Season 2: Episode 9 Every skid mark tells a story

Season 2: Episode 9 

🕵️‍♀️Behind every crash scene is a story... and sometimes, the evidence speaks louder than the witnesses.

This episode of Through the CSI Lens: Behind the Yellow Tape, we're diving into the fascinating world of traffic collision investigations.

From working alongside traffic investigators, detectives, and medical examiners to documenting scenes where every skid mark, debris field, and injury tells part of the story, I'll share how these investigations challenged me, taught me, and made me a better crime scene investigator.

I'll also take you behind the yellow tape with a few memorable collision scenes I worked throughout my career and explain why proper photography is one of the most critical parts of documenting a traffic collision.

Whether you're interested in forensic science, law enforcement, or simply curious about what really happens after a serious crash, this episode offers an inside look at the science behind the investigation.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and welcome back to Through the CSI Lens Behind the Yellow Tape. I'm Christina Brakeman and I will be your host for this episode. Thank you so much for tuning in. Hopefully you're enjoying this podcast, learning some new things. Obviously, if you're interested in getting into forensics or crime scene investigation, I'm hopeful that this podcast will help shed some light on some of the processes, expectations, and this overall general atmosphere of you know being a CSI or forensic scientist and how that how that looks, what you can expect, at least typically here in the East Valley in Arizona. So I'd love for you to connect with us through Facebook. You can do Instagram, Gmail if you have any suggestions or feedback or questions, feel free to reach out and I will make sure to get them addressed. Share the podcast with your family, friends, coworkers. I would appreciate that so we can continue to grow our community. So it's been a while, but our last episode we talked about was in May, and towards the end of May, and we talked about suicides and scenes with suicides, with May being Mental Health Awareness Month. I thought that was a great topic to discuss because it will be part of your job, whether you're a crime scene investigator or even in forensics in general. So, and I talked a little bit in detail about some of the resources different agencies may have, what that may look like for your unit or your specific crime scene unit, and how you really need to take your mental health into your own hands and make sure that you're taking care of yourself, you know, the sleep, the water, the food, the healthy conversations, the healthy relationships, and healthy ways for you to cope with the job itself. So today I thought we'd do something a little bit different. We are going to talk about crime scenes, but probably not something that you would typically think of when you think of a crime scene. But I thought we would discuss a little bit about accident investigations, traffic accident investigations, collisions. So for this purpose, you'll probably hear me call accident a collision. So when I was getting my master's degree, one of the terms that we used frequently, which is different in law enforcement as far as a patrol officer or a CSI, you'll hear us refer to it as an accident, a traffic accident. But when I was going through my studies, they referred to it as a collision because an accident, their thought process or their perspective, was that if it's an accident, that means it wasn't intentional, that nobody was doing anything to contribute to the car's colliding or the car colliding. The collision means that two objects, a vehicle, and an object, a vehicle, two vehicles, multiple vehicles, collided and struck one another. And then it's the traffic investigator or detectives' job to determine was it an actual accident or was there something else contributing to this collision? So that's one example of how when you are getting your education, maybe you're taking additional training courses, they'll talk about or even your certification. Let's say you wanted to be a certified crime scene investigator through the IEI. The books will talk about it one way, but then you'll go through field training and an academy and just your own experience, and you'll actually do it differently, whatever that task may be. There could there are going to be differences. So the book will tell you one way to do it, which isn't wrong, but you'll be reading it and you'll be studying for the exam. You're like, that's not how we do it. That doesn't make sense, blah blah blah. And then you'll get into the real world and then you'll apply whatever technique or procedure or policy that makes the most sense given the circumstances you're in. So just because the book says it one way doesn't mean it's going to be that way in the real world or out in the field. So just know that. So for me, my experience, I what and I've mentioned this before. One of the things I loved about my job is that I got to work alongside people that educated me. You know, death investigators, traffic investigators, sex crimes detectives, sane nurses, they all had something to offer at my crime scenes. So I was very like ears, eyes open, wanted to hear, I wanted to know how they came to their conclusions about whatever scene it was we were working at, because that just makes me more valuable and more efficient when I get out to a scene and I don't have one of them there with me, which will happen. So collision investigations, I worked with quite a few at my agency, and some were super great, and they will let you walk alongside them and they'll talk to you about what they're seeing, their observations, what they were told, what the vehicle looks like, what the vehicle is telling them, even to the asphalt. So we'll go get into that a little bit, and then there are some who don't want to mess with you, which I understand, right? That's not their job. Their job is to go to this collision scene and complete a task or two and write a report. Their job is not to educate a crime scene investigator, but we did have some good ones, and we had this one guy, and he was there forever. And when I mean forever, I mean decades. And he was so wicked smart, it just blew my mind. And he was probably one of the only people I've ever known in the field that when he retired, it actually did