FORENSIC BIOMECHANICS – TRANSDISCIPLINARY APPROACH IN THE COURT OF LAW

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Engin, Ali Erkan

Affiliations: University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL, USA

Abstract: The judicial systems of the United States and Canada very frequently utilize expert witnesses in engineering as well as most disciplines of science. Only in the last three decades biomechanists have been recognized and admitted to the courts as expert witnesses to provide opinions in the forensic biomechanics field. Thanks to the efforts of a few individuals, the science of biomechanics is now well accepted by the officers of the court systems of North America. Biomechanists possess the combined knowledge of engineering mechanics, biology, human anatomy, and physiology that makes it possible for them to reconstruct and analyze accidents of all kinds. In spite of the fact that the most obvious utilization of forensic biomechanics is in the area of analyses of injury mechanisms associated with motor vehicle accidents, there are other areas such as occupational, sports and recreational, slip/trip and fall accidents, and various product liability cases where forensic biomechanics expertise is required. In this paper, one litigation case is presented with some technical details and several other cases from different areas are briefly outlined. Because of obvious reasons, cases are presented in a generic format without referring to a particular company or organization.

Keywords: biomechanics, forensic biomechanics, ATV, helmet, head impact

Journal: Journal of Integrated Design & Process Science, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 75-85, 2005