, for those incidents where design has reached its limit, modern collision avoidance is taking a giant step forward. The classic angle collision with direct impact to a driver's door is an example...
Witness Sent Innocent Man To Prison For 40 Years
Judicial systems cannot continually reply on witness evidence as the basis for convictions without supporting evidence. That was made clear once again in the case of Craig Coley. It has been reported that Mr. Coley was released in 2017 after serving nearly 40 years in...
Police Officer Impairment Conviction Demonstrates Complexity of Issue
Not all impaired drivers are the same. There are unique circumstances that lead unique individuals to make bad choices. It has been reported that a 19-year-veteran of the London City Police was convicted of impaired driving following tests of her breath registering...
Worst Roads Season – Evaluation Fails to Use Objective Facts
Every year a province-wide evaluation of road problems is publicized based on subjective complaints. Why does the evaluation not use objective data instead? Every year the official news agencies publicize the results of a Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) "Worst...
Cycling Safety Top Priority In London Disagreements
Much like many North American cities London, Ontario is dealing with a transition from single-unit, automotive priority to mass transit and "active transportation". The past one hundred years has seen the birth of the North American road network based on relatively...
OPP Make Correction To Erred Conclusions
In a news item published on December 27, 2018, Gorski Consulting questioned the OPP conclusions with respect to a fatal collision that occurred on Southminster Bourne Road. Those conclusions have now been corrected. Southminster Bourne Road is located just south-west...
Example of a Relatively Safe Police Traffic Stop
Police traffic stops near busy or high speed roadways are a genuine danger. Mainly to the officer, but also to all traffic in the vicinity. A "Move Over" law has been enacted in Ontario that is an attempt to make such stops safer. Unfortunately new dangers are created...
Changes To SIU Forthcoming
News media have indicated that changes to Ontario's Special Investigations Unit (SIU) will be announced this week. The Ford conservative government stopped earlier Liberal legislation that would have improved the functioning of the SIU. That earlier legislation was in...
Documentation of Un-Reported Collisions Continues
How many collisions occur that never get officially reported? That fact can affect the reliability of collision statistics and what the public is told about roadway safety. Gorski Consulting has been involved in a long term study of unreported collisions and...
Red Hill Valley Parkway – Reduced Maximum Speeds Increases Chaos
Posted maximum speeds along the Red Hill Valley Parkway in Hamilton have been reduced. Such an action may produce more safety problems. Even before the discussions about the hiding of the Tradewinds Scientific report, the City of Hamilton should have been aware of the...
Rapid Notification System For Emergency Expressway Closures
Set-up of a collision rapid notification system for emergency expressway closures is needed to deal with instances where a collision leads to additional collisions. The need becomes obvious from examination of many expressway, multi-vehicle pile-up collisions. As a...
Red Hill Valley Parkway – The Public Deserves To Have Answers
"The Public Deserves To Have Answers". These were the words of David Smosarski in a letter read at a meeting of the Hamilton City Council yesterday. His daughter Olivia had died in a May 5, 2015 crash on the Red Hill Valley Parkway almost two years after a lost 2013...
Automatic Emergency Braking Needed To Prevent Multi-Vehicle Crashes
Snow and poor visibility this past week has demonstrated the importance of speeding up the installation of automatic emergency braking (AEB). A number of multi vehicle collisions have occurred on the 400-series expressways of southern Ontario this past week. These...
More Car Fires But Still No Alarms
The latest unexplained car fire occurred today, February 13, 2019, in a parking lot of a mall in Toronto. Still, no one appears to be concerned. Gorski Consulting has raised the warning flag on several occasions in the last couple of years regarding the apparent...
Red Hill Valley Parkway – The Plague of Secrecy
The meaning of road surface friction data or that a single report may have been hidden pales in comparison to the overall issue of secrecy that predominates road safety issues. A local uproar erupted in Hamilton, Ontario when it was revealed that a 2013 technical...
Red Hill Valley Parkway – Is The Friction Data Corrupt?
Road surface friction data at the junction between the Lincoln Alexander and the Red Hill Valley Parkway appears to be strange, at best. Before concluding anything there needs to be an explanation. There has been much uproar over the revelation that a report of...
The Honourable Rev. Fred McFeely Rogers
“Imagine what our real neighborhoods would be like if each of us offered, as a matter of course, just one kind word to another person.” The Honourable Rev. Fred McFeely Rogers
Heavy Rescue 401 Favoured While Professional Journalists Excluded
There is nothing wrong with an entertaining television show that highlights the dangers and hard work that police, rescue and towing personnel deal with on a daily basis. It is a question of exclusion of other journalists who are there not just to entertain an...
Red Hill Valley Parkway – MTO Or Commercial Confidential Document
Revelations regarding a hidden 2014 technical report authored by Golder Associates with respect to low pavement friction data on the Red Hill Valley Parkway (RHVP) in Hamilton, Ontario, are continuing by the hour. According to the latest news provided by the Hamilton...
Red Hill Valley Parkway – No One Ever Releases That Type of Information
Gary Moore, Hamilton's previous engineering director gave the most honest assessment of what truly goes on in the engineering departments of many municipalities in Ontario. In an interview with the Hamilton Spectator (the interview date was not disclosed) a request...
Red Hill Valley Parkway – Will Rest of Secrets Be Revealed?
Staff at the City of Hamilton have apologized for keeping a damaging report hidden with respect to surface conditions of the Red Hill Valley Parkway. But will they now release the other reports and data that remain hidden? CIMA is a well-known municipal defense...
Vehicle Fires Continue Without Much Attention
Vehicle fires that occur in minor impacts, or from no impact at all, are occurring without any attention. These are potentially life-threatening events if an occupant is not able to escape. In a Twitter post earlier today, police stood before their camera and...
Neck Injury of Small Stature Females in Frontal Impacts
Research with respect to neck injury potential can be conducted to provide a variety of conclusions for the purposes of supporting or denying an injury claim. Those in the courts that are presented with the results of such research are neophytes in understanding the...