a disservice to our agency because he was so good and so knowledgeable that he just couldn't be replaced. It just didn't matter. He just was too good at his job. So it was a little sad when he left, but obviously there comes a time and place for everybody to leave their occupation, right? But so I worked alongside the traffic traffic detectives, and they would be considered experts in traffic, you know, investigations. So that's what their primary job is. We're not talking about police officers because they have their own role at a collision site, but then depending on the nature of the collision, they will call out a traffic investigator. Now I can only speak from my agency that I worked for, so I can't speak for every police department in every city, county, state here. I can only speak from my personal experience, but typically we would have traffic investigators out when there was a fatality, so somebody died. Sometimes, if it's a even a fatality hit-and-run collision, if it's a stolen vehicle, maybe you know there was some type of a shooting incident that occurred, traffic might come out for that. Anytime a police officer was involved in a collision, they're going to come out for that. Some DUI accidents they will come out for, property damage. Believe it or not, we got a lot of homes that went or a lot of homes, a lot of cars that went into homes. I swear to God, I don't know how it happened, but it happened quite a bit. People drove through houses. So they would come out a few times for those as well. And just so you know, you would have your patrol officers that would come out and they would secure the scene and start doing the exchange and getting, you know, making sure medicals come in if they need medical and fire EMS out there. And then you have motor officers that will come out, which are the officers, or I guess you could consider them detectives on motorcycles. They come out as well for some of the reconstruction, and then you have your traffic investigator, they come out and they all kind of work together, but they all have their own job responsibilities. So you work with a little variety depending on the nature of the scene. And another thing I will tell you is that when you're working a collision, you always have to make sure you're wearing your traffic vest because people will drive through the accident all the time. I can't tell you how many times I the scene was totally blocked off with patrol vehicles, flares, you name it. And people would literally try to drive through the accident, not even paying attention to anybody, any personnel that was out on the street. And they were like, Well, I gotta go home or I gotta go to the store. I'm not kidding, it happened so many times that you literally have to watch your back. And so, as a CSI, what are you doing all the time? You're taking photos, so you can't pay attention necessarily to what's coming up behind you. So if you have an opportunity when you're doing a traffic collision, especially at night, that you have a patrol officer with you that can make sure that no car is going to come up behind you and run you over or hit you, or they can stop traffic for you, because you can't always stop traffic when there's a collision. It just depends. So you don't want to be walking out there by yourself in the middle of rush hour traffic and cars are whizzing by you and you're trying to take photos. You can't, it's too distracting, right? It's too dangerous, also. So if you can get a patrol officer that can be assigned to you to make sure that they're looking, looking out for you so that you can focus on the job that you're there to do, that would be ideal. Does it always happen? No, but it is great when they when they have that resource available. Because literally people will drive through the accident scenes, they just don't care, especially depending on what part of you know, here in Arizona in the Phoenix Valley, what part of the valley you live in. If it's a 55 older community and you have snowbirds, no offense, but if you have snowbirds, they literally know one way to get home and one way to get out. And if you're blocking that way, they're going to drive through it because that's all they know. They literally just don't care. So you've got to be careful about that, you know, safety first, always. You want to go home at the end of the night, just like everybody else. So the traffic detectives, you know, they are experts in traffic, you know, collisions. They have training in physics, accident reconstruction, and again, they're a great resource, and you can learn a lot from them if they're willing to teach you, if it's a teachable moment. They can determine speed, they can determine direction, they can determine malfunctions, they can look at the street and look at the surface, look for any deviations on the asphalt or damage. I mean, they can they just know what to look for, right? Because that's how that's what their training is in. So, you know, they can look for you know marks in the roadway, scuffs, skids in the street, all of that. And then they can look at impact on the vehicle to determine who struck who first and what direction they the cars were going, where somebody was setting. It's just very fascinating. And so, again, they usually respond to, like I said, you know, fatality accidents, officer involved accidents, DUIs, sometimes hit-and-run type incidents, major crimes, they'll come out for that as well. So, my job at the scene as a CSI is not to secure the scene because that should have already been done prior to me getting there. So, how I would typically approach my scene, not all the time, but most of the time, and again, every not every scene's exactly alike, so there are gonna be some deviations with that. But you just fall back on your training and process the scene accordingly. But typically, when I get on scene, if it's patrol on scene, I'll talk to them and kind of find out you know, directions of vehicle, what direction were they going, any malfunction in street lights, any construction area, because there's always construction out here in Arizona, any obstructions in sight that would prevent somebody from seeing the roadway or passing vehicles. And then if there is a detective on scene, a traffic detective, I'll go and meet with them and I'll say, you know, hey, I'm here, I'm here. I was just gonna go ahead and start photographing the scene. Is there anything you want me to photograph