Forensic Biomechanics and Human Injury: Criminal and Civil Applications - An Engineering Approach provides a concise, comprehensive overview of human anatomy and the biomechanical factors involved in human injury. It describes the methodologies used to compute the various forces, stresses, and energies required to injure the human body. The book covers the theoretical mathematics behind understanding how injuries occur, classifying certain types of injuries, age and biomechanical factors, impact loading, injury investigation, and the importance of expert witnesses and testimony in civil and criminal cases. It contains a significant number of sizes of all the pertinent materials in the human body, classified by age, sex, and in some instances by race, as well as stress-strain curves and tables of the strengths of these materials. Forensic Biomechanics and Human Injury provides a valuable source of information with tools to help the professional determine the nature of injuries, understand the implications of accidents, and the calculations that go into determining such things for both civil and criminal investigations.

Over the past 25 years, Harold and Darren Franck have investigated hundreds of accidents involving vehicles of almost every shape, size, and type imaginable. In Mathematical Methods for Accident Reconstruction: A Forensic Engineering Perspective, these seasoned experts demonstrate the application of mathematics to modeling accident reconstructions involving a range of moving vehicles, including automobiles, small and large trucks, bicycles, motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles, and construction equipment such as hoists and cranes.

The book is anchored on basic principles of physics that may be applied to any of the above-named vehicles or equipment. Topics covered include the foundations of measurement, the various energy methods used in reconstruction, momentum methods, vehicle specifications, failure analysis, geometrical characteristics of highways, and softer scientific issues such as visibility, perception, and reaction.

The authors examine the fundamental characteristics of different vehicles, discuss the retrieval of data from crash data recorders, and review low speed impacts with an analysis of staged collisions. Finally, the book details standards and protocols for accident reconstruction.

Exploring a broad range of accident scenarios and also acknowledging the limits of applicability of the various physical methods employed, the breadth and depth of the book s coverage makes it a critical reference for engineers and scientists who perform vehicular accident reconstructions.

Ethical Standards in Forensic Science seeks to address the myriad practices in forensic science for a variety of evidence and analyses. The book looks at ethics, bias, what constitutes an expert in the field-both as a practitioner and to the court system-as well as the standards of practice as purported by the top forensic organizations. Coverage addresses evidence collection, chain of custody, real versus "junk" science, the damage questionable science can cause to a discipline and the judicial process, testing methods, report writing, and expert witness testimony in civil and criminal cases in a court of law. The authors' background in engineering provides a unique perspective on a variety of evidence and testing methods. As such, in addition to coverage the range of evidence and topics cited in the 2009 National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Report, they address numerous challenges that have arisen specifically in forensic engineering cases-their specific area of expertise. Numerous case example are provided to illustrate the inherent danger of bias, inexact science, or expert witnesses taking dangerous and harmful liberties on the stand. Students, lawyers, and professionals in all forensic disciplines will find this a refreshing and accessible approach to elucidate the problem and offer suggestions for reform and change for the good of the entire profession.

Forensic Biomechanics and Human Injury: Criminal and Civil Applications - An Engineering Approach provides a concise, comprehensive overview of human anatomy and the biomechanical factors involved in human injury. It describes the methodologies used to compute the various forces, stresses, and energies required to injure the human body. The book covers the theoretical mathematics behind understanding how injuries occur, classifying certain types of injuries, age and biomechanical factors, impact loading, injury investigation, and the importance of expert witnesses and testimony in civil and criminal cases. It contains a significant number of sizes of all the pertinent materials in the human body, classified by age, sex, and in some instances by race, as well as stress-strain curves and tables of the strengths of these materials. Forensic Biomechanics and Human Injury provides a valuable source of information with tools to help the professional determine the nature of injuries, understand the implications of accidents, and the calculations that go into determining such things for both civil and criminal investigations.

Forensic engineers often specialize in a particular area such as structures, fires, or accident reconstruction. However, the nature of the work often requires broad knowledge in the interrelated areas of physics, chemistry, biomechanics, and engineering. Covering cases as varied as assessment of workplace accidents to the investigation of Halliburton in the BP oil spill, Forensic Engineering Fundamentals is a comprehensive introduction to the many diverse facets of the field that forensic engineers must be familiar with in their practice. Topics include The role of the forensic engineer Structures, structural distress, and the importance of standards and codes The failure of appliances-the cause of many water- or fire-related losses Slips, trips, and falls of pedestrians and the accessibility of walking surfaces Industrial incidents involving loss of equipment, injury and loss of life, as well as OSHA and MSHA regulations Standard accident reconstruction involving vehicles Electrical incidents and lightning and the effect of electrical energy on the human body Analysis of fires with an emphasis on thermodynamics, testing, and simulation Carbon monoxide incidents and common fire suppression and warning systems, as well as the various NFPA codes Probability and uncertainty, with some basic calculations available to the forensic engineer Applicable standards and protocols that have developed over the years to protect life and property Offering readers real-world experience drawn from the authors' 25 years of experience, this volume assists newcomers to the field in understanding the engineering basics underlying the cases they will encounter in their practice. It also serves as a reliable reference for those confronted with issues outside their area of expertise.