Humboldt Broncos – Where are Road Inspectors’ Log Books?
Road inspectors are required to make records of road safety deficiencies. These log books are as important to public safety as the log books filled out by truck drivers. News media have reported that Jaskirat Singh Sidhu's log book contained 51 violations of trip...
Humboldt Broncos Bus Driver Braked Before He Could See Truck?: RCMP
In an agreed statement of facts reported by news media, the RCMP investigation concluded that both drivers in the Humboldt Broncos crash could see each other 2 seconds before impact. The RCMP also concluded that the bus was travelling at 96 to 107 km/h when it struck...
Was the Humboldt Broncos Bus Travelling at 123 km/h? A simple Question.
Was the Humboldt Broncos bus travelling at 123 km/h before its driver applied the brakes? There should have been a simple answer to this question, almost 10 months after the crash of April 6, 2018. But given that the police report has still not be revealed to the...
School Bus Seat-Belts & Humboldt Broncos Misinformation
Official news and social media stories about school bus seat belts and the Humboldt Broncos crash are creating a large amount of misinformation. Melfort Saskatchewan is where the sentencing hearing is to begin with respect to the trial of Jaskirat Singh Sidhu. Sidhu...
Fires After Low Speed Impacts
Fires after low speed impacts have been mentioned on a number of occasions on this Gorski Consulting website. Fires are occurring far too frequently. Fires are occurring in minor collisions when they should not. We can only issue this warning. If there is no one that...
Statements of Defense are Never Based on Specifics of a Case
Statements of Defense have never been based on the reality of a specific motor vehicle collision. They are meant as a "catch all" to cover all the bases in case the legal proceedings turn in an unexpected direction. Persons who ought to know better appear to be...
Hwy 401 Rear-End Impact of Tractor-Trailer West of Chatham
The OPP released a photo of a collision that occurred on Highway 401 between Queens Line and Essex Road 42 earlier today, as shown below. News media reported that a Tractor-trailer was rear-ended by a car when both were travelling in the eastbound lanes. Really? Why...
The Honourable Dr. Martin Luther King
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." The Honourable Dr. Martin Luther King
Bus Crash Optics Need Better Optometrist?
A slightly faster speed could have led to multiple fatalities in a 1971 bus crash but no one noticed. Even now a photo of the incident was only a novelty for the public's amusement. The Hamilton Spectator Newspaper reached into it archive photo footage today to reveal...
Guilty Pleas To Avoid Public Awareness
The recent quiet guilty plea of an SNC Lavalin executive is an example of the newest way to keep the public in the dark. The CBC's Elizabeth Thompson reported that Normand Morin, former vice-president of Lavalin pled guilty to five charges of contravening Canada's...
Humboldt Broncos Multi-Fatal Bus Crash Was Likely Influenced by Lack of Proper Intersection Visibility
In a companion article ("Issues of Concern With Respect to the McElhanney Report on the Safety of the Humboldt Broncos Collision Site") that has been posted on the Articles page of this Gorski Consulting website we have explained how the Saskatchewan Department of...
Fatal Result in Rollover on Highway 6 Should Not Be Expected
The OPP released the photograph shown below of an SUV that rolled over on Highway 6 in Flamborough earlier today. This is a classic example of a rollover that should not have resulted in fatal injuries. While we cannot see the other side of the vehicle and sometimes...
Humboldt Broncos Tragedy Doubled By Silence
It is vitally important to understand what factors led to the tragic deaths and injuries in the Humboldt Broncos bus crash in the Canadian Province of Saskatchewan on April 7, 2018. Previous collisions are an early warning that, if ignored, lead to current ones. And...
Highway 401 – Adjustments to Data on Unintended Veering at Four Sites
Unintended veering out of a travel lane is rarely documented with sufficient precision. Yet this could be a cause of many collisions such as the multi-fatal collision on I-75 near Gainsville Florida that occurred on January 3, 2019. Using multiple, synchronized video...
Multiple Child Fatalities in Florida Crash – Questions Need to be Answered Regarding Guardrail Performance & Fire
While many fires erupt following collisions nothing is revealed why and how they occurred and whether they were preventable. When a major highway such as Interstate 75 in Florida is equipped only with median guardrails there is no question being asked whether such...
Artificial Intelligence In Transportation Requires Clean and Unbiased Data
The fast-evolving areas of artificial intelligence (AI) hold great promise in road transportation as sensing of vehicle motion becomes incorporated in new vehicles and within roadway infrastructure. While there are a lot of big data out there that can be used to train...
Windshield Penetration Only Looks Horrific – But Raises An Important Safety Issue
The penetration of a car windshield by a flying piece of plywood looked horrific when presented in several photographs by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) on their Twitter account on January 2, 2019. The incident occurred on Hwy 410 just northeast of Toronto,...
Headlight Performance & Cost May Surprise You
An article in the November 29, 2018 Status Report of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) may be surprising with respect to the performance and costs of new headlights. The IIHS studies show the poor performance of headlights on some new car models from a...
Guardrail System Installed & Functioned Properly Yet Fatality Occurred
A properly-installed guardrail was struck on Southminster Bourne Road southwest of London, Ontario on December 26, 2018 yet a fatality still occurred. What caused this fatal result to the 27-year old female driver is unknown. No photographs were made available by the...
Highway 401 Westbound Traffic Volume Completed For Kenesserie Road Site
Calculation of traffic volumes have now been completed from the videotaping session on Wednesday, December 19, 2018. These calculations have been added to the table of the other sites and the new table is shown below. The results show that the Wednesday videotaping...
Protection by Roadside Barriers May Have Been Factor in Three Area Fatalities
Very little information has been provided with respect to three persons who are deceased following two collisions in Southwestern Ontario. Both collisions may have components related to the protection provided by roadside barriers. It was reported that on Christmas...