specifically? Sometimes they'll be like, yeah, and they'll take you to whatever it is and they'll point it out to you and say, hey, I want you to photograph this, and this is why I want you to photograph it. I want you to photograph, let's say, the seatbelt. And why is the seatbelt important? Because we want to know was were they wearing the seatbelt or were they not wearing the seatbelt? And that it has come into play many times when there's been an officer-involved collision and they haven't been wearing their seatbelt, and that is policy, they have to wear their seatbelt. So if an officer gets injured, you know, maybe they have a face injury, their forehead struck, their rearview mirror, or something like that. We're like, okay, how did that happen? Let's take a look at the seatbelt. Are there any like burn or wear marks for where the seatbelt would have caught? So you'll look for things like that that you'll want to photograph. So they'll point things out that are important to them, even like tires, they'll point out tires and the condition of the tires, damage to the tires, were they do they look overinfled, underinflated? Are they the right size of tire on the vehicle? If it's a motorcycle, they'll do the same thing. Even with the motorcycle, they'll want to know did they have their headlight on or was the headlight off? Because that can make a difference on whether the cyclist was seen. And then they'll sometimes want you to take a photograph of the filament to determine was it on or was it off when it broke or when it when the collision happened? Because typically, if a headlight is on, the filament's gonna be nice and warm, right? Because it's a heat source, and so if there is a crack in that bulb, it's gonna be nice, clean break. But if it's been shut off and it hasn't been turned on, the headlight hasn't been turned on, it's gonna be cold. That filament's going to have more fractured crack, it's gonna be more rough-edged. So you'd want to try to photograph that to the best of your ability. So that I mean, it could come down to who was at fault for the accident. And obviously, this is these are things we're gonna take with us in case that they need to do a forensic analysis. You know, maybe somebody died. It's hard to say. So they may end up doing a forensic analysis to make that determination. So these are some of the things that the traffic investigators will want you to document, and they'll they should go over with you when you're on scene. Now, once you've been there a while and you've worked with them a while, they they trust you, and I can walk up to them and say, Hey, I'm just gonna start taking my photos, let me know if you need anything, or if you see anything, right? Because they they typically haven't had a whole lot of time to investigate the accident, they maybe just got on scene themselves, so they know that I have tasks that I have to do, and so I can start that process so that we can get this investigation going, and the street doesn't have to be closed down any longer than it has to be. So they kind of do their part, I do my part, and then we kind of reconvene in between, or we call each other and say, Hey, I need you to do this, I need you to do this, and then we can try to process the scene efficiently. Some of the other things that might be pointed out to me are if there's children in the car, were the children injured, were they wearing seat belts, or were they in seat restraints? How old were they? Were any of them in the front front seat? So photographs of you know, car seats and seat belts, carriers, things like that would come into play. Any type of if drugs or alcohol was suspected, even prescription medication that you're not supposed to drive on. If that's in the vehicle, all that's gonna be photographed and collected as well. Registration, maybe there's an issue with who is the registered owner, maybe there's a fictitious plate on the vehicle. I mean, all these things come into play that would definitely be photographed as part of the crime scene processing. So, again, my role is again gonna meet with the police officer or detective, traffic investigator, and I'm gonna get a synopsis of what happened, how many vehicles are involved, what direction of travel were they going, who had the right-of-way, any signs of impairment, that kind of stuff, any dash cams available, any airbags deployed, anybody injured. And then once I have that, then I'm gonna process my whole scene. When I say process, mostly I'm gonna take photographs. And so let's say I'm on a street that goes a north and south, and it's a two-lane street, and then you have a divider, and then you have the other side that goes the opposite direction. I wouldn't photograph necessarily the other side if it's not involved, but first thing that I'm gonna do is photograph street signs so I know where the accident occurred or the collision occurred, and so that anybody who's looking at my photos knows where the accident occurred at. And then I, if there's street lights in the area that are functioning, I'm going to make sure I photograph those. If there's any any roadway construction signs, I'm gonna photograph that. If there's any speeding signs posted, I'm gonna photograph that as well, and then I'm going to walk basically the entire accident scene from north to south, taking photographs at eye level all the way down, and then I'm gonna do it in reverse. So I'm gonna go back the same direction or the opposite direction, taking photographs. Then I'm going to go to four corners of the accident, and I'm gonna take photographs from that vantage point as well, and I may even take one in the middle. So from the corner, then I move slightly to the middle, take photographs, move to the next corner, take a photograph, to the middle, take a photograph, and I'll do that to the entire scene. And then I will typically go to the vehicles, and then I will basically four-point all those vehicles where I'm getting every vehicle that's in the collision in my photo. So that means I'm photo basically doing a smaller square, smaller four-point to show the vehicles more, you know, in a closer distance, more close up. So I'll take it from that corner and the up, then I'll walk to the other corner, take a photo, the other corner, take a photo, the other corner, take a photo, and then I start focusing on each vehicle. And I typically start at the back of the vehicle if I can, showing the entire back