Introtech received a Certificate of Appreciation from Baldwin Wallace College for sponsoring a series of summer anti drinking and driving public service announcements. The 2008 summer safety campaign by Baldwin Wallace College focuses on preventing college students from drinking and driving. Drinking and driving remains a serious problem for young college students and Introtech is dedicated to involvement in preventing all types of crashes including drinking and driving crashes.
-EVENT DATA RECORDERS The January 14, 2008 Federal Register included a NHTSA Docket 2008-004 Notice, recommending technical changes to Petitions for Reconsideration to its Rule of August 2006. That rule specifies uniform requirements for crash data retrieval devices regarding accuracy, collection, storage, survivability and retrievability of voluntarily installed onboard motor vehicle crash event data recorders (EDRs). NHTSA denied requests to require EDRs on all passenger vehicles. Introtech has the most current CDR software and hardware to download all currently downloadable CDR units.
-Henry Lipian successfully completed a combined 40 hour school in Vetronix/Bosch Crash Data Retrieval (CDR) Training Course and Vetronix/Bosch CDR Data Analyst Course in Westlake Ohio. This course included training regarding the most current CDR 3.0 version software. All of the crash reconstructionists at Introtech have successfully completed specialized training in CDR technology. As more vehicles are manufactured that include EDR capable vehicles, more electronic data will become available that must be considered in a situationally complete crash reconstruction.
- On May 7th, Henry Lipian, James Crawford, and Choya Hawn presented a seminar on Collision Biomechanics and Air Bag Control Modules to the Ohio Chapter of the International Association of Special Investigative Units. The seminar presented the basics of biomechanical analysis, especially as it relates to low speed impacts. Mr. Hawn also gave an overview of the current status of obtaining crash data from on-board air bag control modules.
- Mr. Henry Lipian and Mr. Dale Dent recently satisfied their requirements for recertification from The Accreditation Commission for Traffic Accident Reconstruction (ACTAR). Each of them have been recertified for another five year period. As a part of the renewal process a Reconstructionist must successfully complete 80 approved contact hours of training within a five year period. Over the past five years Mr. Lipian and Mr. Dent's contact hours of training included schooling from the Society of Automotive Engineers, The National Transportation Safety Board, Northwestern University, and The University of North Florida to name a few.
- It is with deep regret that Introtech announces the passing of our forensic chemist Dr. Michael Joseph Levy. Dr. Levy was a world renown forensic chemist, a Deacon in the Ukrainian Catholic Church and a dedicated husband and father. Mr. Levy traveled around the world lecturing on various chemical testing techniques, gas chromatography and other testing methods. Dr. Levy lived in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania along with his wife and three children. Dr. Levy's sons Michael and Joseph intend to carry on the family business. Dr. Levy was much more than a scientist and a forensic expert. He was highly respected for his philanthropic work in the church and his community.
November 2007 - Henry Lipian, James Crawford, and Choya Hawn have just completed teaching a course of instruction in Biomechanics and Occupant Kinematics for Northcoast Polytechnic Institute in conjunction with the Cleveland Metropark Rangers. This intense five-day school was attended by students from all over the state of Ohio and also Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. The topics included momentum, energy, delta velocity, g-loads, basic anatomy, kinematics, injury patterns, anthropometry, occupant restraint systems, event data recorders, investigative methodology and low speed impacts. All students were required to pass a comprehensive final examination and the course of instruction was approved for 30 CEUs for ACTAR credits.
October 2007- The Introtech staff recently completed its 7th consecutive year of teaching crash reconstruction for Ohio Police Officers at the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy in London, Ohio. This intensive 80 hour course of instruction included topics such as: momentum, energy, perception/response, night visibility, motorcycle crashes, heavy truck crashes, pedestrian crashes, technology, review of vehicle dynamics, occupant kinematics, airborne equations and other topics important to a proper reconstruction. After each specialized topic, students were required to complete a project where they had to solve actual crashes. There were police officers in attendance from all over Ohio.
September 2007-Jim Crawford attended a NHTSA and SAE Event Data Recorder Symposium on September 5th and 6th at the National Transportation Safety Board Academy in Washington D.C.
Technical advances, regulatory and industry standards development, and legal and privacy issues related to highway vehicle recorders have become hot topics. This event provided a forum to learn, share and debate the latest technologies,get a glimpse into future applications, and explore regulatory issues.
This Symposium provided a forum for the dissemination of new and significant technical advances, regulatory and industry standards development for both passenger and commercial highway vehicles, as well as legal and privacy issues which have come the forefront of both public and legislative consciousness.
This Symposium focused on state-of-the-art recorder technology for passenger and commercial vehicles, recent developments and trends in data recording technology, current legal and privacy issues and included actual case studies related to the application of this technology as it applies to real world events.
September 2007 -Henry Lipian and James Crawford conducted an intensive 5 day training program for the Ohio Peace Officer's Training Academy in London, Ohio on the subject of Vehicle Dynamics. Introtech has been conducting this training program for Ohio police officers over the past 8 years. Officers who attended this program received classroom training in energy, vehicle dynamics equations, in-line momentum, critical speed calculations, friction, basic laws of motion, airborne equations and project work. This course of instruction is a pre-requisite for the two-week crash reconstruction course that Introtech will teach in October.