Merry Christmas to All, From the Tall to the Small
Let us all feel the enlightenment of children, like Mr. Scrooge and Mr. Grinche. That we have the capacity to bring good to our world if we allow a change to take place within us. Vengeance, anger, disrespect and intolerance are the four horsemen that have ridden...
School Buses Catch Fire But Little Concern Because They Were Parked
A "malfunction with the electrical wiring" was blamed for the start of fire which destroyed several parked school buses in New Minas Nova Scotia on Saturday morning, December 22, 2018. The photo below shows the extent of the blaze. This single phrase, a "malfunction...
Kenessarie Road Location Added To List of Videotaping Locations Along Highway 401
On December 19, 2018 Gorski Consulting completed another videotaping session along Highway 401 at the Kenessarie Road site just east of Chatham Ontario. This now completes four sites that have been videotaped this fall. The site locations are shown in the figure...
Reporting of Highway 401 Median Crossover Collisions Needs More Clarity
The installation of a High Tension Cable Median Barrier (HTCMB) in the 118 kilometre distance of Highway 401 between Tilbury and London Ontario has been controversial in that some groups have been lobbying for the installation of a concrete, Jersey-type barrier as...
Highway 401 Safety Issues – Veering Out of a Travel Lane
An unintended veering out of a travel lane can be the cause of traffic disruptions that ultimately lead to a collision. Collision Reconstructionists who examine the post-collision evidence are rarely able to detect the physical evidence of such an action because, for...
Hwy 401 – Median Crossover by Truck at Downie Road
Another median crossover incident occurred on Highway 401 just east of Downie Road on December 17, 2018. This is significant because the involved tanker truck struck the High Tension Cable Median Barrier (HTCMB). The HTCMB is being installed along the 188 kilometre...
Impact of Stopped Truck In Hwy 401 Construction Zone
Why was a transport truck stopped on the westbound Highway 401 in a construction zone near the James Snow Parkway near Milton Ontario when it was rear-ended by a mini van resulting in major injuries to the two occupants of the the van? The official news media provided...
Highway 401 Safety Issues – Gaps Between Vehicles
The results have now been tabulated with respect to the gaps between westbound vehicles travelling in the right lane of Highway 401 from four videotaping sessions. It can be recalled from previous discussions that Gorski Consulting has conducted videotaping at four...
Highway 401 Safety Issues – Average Speed
Observations of average speeds of vehicles travelling along Highway 401 have been updated as a result of further analysis of the videotape obtained from four sites. It can be recalled from previous postings that Gorski Consulting has conducted videotaped observations...
Humboldt Broncos Accident Site – Report Confirms Original Opinion of Gorski Consulting
The line of sight at the Humboldt Broncos accident site in Saskatchewan was immediately brought into question by Gorski Consulting shortly after the collision in April of 2018. This opinion was provided even though we did not attend the site nor did we have any scale...
Truck Median Cross-over Collision on Highway 401 at Merlin Road West of Chatham Ontario
A median cross-over collision occurred this morning on Highway 401 just west of Merlin Road, west of Chatham, Ontario. An eastbound truck passed through the new High Tension Cable Median Barrier (HTCMB) and struck two other westbound trucks just west of the Merlin...
Highway 401 Safety Issues – Traffic Volumes
Gorski Consulting has documented the Highway 401 traffic volume in its continuing series on safety along the South-western Ontario segment of the highway. A series of videotaping sessions was conducted at four sites along the highway. The video is being analysed and...
Driver Drowning at Port Bruce, Ontario
This is the controlled beach at Port Bruce where large, closely-spaced, concrete blocks prevent any traffic from entering the water. It is a difficult location for someone wanting to drive into the water... Why would a driver arrive at a traffic controlled beach in...
School Buses & Seat-Belts – Continued Confusion and Misunderstanding
We all understand that keeping children safe on school buses is of great importance. However what may appear to be an obvious solution is not. This issue is complicated and a quick fix may lead to more danger than is realized. In the most recent news, the CBC has...
Fires Continue to Erupt After Recent Collisions
A photo was posted on the CP24 News website describing a fatal collision in Pickering, Ontario. The collision is under investigation by Ontario's Special Investigation Unit (SIU). The SIU becomes involved when serious injuries occur that might be caused by police....
Observed Speed of Vehicles On Hwy 401 At Four Sites
What kind of safety problems exist along the busiest highway in Canada? Government agencies such as the Ontario Ministry of Transportation monitor traffic along Highway 401 but that information is not made available to the public. Some of this data could be...
The Honorable Mr. Harry Leslie Smith
“I am one of the last few remaining voices left from a generation of men and women who built a better society for our children and grandchildren out of the horrors of the second world war, as well as the hunger of the Great Depression. Sadly, that world my generation...
Highway 401 – Four Sites Explored for Traffic Motions & Problems
Gorski Consulting has now completed four sites along Highway 401 in southwestern Ontario where video data was obtained to explore traffic motions and potential safety problems. The map below shows the sites. Analysis of the video data is ongoing. One of several safety...
World-Wide Only 10 % of Bicycle Accidents Are Reported
A recent article (by D. Shinar et. al.) published in the Accident Analysis & Prevention, Volume 110, January 2018) examined the official reporting of bicycle accidents in 17 nations. It was estimated that only about 10% of such collisions were officially reported....
OPP Conduct Focused Patrols on Hwy 401 Near Chatham Resulting in 629 Charges
Reports indicate that the Ontario Provincial Police have been focused on the area of Highway 401 near construction zones between London and Chatham. 629 charges have been laid since June of 2018 including 469 for speeding. One of the complaints of unsafe actions...
Compulsory Truck Driver Training – An Effective Way of Improving Trucking Safety?
Traffic fatalities have gone on the upswing again in the past couple of years after many decades of decreases. However in the U.S. early estimates for traffic fatalities for 2017 indicate that a slight decrease of about 0.8 percent is expected in comparision to 2016...