of the vehicle, the license plate, then I walk to the passenger side, take photograph as much of the passenger side as I can. Then I'll walk to the front of the vehicle, photograph as much of the front of the vehicle, and then I'll do the same thing on the driver's side vehicle. Then I'll photograph the vehicle identification number in the windshield. If there's not one in the windshield, or I can't see it, it's obstructed or damaged. I'll try to get it on the front driver door on the body of the car. And then from there, I will take photos of the inside of the vehicle, maybe the seat belt, the seat positioning, the keys in the ignition, alcohol, drugs, car seats, anything like that that could indicate impairment or somebody wasn't properly restrained or anything like that. Airbags. If there's blood on the airbags, let's say it's a hit and run accident and somebody flees on foot and we don't know who was driving the vehicle. If airbags are deployed, I'm gonna try to collect DNA samples from the at least the driver's airbag. And typically what I would do is take a cotton, we call them swabs, but they look like cotton cotton tips, and I would dampen one and have a dry one, and I would dampen one with distilled water, and I would gently rub the surface of the airbag, and then do the same thing with the dry swab, and then I would cut out the airbag and collect that as evidence. Once I'm finished with the inside, then I would look at the damage and I would photograph the damage to the best of my ability because if the cars are in contact, we have to wait till the tow company comes to pull the cars apart, and then I would re-photograph those areas of damage. But I'm going to be basically taking an overall so I can see. Let's say this person's front driver quarter panel is damaged. So I would take a wide photo or step back and take a big photo of just the driver's side quarter panel. Then I would take a closer photo of just the damage, and then I would take a close-up of that damage. And I would want to look for any kind of paint transfer, especially if it's a hit-and-run accident and the other vehicle fled. I want to see if there's color, a color of paint that might have transferred from the suspect vehicle. And then I would do the same thing on all the other vehicles that are involved. And sometimes you can't finish your photographs, like I said, until the tow truck comes and starts moving vehicles out of the way or rolling it back over on all fours, and then you can continue taking photos of the damage. And then once the and of course. Any debris that's in the roadway, like glass, plastic, metal, car parts, all of those are going to need to be photographed as well. Anything with identifying marks, again, if it's a hit-and-run accident and you don't have a suspect vehicle there, if there's vehicle debris left behind, you want to make sure you photograph those really well and make sure you get any numbers or serial numbers that might be on those pieces of debris because that they could be traced. And obviously, if it is a hit-and-run accident, then we would collect those items, those pieces of debris, just in case they need to do follow-up on those and investigate those further. And then once the vehicles have been moved out of the way, then I would just photograph the street where the collision occurred. And usually if you have a good traffic detective, he he or she will be able to point to you with almost with most certainty where the impact occurred. And there will there will be like a divot or I'm I can't think of the technical name. I know there's a technical name, but point of impact for lack of a better term, of where the cars actually collided. And so typically once they're looking at the asphalt or the roadway, they they may be able to make you know ascertain where that collision occurred at, where point of contact was made. So then I would take additional photographs of that area that might have like a divot in the asphalt discoloration, scraping, a scuff mark, any of that. So those are things that you're definitely going to want to pay attention to and ask just in case. Another thing to consider is you know the windshield, the front windshield, or the hood of the vehicle. If let's say a pedestrian was struck, you're going to want to photograph where that contact was made with the pedestrian. Because typically the pedestrian will fly on top of the car or land partially on top of the car or at least make some kind of contact. And so you'll want to photograph that area of contact. And if it's skin on the skin of that person that's made contact with the vehicle, you will see sometimes, not always depending on what they're wearing, but you can see where there's actually like skin marks, like scuff marks, but it's with skin. So you can actually see that variation on the paint. So you'd want to photograph that as well. Excuse me, you wouldn't, you don't necessarily need to collect any DNA from that unless there's some extenuating circumstances that would require that. But so those are some of the things that you would be looking at. But it's important again that you know are taking your photos are in focus, that you are using proper lighting, even if it's broad daylight, you want to make sure that your photos are not being underexposed or overexposed. And when you're in your CSI Academy and when you take just additional training, you'll learn and do and you'll learn by experience. Okay, it's a bright sunny day. I know that I need to set my, you know, first of all, we always set our camera in manual because we don't ever want to use automate, you know, anything automated or automatic. Don't let the camera necessarily decide for you. You should be able to have that knowledge to be able to set your shutter speed and your aperture priority efficiently. Not always. I mean, sometimes depending on the scene, it can get a little challenging. But yeah, your your job is definitely going to be to take document well the accident scene. And if you're at night and there's a collision, you are gonna have to use your tripod. You are going to have to use your, you know, you're gonna have to adjust your shutter speed, you're gonna have to adjust your aperture priority to expose for more light because it's dark. You may even have to do something like painting with light where you actually introduce light into your scene to light it up because it's so dark that nothing will show through on