State police try to learn lifesaving lessons from fatal wrecks

VIRGINIA BEACH

It was morning rush hour on Interstate 264 when the sport utility vehicle crossed into oncoming traffic and slammed into a truck.

The front of the small SUV was crushed inward, and part of the truck's front end was nearly flattened. Both drivers were taken to a hospital; one of them died there.

Questions about the cause of the accident fell to Sgt. Chuck Plaza and the rest of the Virginia State Police Fatal Crash Reconstruction Team.

As the troopers arrived at the crash site recently, they walked around the wreckage and took note of where the vehicles ended up, how they were crushed and the marks they left on the road.

It's a scenario that happens dozens of times a year across the state, especially around holidays, Plaza said.

July Fourth is the deadliest holiday for the state's highways, State Police reported this week that 12 people were killed between Thursday and Sunday.

Last year, 18 people were killed during the holiday stretch; in 2006, 22 people died.

Plaza, one of two leaders of the crash team in the State Police 5th Division, said he and his investigators find three main factors in fatal crashes: alcohol, speed and failure to wear seat belts.

Reconstructing a crash helps them figure out how and why it happened.

"It's important to find out what caused the actual crash because we get a lot of data from that," Plaza said.

Troopers go to high schools and Navy bases to talk about the dangers of driving drunk, speeding, and not wearing seat belts, he said. They base their talks on what they learn during reconstructions.

"We want to get the information out to everyone so they know what to look for and know how to behave out there," Plaza said.

By studying skid marks and using computer calculations, investigators can figure out how fast a driver was going. Knowing the laws of physics helps troopers figure out how the force of impact can push a car up or down, depending on its weight.

In the case of the SUV and the truck, the driver who caused the crash likely suffered a medical condition, Plaza said. The driver of the truck didn't have life-threatening injuries.

But Plaza's team examined the wreckage and learned that neither driver had been wearing their seat belts.

If a driver is belted in during a high-speed crash, a telltale burn mark will be left on the belt, Plaza said. The belt also could be stretched or pinched.

They examined tire marks left in the grassy median. Because they were continuous, Plaza surmised that the driver hadn't tried to hit the brakes; he may have lost consciousness.

During the reconstruction, the crash investigators spray-painted orange marks at each end of a tire mark on the concrete road and took measurements to help calculate the speed and direction the vehicles were pushed during impact.

Troopers stood at each corner of both vehicles while another trooper used an electronic field-measuring device to digitally photograph each point. When they finished, they hooked the device to a computer on which software took the photographed points and turned them into a map of the crash scene.

Measurements can be taken from the diagram to calculate speed, Plaza said. The software can factor in weather conditions, road design - even the make and model of the vehicles involved.

Reconstruction investigations can take up to two months to complete, depending on what troopers find out from their initial work and from examining the vehicles and interviewing witnesses.

Interviews with friends, relatives and others help investigators know what the person may have been doing before the impact. Eyewitness accounts of the crash reveal whether drivers were swerving or weaving before impact.

"We'll backtrack the crash," Plaza said. "The crash happened today, but we may go back a week prior to the crash to see what that individual was doing that week before because something back then may have played into the current crash that we're working today."

Information about the causes of crashes also is used in prosecutions, Plaza said.

"Another reason we reconstruct is to see if there's any design problems with the roadway itself," Plaza said.

"We're looking to find out why the crash happened and if there's any preventable way to keep the crash from happening in the future."

Staff writer Jim Washington contributed to this report.

Cindy Clayton, (757) 446-2377, cindy.clayton@pilotonline.com