Hwy 401 – What is More Dangerous Speed or Difference In Speed?
High speed can be dangerous, but is it more dangerous than a difference in speed? That is one of the questions that can be explored through the analysis of traffic motions on major expressways such as Highway 401 in southern Ontario. Observations by Gorski Consulting...
Toronto Bus Pole Impact Demonstrates General Weakness of Bus Structures
The impact of a pole by a TTC bus in Toronto yesterday afternoon reflects the general weakness of bus structures. The Humboldt Broncos bus crash in Saskatchewan earlier this year demonstrated how catestrophic bus crashes can be because of the potentially large number...
Highway 401 Speeds Reduced by Interference of Speed-Governed Heavy Trucks
The above photo is a frame capture from one of the video cameras used in a study of traffic conditions on Highway 401 by Gorski Consulting. When heavy truck speeds are limited to a maximum of 105 km/h this can cause all traffic to slow down because those trucks block...
Unexplained Fatality in Minor Frontal Impact in Brampton
No explanation has been provided as to why a 53-year-old Brampton man died as a result of a minor frontal impact with a small wall on Garryoaks Drive in Brampton, Ontario this morning. Official news agencies indicate that police have not determined what caused the...
Questionable Life-Threatening Injuries in Several Collisions In Past 24-Hours
Some collisions in the past 24-hours have reportedly resulted in life-threatening injuries that should not be expected. As an analyst under contract to Transport Canada I studied the mechanisms by which persons sustained their injuries in motor vehicle collisions for...
Fire at 2-Vehicle Collision Is A Warning Of Future Tragedy
The fact that 5 people escaped a vehicle fire with only minor injuries is not something we should cheer. It is only a matter of time when such an incident with become a future tragedy. The above photo taken by Spencer Taylor shows how a fire engulfed both vehicles...
Questionable Impact Performance of ET-Plus Guardrail Terminal Near Strathroy Ontario
Once again an ET-Plus terminal manufactured by Trinity Highway Products of Dallas Texas has demonstrated its questionable safety performance. Yesterday morning, Tuesday, November 6, 2018 police reported that a car was westbound on Calvert Drive, south-west of...
Lest We Forget: 6 Seat-Belted Dead, 3 Un-Belted Survive
In 1976 the Province of Ontario enacted legislation requiring the use of seat-belts. On a wintery April in 1979, a church-going family of six adults put on their seat-belts and set out in their Oldsmobile on Highway 2 west of Woodstock, Ontario. They became involved...
Hwy 401 – Preparations for Another Round of Traffic Documentations
How will the new installation of High Tension Cable Barriers between Chatham and London, Ontario be repaired in a timely fashion after sustaining impact damage? That is an important question. This is one of many important issues facing Highway 401 between Chatham and...
Highway 407 Fuel Tanker Fire & Double Fatal – Research To Find Similar Causes
The following photos depict a single vehicle's motion that was documented during our study of possible causes of collisions on major expressways such as Highways 401 or 407. Signage was present for over 1 kilometre warning this driver that the right lane was...
Yes, Speed May Kill, But Acceleration May Be The Silent Killer
A while ago a visiting acquaintance with a past life in auto racing asked me to step into his high performance sports car for a "short ride around the block". Just after pulling out of my driveway on a residential speed he accelerated to 110 km/h before he reached the...
Hwy 407 Tanker Truck Fire – Further Analysis
Constable Kerry Schmidt, speaking on behalf of the OPP investigation into the fiery tanker truck collision of yesterday, reported that investigators now believe that both of the vehicles that were engulfed by the fire on Highway 407 on the outskirts of Toronto were...
Highway 407 Tanker Truck Fire – Dashcam Analysis
Two obvious issues needed to addressed from yesterday's explosive fire that erupted when a tanker truck crossed over a concrete median barrier on Highway 407 between Keele and Dufferin Streets on the outskirts of Toronto, Ontario. A driver's dashcam captured the...
Highway 401 – Median Barriers, Construction & Other Complaints Are Studied
At highway speeds, with high traffic densities and a sudden emergency, drivers need to make quick decisions that could cost them, or drivers around them, their lives. Decades of research has helped to create the roadway environments that reduce the need to make those...
Farm Tractor Lighting – Not Enough, Too Much or Too Confusing
Farm tractor lighting can lead to collisions when drivers do not understand their difference from typical motor vehicles. Farm tractors, much like construction equipment, often contain extra, flashing, lights that are located at portions of the vehicle that are not...
OPP Speed Enforcement on Hwy 401 – Actual Observations Indicate Greater Problem
The OPP reportedly conducted a two-day "aerial blitz" of speeding vehicles along Highway 401 last week. The number of charges are far below the actual number of speeders that could have been ticketed. It was reported that 72 charges were laid, 38 of which were for...
Extreme Case of Bumper Over-Ride Highlights A Common Safety Issue
An extreme case of bumper over-ride was published on the OPP's West Region twitter account today. The front end of a tall pick-up truck was shown on top of the hood and windshield of a small passenger car and the incident reportedly occurred in the area of Norfolk...
School Buses and Seat-Belts – The Issue Is Not So Clear-Cut
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has recently broadcast a documentary (The Fifth Estate) and published articles discussing its investigation into an alleged improper decision by Transport Canada to prevent school buses from being equipped with seat-belts....
Higher Severity Ambulance Fatal in Brampton Unusual Considering Typical City Speeds
It is unusual that an ambulance would be involved in a significant head-on collision on a typical arterial roadway in Brampton, Ontario, resulting in the death of an occupant of the striking car. Yet this occurred last evening on Queen Street West and McMurchy Avenue....
Aylmer Express Newspaper Journalists Acquitted
It was a test of Canada's freedom, democracy and the public's right to know. On this occasion the test was passed. Early reports indicate that Aylmer Express journalists Brett and John Hueston have been found not guilty with respect to charges of obstructing police on...