your camera. So you'll have to make sure that you have your tripod with you if you're doing nighttime photography. And that typically takes a little bit longer because you're usually doing timed exposures, which means you're setting your camera to a certain time to allow the light to come in and strike the sensor in your camera, and then light up that scene and develop that scene with your camera, and then you can actually take that photo and have a good exposure, right? Because if we don't have enough light in our scene, it's gonna be underdeveloped, so it'll be dark and you can't see anything. But then if you have too much light in your scene, then it's gonna overexpose, and then you still won't be able to see the detail. So again, daytime, you want to make sure that you're if it's a bright sunny day or if it's a cloudy day, you're setting, you know, your ISO, which is your set your camera's sensitivity to light, you're setting that up at a good number. So if I'm in the if I'm working during the day, my ISO is probably gonna be about 100 or 200. If I'm working swing shift later, you know, early swing shift going into graveyards, I'm probably gonna do a 400 ISO because it's going to allow my for lack of a better term, it's going to allow my camera to see or have more light because it's more sensitive because I've set that ISO stamp or setting higher. And then you have your external flash that will work five five to eight feet in front of you, depending on your scene. Your tripod is always going to be your best friend when you need to do timed exposures to allow for more light and allow for more time for that image to be developed. When you have images that are underdeveloped, they can go in and alter those with Photoshop, but it's not something that they like to do. You don't want to alter things, but I know that it has been done in the past, but you have to keep the original and then create another copy, and then you can adjust that copy of the original. You never want to work from the original. And photos are also a form of evidence. So traffic scenes can take a long time and they can be very tedious, right? A lot of walking, a lot of standing, a lot of waiting. And again, you just want to make sure that you're prepared depending on the scene you're at. And I can't tell you enough how important it is that you're efficient with your camera, that you understand shutter speed stops is basically stops speed or limits the amount of light that your camera can see, your camera sensor. And aperture priority gives you your depth of field. So, how much is something that's in front of you in focus, and how much is something away from you in focus? So knowing how that camera works and what kind of image you need to capture will help you determine what your settings are on your camera. And again, I can't tell you enough. You never you just don't want to get into the habit of doing program mode on your camera. You want to be manual focus, and then you have all the little tips and tricks, like I said, painting with light, which is kind of fun. Better to be a two-person job, but if you have to do a one-person job, it's not impossible, but it's just a little bit harder. So, some of the other things that we might also photograph kids who are in the car, depending on the condition of or what the nature of the accident is. If we suspect somebody's been impaired, we're probably going to photograph the child or children to show injuries or lack of injuries, or even where they were seated. If somebody dies on scene, we're not moving them other than fire EMS for life-saving measures, or even, I guess, police when they arrive there, if they if somebody's still alive and they have to render aid. That would that's where the medical investigator's office or examiner's office would come into play. They would send a death investigator out, and then we would treat it like another death investigation, right? They are in charge of the body, we're in charge of the scene. They take their series of photos, and then we photograph the decedents and so forth before they're transferred, transported down to the medical examiner's office. So it's very similar. If you've listened to earlier podcasts, anytime there's a dead body, it's gonna be the same way. I mean, we're gonna wait till Omi gets there, and then we're going to continue processing the scene. What are some other things that we typically did? I said I talked to you a little bit about the airbags and the swabbing and the collection. So you want to make sure you have a good knife on hand so that you can cut through the airbag and collect that. You may need to collect paint transfer. So let's say you have an area, let's say you have the front driver's door, and that's where impact was made, and the suspect vehicle fled, but you notice when you're photographing the damage that it looks like there's paint transfer, so you're gonna photograph that area really well. You're going to take a scalpel or another tool that can penetrate down like four or five layers into that paint, and you're gonna scrape down all those layers because the paint has several layers to it, it has binders and polymers and clear coats, and there's and the actual paint itself. There's like four or five layers of paint. And in order to individualize that paint, you need to get as many layers as possible. If all you can do is get the top coat, that's not gonna tell us very much. They might be able to tell you the pigment, that's about it. But if you can get down into the layers underneath the damage, that's where the real for the forensic scientists can do their forensic examination to try to determine what manufacturer made this paint, what car, what year, what make, what model is this paint from. So you might have several vehicle models that use that same paint, but it's narrowing it down. And then you'll want to collect a sample, what we would call a known sample or a reference sample close to the damage but not within the damage. And you would collect again a paint sample of an undamaged area so that they would have something to compare it to, right? Because forensic science is always going to be compare and contrast. In order for us to identify the source of that forensic evidence, we have to have something to compare it to. So in this instance, I'm going to collect a sample of the paint on the victim vehicle so that they can compare the two, and from that, hopefully be able to