August 2007 -
2006 Traffic Statistics
On July 23, 2006 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported that the number of people who were killed on the nation's roads fell last year, resulting in the lowest fatality rate ever recorded and the largest overall drop in the overall deaths in 15 years. Despite this positive trend, in 2006 there were still 42,642 traffic deaths nationwide, which was 868 fewer deaths than in 2005. Other than motorcycles, there was an overall decline in deaths across all other categories of vehicle crashes. Unfortunately alcohol related deaths edged upward by 2.4%.
Electronic Stability Control
The NHTSA announced a final rule for the motor vehicle safety standard (FMVSS) requiring stability control (ESC) on all new passenger cars, SUVs, trucks and buses (GVW 10,000 lbs or less) by Model Year 2012. ESC uses advanced sensor technology to determine if a vehicle is following the driver's intended path. If the vehicle's path differs from the intended path, the system can intervene by either braking a single or multiple wheels and or reducing engine throttle to bring the vehicle back in line with the driver's intended course. It is hoped that the requirement for stability control systems will reduce the incidents of roll overs, especially in high profile vehicles such as SUVs, vans and light trucks. Even with the well documented benefit of stability control in reducing single vehicle roll over crashes and off road incidents, currently only 29 percent of current model year vehicles are equipped with stability control.
As the technology in motor vehicles becomes more complex and effective, it continues to be a goal at Introtech to fully research crash vehicles capabilities and safety attributes. An effective reconstruction must consider if and how a crash vehicle's safety and dynamic capabilities may have affected a particular crash.
Air Bag Statistics
A recent semi-annual report by NHTSA revealed that on average there were 1-2 fatalities per month attributed to front air bag deployment. Most of these fatalities occurred in older air bag equipped vehicles in the pre-1998 vintage. Those older air bag systems had less sophisticated sensors and had single deployment level inflators. Most of these reported deaths occurred to small children sitting in the front seat. However, the overall positive effect of front air bags far offset the 1-2 average deaths per month. As of July 1, 2007, NHTSA reported that front air deployments were credited with saving over 24, 000 lives over the time period that air bags have been installed in motor vehicles.
Rapid Response to a Crash in Southwest Ohio
Introtech's rapid response capability was recently demonstrated when we received a call of a significant commercial vehicle crash in Southwest Ohio. Due to on-board GPS technology in one of the vehicles, Introtech was notified within a few hours of the time of the crash. Our Southwest Ohio staff members, Ron Thayer and Terry McClanahan were immediately dispatched and arrived at the crash location within 1 hour of our notification. They began to gather critical information and evidence and inspected one of the crash vehicles and made arrangements to inspect the other vehicle. Introtech's operations officer, Dale D. Dent arrived later in the evening and began to conduct an additional follow up inspection of the commercial vehicle. This rapid response capability conducted by highly trained and experienced reconstructionists allows Introtech to gather critical data early in the investigation process and allows for an accurate early appraisal of the cause of the crash.
Introtech Receives Certificate of Appreciation
Each year Introtech supports a number of safety and philanthropic organizations. For the last number of years, Introtech has supported the efforts of Baldwin Wallace College in their child safety message program on their radio station WBWC. Introtech received a Certificate of Appreciation from Baldlwin Wallace College for our support of their efforts to reduce childhood injuries and deaths. Introtech and its staff take pride in our ability to determine how crashes and casualties occur, as well as our efforts to prevent these accidents from occuring.
July 2007 - On July 21, 2007 Mr. Terry McClanahan & Mr. Ron Thayer participated in a Pole Impact Validation Study in Cincinnati, Ohio. Those that attended was by invitation only.
John Daily, Jeremy Daily, Nathan Shigemura and others renowned in the area of crash reconstruction assembled to help guide the study. Reconstructionists in attendance were from police departments, Ohio Highway Patrol Reconstruction Units & crash reconstruction consulting companies. The event involved a total of eight (8) crashes consisting of 8 vehicles into 8 utility poles and took about 12 hours. Terry & Ron both were active participants and were assigned to teams that assured each test was done in a timely & thorough manner.
Each pole & vehicle was equipped with instrumentation to capture all necessary data. In addition an independent speed measuring device was used and each crash & vehicle was mapped with a total station. The impact speeds ranged from approximately 20 to 50 miles per hour. The data & analysis of each crash will be made available to each participant once it is assembled. Not only was the study a great learning experience but networking with other professionals in the field was invaluable and enjoyable.
June 2007 -Mr. Henry Lipian's professional membership in the American Society of Military Engineers was renewed for another year. This organization is dedicated to promote and facilitate engineering support for national security by developing and enhancing relationship and competencies among uniformed services, public and private sector engineers and related professionals.
June 2007 - James Crawford attended Jeff Muttart's Human Factors class in Massachusetts. This was a week long course that delved into the nitty gritty of the factors affecting perception-response time for drivers.
June 2007 - James Crawford also assisted Henry Lipian & Choya Hawn with teaching the Motor Vehicle Technology course held on June 6th.
May 2007 - Terry McClanahan completed the Bendix Airbrake Training School held in Huntington, Indiana. This training program covered the operation and maintenance of heavy duty vehicle air brake systems and components. The training not only covered the basic and advanced levels of the air brake systems but had the added benefit of being taught by the manufacturer, who makes many of the parts/components that are used in the system. A tour of the manufacturing plant allowed students to see how the components are made & assembled which allowed students to obtain a better understanding of how the parts function individually and as part of the system. Bendix Training School has an excellent reputation and many of the students are sent from large and or well known companies that have large fleets of vehicles or that manufacturer heavy vehicles. This training is paramount to any investigation or reconstruction involving tractors (trucks), trailers & buses that use air brakes.
Last updated: 6/7/2008