Non-Alcohol Drug Impairment Not Detected In Motor Vehicle Collisions
What has been revealed about the ability to detect non-alcohol drug impairment now that legalization of cannabis has taken place in Canada? For decades there has been a focused attention placed on alcohol impairment and various statistics have shown its relevance to...
Mandatory Truck Driver Training – An Expensive Bandage For A Cancer?
There is a developing belief that privately-administered, mandatory, truck driver training will create reductions in the frequency and consequences of truck collisions. These reductions must out weigh the generated costs that are monetary but will also include a...
Humboldt Broncos Conclusions Drawn Though Evidence Not Revealed
Failure to release evidence regarding any major incident causes many unwarranted conclusions to be drawn. That observation has been demonstrated many times in history. Thus it is so with the tragic multiple fatalities that occurred April 7, 2018 when the Humboldt...
Policing Unsecured Loads Is A Public Safety Benefit
Unsecured loads are a danger to the occupants of a vehicle and this is an issue that is often misunderstood. Constable Kerry Schmidt of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) posted several photos on the OPP West twitter account showing a van loaded with various supplies...
City of Hamilton Still Does Not Recognize Barrier Problems Along Red Hill Valley Parkway
It is as if the City of Hamilton has been living in a cave. Throughout North America various news agencies have reported on the questionable performance of guardrail terminals. Gorski Consulting has posted examples of several incidents along Hamilton's Red Hill Valley...
Kavanaugh and Ford Reveal Difficulty in Determining Truth
What is witness reliability? Yesterday's hearing in the U.S. regarding Brett Kavanough's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court is an opportunity to high-light the difficulty that exists when attempting to draw conclusions about the truth of an incident based solely on...
Fires After Impacts Should Not Be Inevitable
We do marvelous things to protect occupants from the forces of an impact, then we allow them to be burned to death in the aftermath. Than outcome should not be inevitable. Yet, fires appear to be occurring with greater regularity and little is done or said why this is...
Collisions Involving Two-Wheeled Vehicles for September 2018
A summary of collisions in September of 2018 that have been reported by official news agencies in Southern Ontario has provided some expected revelations. This summary is from news stories focused in areas of Southwestern Ontario and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)...
Additional Cyclist Speed Observations Made At Meadowlily Site
Gorski Consulting has completed a second round of observations of cyclist speeds at the Meadowlily Road slope south of the old Thames River bridge in London, Ontario. Average speeds were calculated from observations made on August 31, 2018 however not enough data was...
World Day of Remembrance – United Nations Designated
The World Day of Remembrance For Road Traffic Victims has been designated as the third Sunday in November of each year. https://worlddayofremembrance.org/
Moving Queues of Stopped Traffic – A Safety Challenge on Major Expressways
Moving queues of stopped traffic on major expressways are a serious problem for public safety. Drivers who may travel for several hours at speeds of over 100 km/h develop the expectation that this free flow will continue into the immediate future. Maintaining a...
Perception Response is a Big Deal in Accident Reconstruction
How drivers perceive and react to traffic events is an important issue. In the North American judicial systems it can mean whether you are charged with a criminal offense, pay large amounts in a civil claim, or are denied compensation for a catastrophic injury. Many...
Is Official Advice for Cyclist Versus Pedestrian Safety a Contradiction?
The OPP provided some good advice to the public when submitting the above photo on their Twitter account. In the immediate duration before a crash every additional second is extremely important and can be the difference between a pedestrian successfully avoiding an...
Results From Bicyclist Observations on Trafalgar Multi-Use Path in London, Ontario
August 28, 2018 was "Observation Day" for the Trafalgar Bike Path in east London, Ontario. This was the day that Gorski Consulting set-up 10 video cameras and documented the speeds of cyclists going up and down the slope from the north side of the new CN bridge to...
Example of Dangerous Situation at Trafalgar Bike Path in London, Ontario
Gorski Consulting has expressed concern with respect to the safety of cyclists and pedestrians along London's new multi-use path at its junction with Trafalgar Road in east London, Ontario. Those concerns have been previously highlighted in other news items on this...
Results From Bicycle Coasting Tests on London Multi-Use Path Near Trafalgar Road
Gorski Consulting is proceeding with assessment of the safety of the new multi-use path that was completed earlier this year south of Trafalgar Road in London, Ontario. Previous postings on this website indicated our concerns that the northward downslope of the path...
Failure To Recognize That Cable Barrier Did Not Prevent Engine From Crossing Hwy 401 Median
Highway median cross over collisions can be deadly. Therefore it is good news that a transport truck was kept within the median of Highway 401 rather than crossing into opposing lanes near Kenesserie Road on Saturday, August 18th, 2018. But the issue is more...
Head-on Collision Should Have Been Survivable
The OPP uploaded several photos of two vehicles involved in a fatal collision on Hwy 48 north-east of Toronto over the weekend. The photo above shows the two involved vehicles. A 25-year-old female occupant of one of the vehicles reportedly sustained fatal injuries....
Preparations for Bicycle Testing on East London Bike Path
Gorski Consulting is conducting a variety of testing involving bicycling on vertical alignments on roadways and bicycling paths. Testing is being prepared along a new section of a bicycling path completed in the summer of 2018 in east London, as shown in the above...
Snake Hill in London Ontario May Bite Future Cyclists
A well-meaning decision to re-align the difficult curves of "Snake Hill" along the west portion of Commissioners Road in London, Ontario may lead to dangerous conditions for cyclists riding on the steep downgrade that City staff and politicians may have...
Successful Impact of Roadside Barrier But Driver Still Sustains Serious Injury
There are not very many success stories being observed when it comes to vehicle impacts with guardrail terminals. Yesterday the Ontario Provincial Police uploaded a photo on their twitter account showing a potentially successful impact. The problem is, the driver...
Were Six Fatalities in Jasper Alberta Crash Fire-Related?
