Accident Reconstruction

How can Drones Benefit Accident Reconstruction

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Reduce Time on Accident Site

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Accurate Data Collection

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Safer Inspections

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Visual Results

Site Documentation

Importance of Documentation

When accidents occur, crucial evidence is often times imprinted on the scene. For example, cars crashes can leave behind tire marks, gouge marks, broken glass, blood stains, etc. Police can mark important locations with spray paint such as final resting point of tires. This evidence left on the roadway is essential for professional reconstructionists to perform their job, but it can fade away in relatively short order. Drones can be deployed over the accident site to capture evidence on the roadway while it's still visible to provide accident reconstructionists essential data necessary for reconstructing the accident accurately.

Orthomosaics

Using drones for site documentation is very advantageous as it can provide many different outputs. Accurate orthomosaics can be created by acquiring overlapping aerial imagery above the accident site using drones with precise geo-positioning capabilities. Reconstructionists can use orthomosaic maps to make centimeter grade measurements and provides them with up-to-date visuals including evidence left over from the accident scene. Additionally, they can be imported into simulation software and used to create animations, showing how the accident occurred.

3D Point Clouds

Oblique overlapping imagery taken with a drone can be utilized to form 3D point clouds. A 3D point cloud is a virtual three dimensional environment containing millions of points. Accurate 3D distances, areas, and volumes can be deciphered from point clouds and can show the topography of the accident site. The points making up the roadway and ground can be triangulated to form a surface and are often imported into accident reconstruction software where animations are created of the accident in this virtual 3D environment.