determine what belongs to the victim's vehicle, what may belong to the suspect's vehicle. Some of the some of the interesting cases that I worked, I think one of my first traffic collisions was a fatality. This guy was riding a motorcycle and he ran a red light going excessive speeds and he lost control of his motorcycle and he hit like a partial stucco brick wall, and he just went head first right into that wall and he he died. And I remember pulling up to that scene thinking, I mean, I think it was one of I don't know if it was my first dead body, but it was pretty close. At least it was my first dead body on a traffic accident. And I was like, wow, this guy, I mean, like, he's just lying there on the street corner totally dead. It just blew my mind that here I was, and this guy, for whatever, I mean, witnesses said that he had been weaving in and out of traffic, was driving at a high rate of speed, so it wasn't just like a malfunction on the bike, it wasn't an overcorrection, it was just him being a reckless driver. So I remember just that body. I can still see that body today. I still know what corner it was in the city I worked in, and I was just like, okay, we're doing this, you know. Typically, he didn't have a helmet on either, so there was not too much left of his head because the impact, you know. I think they said he was going like 85 or something. It was this is on a city street, this isn't on the freeway. So there wasn't too much left of his face, I will say that. And then we I had one, another motorcycle. I'm gonna tell you guys motorcycles or death wishes. I know that some of you love motorcycles, and you know, you live and you breathe it, and you're out on the open road and the air, and you're with your buddies, and it's just like the best thing since life's bread. I get it, I get it. There are two types of motorcycle riders: donors and will-be donors. That's all there is to that. If you ride your whole life on a motorcycle and never get in a serious collision or die, you're rare. Because almost every collision I went to where a motorcycle was involved, they died. I can't, matter of fact, I can't think maybe one. Maybe one accident. He didn't die, but his hips were broken. So you would not pay me enough money to get on one of those. If you see me on a motorcycle, something's wrong. But yeah, this kid, and I I don't know how old he was, I guess he's in his 20s. We have this street where it went east and east and west, and then it butted up against a street, another street that went north and south. So you come up to the light, you can only go right or left, right? You can't go straight because it's residential. So I'm not sure what happened with this kid, but he was driving or riding, driving, whatever, a crotch rocket motorcycle, and he had, I think they said he was going over at 125, maybe. I don't even know. He literally did not stop at the light. He hit the street curb, the curb, he went up, he hit like a small wood fence, he went through that, he went through a stucco brick wall, which led into the bedroom of this house. He went through the next wall on the other side of that bedroom into the next bedroom and made contact with the last wall. So literally, he went through one, two, three walls and almost a fourth one and a fence. I was like, what is and the sad thing is that the house had just been remodeled, and I don't know if they were getting ready to sell it or rent it, but it had just been totally remodeled. I mean, literally just finished. And this kid or this guy plows through this house. He did have a helmet on, but he died. And so we went into the house. I was like, holy crap, he almost went through one, two. I guess it would have been a third wall. One, two, it would have been a third wall, not a fourth wall. But I was like, wow, he must have been going so fast, right? At this point, they're just like a bot a bag of bones because every body, every bone in his body is pretty much fractured from impact. The motorcycle was in the in the room as well, and so that was overturned. And thank God nobody was sleeping in either of those bedrooms because they probably wouldn't have survived. But I thought to myself, like, wow, what prompted them to go that fast? And I don't know, maybe he wasn't familiar with the street because the street that he was traveling on was a residential street, wasn't like a city surface street, it was a residential street that uh became up to a city street. That makes sense. So I would think he'd be familiar with the street he was on, but it's possible. Plus, it was night. So I guess it's possible that maybe, yeah. I was gonna say maybe he pressed the accelerator over the brake, but there's just no way. It was almost seemed like it was intentional. Like, how do you go that fast and just not stop? There was like no brakes, no skidding, nothing leading up to that. Just he just went right into that. He was like a projectile at a high speed. So that was pretty crazy seeing that accident. It took a long time to work that accident because not only did we have structural issues in the house, because we had to make sure it was safe for us to go inside and stay inside so that we could finish photographing and collecting. So we had to bring the fire department out there, obviously, and then they had to bring their engineers out, and then they had to determine was it safe for us to be in there. It was a whole pro it was a long night, needless to say. So, yeah, pretty pretty interesting on that accident scene. So, some of the other things that your traffic detective will hopefully teach you about will be things that they learned, obviously, and they're part of their training and that they're experts in now. But some of the things would be acceleration, scuff marks. Basically, that would tell you which tire had the power to make it spin. So if like somebody's spinning their tires, or you see where people cars take over the streets and they are, you know, going round and round in circles and stuff like that, and they cause damage or they cause an accident or somebody gets injured. I just saw a video the other day where this somebody was doing that and he struck the curb and it took off his whole tire and it broke his axle. So they may be able to help make that determination. It may be important if it's a racing. If somebody's saying the cars were racing, that might be important to document. They'll also may be able to tell you any lock