Remorse over a tragedy does not mean that we fail to inquire how and why the tragedy occurred. For the most obvious reason that we need to ensure that we have done all we can to prevent a similar happening in the future. Thus it is necessary to determine why six...
How Many Wettlaufers Are There Flying Under The Fatality Causation Radar?
Elizabeth Wettlaufer was a nurse in Ontario who was convicted of a number of homicides in nursing homes. It has recently been revealed that her acts could have been detected if coroner's inquests were held to examine the deaths that appeared suspicious. However,...
Personal Blood Alcohol Testing Could Save Lives But There Is No Official Interest
There is much official talk about the dangers of drunk driving. Various non-profit, police and government organizations say they are working hard to eradicate the problem. The solution mostly involves punishing those impaired persons after the fact in the belief that...
Further Details of the Disintegrated Vehicle Collision That Did Not Officially Happen
The disintegration of a vehicle that collided with an ET-PLUS guardrail terminal on the south side of Highway 401 just west of Highbury Avenue in London, Ontario, did not actually happen. Or so it would seem since there has been little information of its occurrence or...
Vehicle Disintegrates After Striking A Guardrail Terminal on Hwy 401 at Highbury Ave in London
On the morning of Monday, July 23, 2018, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) reported on their Twitter account that a collision occurred on Highway 401 near the Highbury Ave exit at London, Ontario. No other information was made available nor did any official news...
Results From Testing on CN Rail Crossing of Hardy Road in Brantford Ontario
The results are now in from the testing that was conducted on the CN rail crossing of Hardy Road in Brantford, Ontario. The Brantford Expositor newspaper had run a story regarding complaints by local residents regarding the "deplorable" condition of the CN rail...
Testing at “Deplorable” CN Railway Crossing on Hardy Road in Brantford
Yesterday the Brantford Expositor newspaper ran an article about the "deplorable" condition of the CN railway crossing on Hardy Road in Brantford. In response Gorski Consulting attended the site and conducted objective testing to find out how "deplorable" the crossing...
Fatal Impact of Median Barrier Not Mentioned in Hwy 403 Crash in Mississauga Ontario
There has been an improvement in recent years in the reporting of collision events by police agencies such as the OPP. Twitter posts by the OPP include some basic photos of the site and vehicles involved. The viewing of these photos is not just a matter of morbid...
“Tires were smoking and engines were screaming” – But did it happen?
Evidence at trials can be complicated and not always accurate. A trial is taking place involving a dangerous driving charge against a young Cambridge woman, Jasmine Henning, with respect to a collision that reportedly occurred on June 11, 2017 on Water Street in...
Rear-Ended Taxi Could Result in Fatalities
OPP have just uploaded the above photo on their Twitter account showing a taxi that was rear-ended, at an undisclosed location, by a pick-up truck. Given the extent of crush at the rear of the taxi, the difference is speed between the vehicles was likely "at highway...
New Road Data Available For Highways Near London Ontario
The Road Data webpage of this Gorski Consulting site has been updated with new data from testing along Veterans Memorial Parkway, Highway 401 and Highbury Ave in London, Ontario. As expected the data indicates the relatively smooth surface conditions along southbound...
Fire & Fatality Involving School Bus Near Simcoe Ontario
Fires continue spread in an unusually high number of incidents over recent years. News media report these outcomes as simple footnotes without much concern. The most recent fire occurred on Windham Road 12 near Simcoe, Ontario. It was reported that an 80-year-old...
Embarassingly Sarnia Observer Newspaper Is Correct That Highway 401 in Sarnia is Closed
Yes, the Sarnia Observer Newspaper is correct when the title to its news item read: "Highway 401 closed in Sarnia following crash". The obvious error is that Highway 401 does not travel near Sarnia. The news item was with respect to the rollover collision of a truck...
Did OPP Say 800 % Increase in Fatal Truck Collisions?
It is an eye-popping number. But there is the headline: There was an 800 percent increase in fatal, heavy truck collisions in the North-East region of Ontario compared to last year. Wow that is frightening, a crisis is at hand. At least that is the number attributed...
New Test Data From Veterans Memorial Parkway in London, Ontario
Roads can be the cause or influence of some collisions. Objective evidence is needed to compare the characteristics of a road to what should be expected and accepted. Gorski Consulting has been conducting testing of various road surfaces and road features for the past...
Humboldt Broncos Truck Driver Charged With Dangerous Driving
The truck driver in the Humboldt Broncos crash in Saskatchewan that killed 16 members of the hockey team has been charged with "dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death". The driver, Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, had been travelling westbound and failed to stop at...
Testing the Aggressiveness of Speed Bumps
A new article has been posted by Gorski Consulting that discusses the results of testing of an aggressive section of speed bumps located on Edmonton Street in London ,Ontario, Canada. A test vehicle was driven over the bumps at moderate speeds of about 30 km/h and the...
Bicyclist And Pedestrian Safety In Jeopardy Along Latest Path In London Ontario
It is as if designers of bicycle paths have never ridden a bicycle before. Such appears to be the case at the latest addition to a multi-use path being completed in East London, Ontario. The extension of the multi-use path system in London has to be hailed as a...
Canadian Association of Journalists Support Aylmer Express Journalists
The London Free Press has reported that the Canadian Association of Journalists is condemning the Ontario Provincial Police for their actions in charging two Aylmer Express journalists with respect to an incident that occurred in June of 2017 involving the death of a...
Highway 401 Median Cross-over Fatal Collision Near Chatham Ontario
A high-tension cable barrier will be installed along the 119 kilometer stretch of Highway 401 between Tilbury and London, Ontario. This decision has already been made and construction is already underway. Its effectiveness however will remain questionable on a highway...
Charges Against Aylmer Express Newspaper Journalists An Appalling Abuse of Democracy
For years Gorski Consulting has expressed the opinion that the public needs to be made aware of the manner in which persons have perished in motor vehicle incidents. It has been our continual criticism that investigating police do not provide sufficient information...
