About Forensic Investigations

Where investigation is needed in order to understand how road collisions have occurred, our independent expert witness team has the reputation, experience and credibility to provide impartial and reliable evidence-based reporting.

Forensic collision investigations have multiple benefits across all sectors of the transport industry.

Road collisions are an inevitable part of everyday life. Despite the drive towards reducing the number and severity it is unlikely that collisions will ever be fully preventable.

This is where the response to collisions becomes so important. Often the main benefit of a forensic investigation is determining liability, negligence, and avoidability.

There are, however, additional benefits for those who operate vehicles and/or manage large vehicle fleets.

Forensic collision investigation & reconstruction

We have a large team of independent, industry leading experts with many years of experience in all areas of collision investigation; they are also able to draw upon the knowledge of highly qualified experts in transportation across our organisation.

Vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists make up a significant proportion of the total number of people killed or seriously injured on the roads. The Forensic Investigations team at TRL has the knowledge and experience to reconstruct such collisions, as well as those involving other types of road users.

Our independent forensic collision investigators are able to analyse the evidence, including vehicle damage, scene evidence and injury patterns, to determine the likely speed and movements of the parties involved prior to, and during the incident. Our experts can also analyse the visibility of the parties involved and the potential avoidability of the consequences.

Perishable evidence, such as tyre marks, scuff marks and road paint, deteriorates rapidly at incident scenes due to the weather, traffic flow or essential repair work. The environment in which vehicles are kept after an incident can also affect continuity and quality of evidence. This scene and vehicle data can be crucial in the resolution of serious injury claims as it provides independent factual evidence as to the circumstances of the incident. We can visit the scene and inspect the vehicle at a very early stage in the investigation with a view to enabling evidence recovery.

Benefits of a forensic collision investigation:

• Establishing facts & testing evidence
• Understanding timeline of events
• Determination of vehicle defects or environmental contribution
• Understanding liability and/or causation