In most accident reconstructions, an important consideration is whether a typical driver could have avoided a collision or mitigated the severity of impact.
Typical situations may involve assessing when a pedestrian could have been detected at night, what is an appropriate driver perception-response time to a hazard on the roadway or when should a driver realize they were closing on a slow or stopped vehicle.
Our experts rely on scientific studies conducted under similar circumstances to estimate driver perception-response times. However, we often supplement these studies with our own in-field visibility studies under exemplar conditions. We have conducted several hundred nighttime visibility studies across Canada.
Some of the Human Factor issues we have investigated include:
- Nighttime visibility studies with pedestrians, bicycles and a variety of vehicles
- Studies of roadway lighting levels and the effects of inoperative lights
- Determining when an object is illuminated by vehicle headlamps
- Driver perception-response times to path intrusions
- Recognizing closing speed on a lead vehicle
- Nighttime photography & videotaping