Highway 401 Rear-End Impact of Stopped Vehicle Could Have Been Fatal
Being stopped on Highway 401 is a recipe for disaster and was demonstrated once again in a collision that occurred near Kenesserie Road on Monday morning, June 11, 2018, just east of Chatham, Ontario. It was reported that the above-pictured vehicle had come to a stop...
Roadway Factors in Fatal Tour Bus Crash on Highway 401
While the typical discussion of news media centred around irrelevant issues, the important questions regarding how and why a tour bus of Chinese passengers sideswiped a rock cut on the side of Highway 401 near Prescott, Ontario were never asked and therefore no...
What Was Learned From the Trial of the Ontario SIU Versus the OPP
What we do know is that Provincial Constable Sean Coughlan was charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm by Ontario's Special Investigations Unit (SIU) with respect to an alleged collision between his police cruiser and an ATV operated by Edward Labadie and...
Gorski Consulting Receives New Face-Lift
As visitors may have already realized the Gorski Consulting website is receiving some format changes. Some testing and experimentation is in the works to make sure we are happy with the new look. "Stay tuned".
YET ANOTHER POSSIBLE VEHICLE-RELATED DROWNING WEST OF ORANGEVILLE
While scant information is available news media report that a vehicle entered the Grand River west of Orangeville and a child occupant of the submerged vehicle is missing. Just after posting the news item below regarding the drowning near Jarvis, Ontario, news media...
Mis-Information Continues To Be Spread With Respect to Tesla Auto-Pilot Crash in Utah
News media have reported that the Tesla that drove into the back of a stopped fire truck in South Jordan (Salt Lake City) Utah on Friday May 11, 2018 had the semi-autonomous Autopilot engaged. In fact this conclusion is based on the driver's own statement to police....
Suspicious Facts Reported in Tesla Crash of South Jordan Utah
It has been reported that on Friday, May 11, 2018, a Tesla Model S sedan crashed into the back of stopped fire truck at a speed of 60 mph (100 km/h) in South Jordan Utah. The driver of the Tesla, or its semi-autonomous system, did not apply any braking prior to the...
Car Found In Niagara River But No News About Condition of Driver
Why is there no information about the status of the driver found in a submerged car in the Niagara River? It should not be surprising that no one outside of readers of the St Catharines newspaper would be aware that a person was found inside a submerged car in the...
OPP Police Cruiser And ATV Collision in Lambton County – Nothing of Substance In Opening of Constable Sean Coughlan’s Trial
It is a controversial matter whenever Ontario's Special Investigations Unit (SIU) is up against a police constable and the news media know that such a story is capable of bringing new readers/viewers in the shrinking news media market. The story is that OPP Constable...
Humboldt Broncos – Many Jump Onto Their Wagon
A photo taken by CBC news reportedly shows the Peterebilt truck involved in the Humboldt Broncos collision parked in a towing compound. Why is there no evidence of direct damage to this truck? A photo taken by Jason Warick of CBC news provides the first available view...
0.02 Over The Limit Confirms Why Hart Family Perished Over Cliff – “Supper’s Waitin’ at Home And I Gotta Get To It”
After much investigation it perhaps was not intentional that Jennifer Hart purposely accelerated over the cliff of the West Coast Highway near Westport California March 26, 2018 and killed all eight members of her family including herself. The obvious reason was...
Humboldt Broncos Crash Site Questions Need To Be Answered
Important questions surrounding the site where at least 15 persons perished in a bus crash in central Saskatchewan need to be answered now before focus is turned away from this tragedy. It is now known internationally that a bus carrying the Humboldt Broncos hockey...
At Least 14 Fatalities in Bus Collision in Central Saskatchewan
14 persons are officially reported to have died in a collision between a bus carrying local hockey players and a truck. The collision reportedly occurred some time after 1700 hours on Friday, April 6, 2018. The crash occurred on Highway 35 approximately 30 kilometres...
The Cause of a Collision is Not the Same As What Caused a Death
The Hamilton Spectator Newspaper quoted the Hamilton Police Reconstruction Unit when they indicated that the cause of the collision which killed Mohammed Deeb on Lawrence Road in Hamilton, Ontario on March 31, 2018 was a combination of speed, wet roads and drug...
Clarke Road Russian Roulette Almost Claims Its First Victim
Gouges in the pavement, fluid spray and vehicle debris mark the location of a significant head-on collision on Clarke Road North of Fanshawe Park Road over the weekend. While the official news media have not mentioned it, a serious, head-on collision occurred on...
Historical Patterns of Loss-Of-Control Events At Specific Road Locations
Further to our earlier news post of March 25, 2018, where we reported that 96% of loss-of-control vehicles travelling southbound through the S-curve of Clarke Road in London are not documented, we have now finished a detailed article discussing the research and its...
Speculation Is Typical As Eight-Member Hart Family Perishes Over West Coast Cliff
Eight members of the Hart family were reported killed when their vehicle travelled off the Pacific Coast Highway near Westport California. We should come to accept that speculation will always exist, in one form or another, in the thoughts of many persons when...
Ninety-Six Percent of Loss-Of-Control Vehicles That Slide Through An Opposing Lane Are Never Documented In Police Records
Research by Gorski Consulting indicates that vehicular loss-of-control events would need to be very obvious or deadly before they become noted in police-reported collision data. The latest findings from an eight-year-long research study conducted by Gorski Consulting...
Limited Truck Acceleration & Maximum Speed – A Dangerous Game of Russian Roulette
You know this could end badly! There are many policy-makers who trust their data and researchers to conclude that something is a good idea. One such good idea was the limiting of truck speeds in Ontario to just over 100 km/h. That seemed fine because these trucks...