brake scuffing, which is basically a skid mark that happens or is created from an anti-lock braking device, and that happens when the vehicle starts to slow down. They have the black box, which if an officer's been involved in a collision, they're going to download the data from the black box under the dash. So they can record was were they speeding, did they stop? I mean, what kind of driving were they doing, all that, and they can do that with the other vehicles as well. You would probably just photograph the black box, they're gonna collect it and take it, or they're gonna download all the information right there so that they can do their analysis in their office, and then another thing, which I I would I haven't heard them refer to it as this very very often, but you'll hear them say collision scrub sometimes, and that happens when two vehicles collide and they leave skid marks. So I like to kind of call that the point of impact, but I suppose it could be different as well. One thing you will see a lot are furrow marks, F-U-R-R-O-W, and basically that's like a depression in loose soil or surface, and you can see that I guess before a vehicle flips. So let's say, you know, especially if like you're out in the country or on dirt roads, you're gonna see this more prevalent prevalently than you would on asphalt, right? But when people lose control of their vehicle and before their vehicle flips, if it's in that kind of loose soil or loose dirt, like if you're up north here in Arizona, or maybe on the Indian reservations, which we wouldn't go out to those necessarily, but um, you might see you know those kind of fro marks on there. You you might see gouge marks in the asphalt from you know, maybe the axle broke and now it's or even you know, their rim was exposed, and so you're gonna see markings in the asphalt from that as well. And some of the other things that you're gonna take into consideration are human factors, you know. Was the driver's vision impaired? Was there some type of an obstruction? What was their viewpoint? I've even had detectives, traffic detectives ask me to take photos in the driver's seat, showing what the driver could see. So wanting to show their vantage point. I've had traffic detectives asking me to photograph as quickly as possible right before the sun is setting, because they want to show what the lighting situation was before the collision. Because especially during dusk and dawn, it can be difficult to see motorcyclists or bicyclists or pedestrians, and even some vehicles that they don't have their headlights on. So they'll be like, hey, can you hurry up and snap a few photos? So it shows what the actual lighting environment was when the collision occurred or near the time when the collision occurred. So I'll do that once in a while. Yeah, so those are kind of some of the ones that I did. Some other funny ones, I guess they're not funny, but I had a few people, like I had this one lady who two actually had multiple cases, but two that I can recall. Elderly lady was parked in front of the GNC, and she got confused with the brake and the accelerator, and pressed the accelerator and drove straight through the business. Her car was in the middle of the GNC. I was like, oh my gosh. So again, that becomes a structural hazard. Photographing the building now. I mean, you're out there for a while, making sure nobody's been injured, documenting the car, documenting the parking lot where they were at. You know, you might have to document. Their accelerator and their brake because maybe there was a malfunction. I mean, we're not going to get up underneath the vehicle, but we can at least show if there was any obstructions on the floorboard that prevented the brake from depressing all the way down or made the accelerator stuck open. So all those kind of things. And then I had another lady at a 55-older community. I shouldn't laugh at this, but it does happen. So she was in her car. It was a little PT cruiser and she was parked by the pool. And of course, the pool's all gated, right? Has a metal gate. But she was confused on her brake and her gas, and she pressed the gas, and the pool and the car ended up in the pool. Through the gate into the pool. And they had to call a tow truck crane to come get the car out of the swimming pool. I was like, good lord, if I'm ever that old and I do stuff like that, take my driver's license and keys away. That's just some of the things that I've seen. So yeah, so accidents. I liked working accidents. I thought they were interesting. They're very routine for me. I think that they were easy. It does become more difficult at night because of lighting, because you have headlights shining in your scene, which affect your camera. You have traffic, oncoming traffic that you have to be mindful of. If it's nighttime, you have headlights from other passing vehicles that affect your photos. So all these things come into play. Even vibration from vehicles passing by can shake your tripod and cause your focus to your camera or your images to be blurry. So you have to make sure you're checking your photos after you take them to make sure that they're in focus because nothing is worse than finishing a scene, going back to your office, downloading your photos only for your focus to your photos to be blurry. So you definitely want to make sure you're checking your photos, make sure they're in focus so that it's getting all of the scene documented accurately. And I mentioned again painting with light. So basically, we're just this is a very handy skill. And yes, you can get a patrol officer to help you with this. They can hold a flashlight. So basically, all you're doing when it's a super dark scene, let's say maybe I'm out by the airport or just out in an area that's not super developed in the city I worked for, I am gonna probably have to add more light to my scene, depending on how dark it is out there. So painting with light would help add light to your scene artificially, but it doesn't, what's the word? It doesn't alter necessarily the original scene, if that makes sense. Because if you explain the situation, hey, I'm at this dark scene, there's not enough light, my my camera can't work out here in the dark. I have to add light so that I can see what's going on, that makes sense, right? So you're not trying to alter evidence, but you are trying to make sure that you can see the evidence. And the way to do that is to bring more