Newsletters

Engineering Analysis Provides Proof

Insurance companies are often faced with compensation claims from motor vehicle accidents where the extent of the accident and injuries are questionable, but difficult to defend. Gilmore Engineers has a vast experience in analysis of many types of accidents, equipment failures and personal injuries, and the analysis of such difficult cases has become a professional service.

Dr Duncan Gilmore recently presented a paper on the subject at the National CTP Insurance Fraud Conference. The presentation showed how an investigation based on sound scientific and engineering principles can be used to prove beyond reasonable doubt the forces acting during an accident. From the forces present an assessment of the degree of injuries sustained can be made to either substantiate or refute a claim.

A detailed example was given showing how an engineering analysis of damage resulting from a low speed rear-end collision can provide a full description of the forces undergone by vehicle occupants. The example illustrated how inspections of vehicle damage and the accident scene by a trained eye, and accounts from occupants and eyewitnesses can be used to reconstruct the accident. Engineering analysis can calculate the forces required to deform materials to the state seen in inspections. This relates the forces present during an accident to the extent of damage. These forces and the mass of the vehicles help determine the instantaneous acceleration experienced during the accident and how this would affect the occupants of the vehicles. This procedure has been very successful in providing strong evidence of the extent of injuries that could be incurred.