Uber Pedestrian Fatality In Tempe Arizona – An Opportunity But Also A Responsibility
Video has been released showing the circumstances where a pedestrian was struck and killed by a Uber vehicle that was reportedly in fully autonomous mode in Tempe, Arizona on March 19, 2018. Experts have been quoted as saying the vehicle’s lidar systems should have...
How Do We Police the Police?
Ontario’s new Police Act bill has been passed but it is uncertain whether its changes will be beneficial. Increasing the power of certain oversight bodies does not necessarily increase the benefits to society when monitoring and evaluating police actions. The question...
Everyone Knows Why Pedestrian Collisions Are On The Rise – That Is The Problem!
There is no need to obtain better data on why pedestrian collisions are on the increase. To almost all of us it is obvious. Why bother with more studies and statistics and data and ….We are all experts on why pedestrian collisions and their associated injuries and...
Fatality From Possible Harpooning of Vehicle by Guardrail on Hwy 400 – How Could This Happen?Fatality From Possible Harpooning of Vehicle by Guardrail on Hwy 400 – How Could This Happen?
Why are police and news media not informing the public that the harpooning of the vehicle by a guardrail where a fatality occurred earlier this morning is not an acceptable consequence? Police and news media seem to be avoiding the obvious as a vehicle was reportedly...
Harpooning Risks Continue To Exist Despite Gorski Consulting Warnings
This impact damage to the east railing at Wharncliffe Road and Horton Street in London in February, 2018 has not raised any safety eyebrows. Gorski Consulting has made several references to the dangers of roadside rails that, upon impact, create an exposed end of the...
Canadian Class Action Settlement of Roadside Barrier Controversy Has Done Absolutely Nothing For Innocent Victims
Imagery from Google Maps shows an ET-Plus terminal that has jammed, likely as of an impact, on the northbound lanes of the Red Hill Valley Parkway at Queenston Road in Hamilton, Ontario. Did this ET-Plus terminal perform as it was designed? Gorski Consulting has...
Another Drowning Death Receives Minimal Attention
The repetitive circumstances by which another driver died in relatively shallow water has received essentially no coverage in the official news media. The City-Pulse 24 News in Toronto published a brief mention of the incident, written by the Canadian Press, where...
Yet Another Possible Vehicle-Related Drowning West of Orangeville
While scant information is available news media report that a vehicle entered the Grand River west of Orangeville and a child occupant of the submerged vehicle is missing. Just after posting the news item below regarding the drowning near Jarvis, Ontario, news media...
Sympathy For Kernaghan Family Should Be Accompanied By Active Investigation Of Why And How Their Fatal Collision Happened
13-year-old Avery Kernaghan was killed in a collision on Glendon Drive west of London, Ontario on Saturday, February 10, 2018. Her father, Douglas, remains in critical condition. As noted numerous times on this website, sympathy for the surviving family and friends of...
Highway 401 Median Barriers – Review of Historical Data on a Re-Ignited Controversy
In the last several years a controversy has erupted in South-Western Ontario with respect to the incidence of median cross-over collisions occurring along the 118-kilometre segment of Highway 401 where no median barriers exist. This section of the busy super-highway...
Concern Over Recent Tragedies Fails To High-Light Need For Quicker Adoption of Automatic Emergency Braking
On high speed highways not all drivers are able to detect stopped vehicles or construction workers ahead of their path. Automatic detection and deployment of automatic emergency braking could be very beneficial but that technology may take a long time to reach the...
DROWNING DANGER IN WOLFVILLE NOVA SCOTIA COLLISION MAY BE UNDER-APPRECIATED
In a CBC news item entitled “Angel who pulled teens from car wreckage says he’s no superhero” the public may be rather skeptical when observing the photograph of the collision site where Richard Kirk found a car upside down in a water-filled ditch near Wolfville, Nova...
VIEW OF THE DAMAGE TO THE CAR THAT WAS FOUND UPSIDE DOWN IN THE WATER-FILLED DITCH.
Depending on whose viewpoint, the image of the scales of justice is not always complimentary. (An editorial comment by Zygmunt M. Gorski) Few structures in society are as important as a reliable system of justice. In the end, that reliability rests on the wisdom,...
WHY ARE THERE RECENT INCREASES IN TRAFFIC FATALITIES?
In the fall of 2017 the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released figures for the number of roadway deaths that occurred in the U.S. in 2016. 37,461 persons were reportedly killed which represented an increase of 5.6 percent over 2015. This...
$237,000 IN LEGAL COSTS FOR A $20,000 CLAIM!!!
OK, we accept that we live in a new world where the President of the United States has a “I’m Fake News” label stitched to the back of every suit jacket. This is a world where law, justice, wrong and more wrong mean very little. But aside from the Trump vacuum the...
ADVENT OF THE SNOW CYCLIST
What would make a cyclist venture out on a cold and snowy day and into heavy traffic? Whatever the reason it is becoming more common on Ontario roadways. While many were happy when roads in North America began to become more cyclist-friendly, no one considered what...
CANADA’S TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BEING INFLUENCED BY OPERATIONS OF MULTI-NATIONAL CORPORATIONS
What will we do if this Carillion dinosaur becomes extinct? Will your local grandma scramble onto Highway 401 and begin clearing it with a shovel?Privatization of the Province of Ontario’s road maintenance was sold to the public as a cost saving and the public...
MEDICAL SCOOTERS POSE A SAFETY PROBLEM WHEN SNOW FALLS
A Difficult Dilemma: A major snowfall blocks the sidewalks, an elderly person needs to make an essential trip, a medical scooter without proper warnings and reflective materials travels onto a lane of busy roadway. It is surprising that more elderly riders of medical...
SIDEWALK SNOW PLOW DEATH IN LONDON RAISES THE QUESTION OF THEIR SAFETY
While they are called “sidewalk” plows many of these small units actually perform work on roadways and other areas where they may be struck by larger vehicles. But there has never been any consideration put to evaluating their safety for the plow driver. On Tuesday...
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