light into your scene. So basically, when we say painting with light, we're basically moving around our scene, moving light, a light source, so a flashlight or something similar to illuminate our scene while taking long exposure exposure photos. And so, you know, I was talking about knowing your camera and knowing your camera settings. You're definitely going to probably want your shutter speed set at bulb, so 15 to 30 seconds. You're gonna have a remote that will allow you to depress it to take the photo. Your aperture priority, which sets the depth of focus, is probably gonna be around F8, and your ISO, which is the setting to make your camera sensor more sensitive, probably 400. And those are gonna be good numbers to start with, and then you can go from there. But yeah, painting with light, you're gonna cover your camera lens, you're gonna walk through your scene, adding light, and then you're gonna remove the cardboard or whatever it is that's covering the camera lens because you don't want light to get into the camera, right? So we're just lighting the scene up and we're gonna remove it, it's going to read the light, and then it's gonna capture that image well lit, hopefully, and it should come up with a full exposure. So that's kind of how that works, and you need to do that throughout your whole scene. So that's why it works better when you have two people than just one person, but it can be done with one person, it's just better if you have two. And some of the other things that we use on scene, so you can use the 360 camera, which basically takes 360 views of your scene. Traffic investigators usually use ferro scanners, which scans the whole scene, they can do measurements. When I left, when I retired, they were already using drones at their accident scenes, so that was a traffic investigator responsibility. They, I guess, our crime scene unit did not want did not want to have to worry about getting us licensing to fly the drones and then any kind of software updates because we have been burned in the past when we bought expensive equipment and then we had to pay for the upgrades for software, even though let's say homicide wanted us to buy the equipment. So they just decided CSIs are not going to be flying drones, which is a bummer because I actually took a training course on it and it was so much fun. But there's a lot of rules with flying drones. So the traffic investigators use drones now, and so they also take photos and can do images and help with the reconstruction and help do with the measurements. So they have a lot of tools in their belt to help reconstruct the scene, get accurate measurements and so forth. So, but the traffic investigators are a wealth of knowledge, some are really helpful and are willing to share that with you. It's just going to make you a better CSI. So take a few minutes, find somebody in your department that you have can form a good relationship with, that you respect, who has experience and can show you things that I'm telling you you will never see unless somebody with a trained eye and experience and training knows it. That's the way it is on most things, right? So, again, always a good idea to find somebody in the traffic division that's gonna help you learn how to be better at your job. And my nickname, my nickname from the traffic division was Country Kitchen. Because I guess I look like a country girl. I don't know. That was my name, Country Kitchen. Is Country Kitchen coming out? Yes, I'm coming out. So a lot of walking, good shoes are gonna be important, obviously, in CSI land, police officer land, any of those good footwork, good footwear is gonna be important. So I hope you enjoyed this kind of little interesting, you know, segment or episode on traffic investigations. I mean, I can't think of any scene where somebody was ejected. I'm trying to think, or partially ejected. I don't recall ever having a collision like that. Thank God. Just the few fatalities because people driving their motorcycles erratically usually ends up in one way. I worked a couple officer-involved accidents, you know, and again, are the officers wearing their seat belts? You know, are they following, are they going proper speed? All those things come into play for them as well, not just you guys. So if anything, they're probably scrutinized more than a normal than a citizen, because we need to make sure that we're not responsible for what happened, you know, like did the officer run a red light? Was he not he or she not running their red what their reds and blues and their sirens and all that kind of stuff? So those things all come into play as well when you're investigating traffic collisions. So hopefully, again, you like this, you learned a little bit, something new. And I like I said, I think looking back, these are probably traffic accidents were one of my favorite ones because for me they just were easy to do. You know, it's just like boom. Once you've got a system, you just knock it out based off your experience and your training. You're just like, oh, these are easy. Can they be long scenes? Yes, can they be hot, especially in the middle of the sun or the sun? Yes, especially out here in Arizona when it's 115 degrees out and you're on that asphalt. I'm telling you what, it is miserable. And another thing, oh, one other thing I wanted to mention is that a lot of times when you have a major collision, you're going to have media out there. And just FYI, they will always photograph your butt because you're going to be bending over and they're going to get zoomed in at the right time. So that's going to happen to you at some point. And don't forget that their equipment can hear from several, several, several yards away. So you might be on the other side of the accident collision having some kind of conversation with a coworker about eating and somebody's dead in the scene, but they picked it up and somebody can miss, you know, misconstrue that. So you just you want to be careful what you say at your accident scenes because media, anytime media is there, they can hear you. Just just trust me, if you see a media vehicle, you see a camera, you see a reporter, they can hear anything you're saying. Doesn't matter, they're gonna hear you. So make sure what you're saying is appropriate. Not everybody's gonna understand your humor or our humor. So keep that in mind. We want to keep it professional. 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