We’re Only Human: Adding Context To Accidents Using A Human-Factors Analysis (CLM Magazine)

We’re Only Human: Adding Context To Accidents Using A Human-Factors Analysis

  Friday, December 4th, 2020 Source: CLM Magazine

Motor vehicle crashes are often the result of an omission—a missed cue by a driver that leads to an unfortunate outcome. That is why bewildered drivers often say “I didn’t see him” when they deal with the consequences of a mistake on the road.

Post-accident, that quartet of words challenges an attorney tasked with mounting a defense for a driver charged with a crash because juries are often unsympathetic to someone who makes what would appear to be a glaring error that causes injuries and property damage.

To the jury, it is hard to understand how a driver could overlook an obvious hazard if he was paying attention. Despite the difficulties defending an at-fault client, science, in the form of a human-factors analysis, offers insight into how someone can make such an error despite being a vigilant driver.

In a standard accident reconstruction, the investigating engineer will recreate the crash from the point of view of the driver, and will account for obvious visual obstructions.

A human-factors expert will expand that perspective to include the scene’s sights, sounds, and surroundings, as well as the driver’s mental state and activities, because a driver-failure investigation requires a comprehensive understanding of the pre-crash situation in order to determine when the driver first could have reasonably detected the event.

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