Four years ago, a head-on collision killed a 55-year-old La Honda man on Highway 84 in Redwood City.
A Florida man traveling in an Acura crossed the center line as he tried to pass a truck and hit a Volkswagen Beetle driven by the La Honda man.
These were the facts that investigators from a specialized branch of the California Highway Patrol examined as they dissected the anatomy of a fatal crash and determined what really happened that day in April 2004.
Reconstructing the scene using cutting-edge technology and testing another car identical to the Acura, they debunked the Florida man's claim that his brakes were "fading" and that he had pulled on his hand brake to avoid the Volkswagen Beetle.
The unit, called the Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team – MAIT for short – investigates major collisions, usually involving fatalities or numerous injuries. Investigators reconstruct crash scenes, interview witnesses and survivors and, sometimes, test vehicles resembling those involved in a crash.
Most recently, investigators from the CHP's Valley Division helped the Sacramento Police Department in its investigation of a high-profile head-on collision that killed four people in South Land Park in March 2007.
Accused drunken driver Roberto Vellanoweth, a prominent Republican who was on the state optometry board, is currently on trial for vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. On Wednesday, Vellanoweth said in his court testimony that he tried a defensive-driving maneuver to avoid the collision.
CHP and Sacramento police officials say they could not divulge details about the Vellanoweth case because the trial is ongoing, but last week, in an interview with The Bee, MAIT investigators provided an insight into the work they do.
"Most of what we do is rooted in trigonometry and physics," said Lt. David Fox, who coordinates the program, which consists of six teams statewide, each with four to eight people.
Physics and scientific books line the shelves of Fox's office.
They include those by Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein, which he has read, cover to cover.
Fox and another veteran MAIT investigator, Sgt. Dean Reichenberg, are modest about their ability to handle math formulas and complex equations. They said modern technology has helped them expedite the collection of data and produce more accurate results.
In the past, investigators got down on their hands and knees with a measuring tape and a camera to re-create a scene, they said. Now, they have high-definition, three-dimensional laser scanners, obtained through a grant in 2007. Every tree, every utility pole and every skid mark is replicated in a virtual world on a computer screen.
"We can make the scene look the same as it was," Reichenberg said.
An example was the Redwood City case, where MAIT's expertise was not sought until August 2006, after a mistrial was declared. Without the advanced technology, Reichenberg said it might have been harder to find out exactly what happened.
Tony Grissim, forensic account manager for Leica Geosystems, manufacturer of the scanner, said each scanner costs about $160,000. CHP has six. Grissim described how it works.
"It first takes a 360-degree panoramic photograph and then makes millions of measurements so investigators can understand the physical relationship between the evidence," Grissim said.
"You have to figure out what particular environment you want to show, and based on that you determine where to place your scanner," Reichenberg said, explaining that the scanner targets common points based on trigonometric calculations.
Simulation software then allows investigators to adjust variables inside the environment that the scanner has captured onto the computer.
Variables include the vehicle's direction of travel, how much pressure was applied on the brakes and how fast the vehicle was going.
A vehicle's speed can be calculated by measuring the length of skid marks using Isaac Newton's law of motion.
In the Redwood City case, skid marks generated by the computer matched skid marks scanned from the scene in a scenario where the driver did not pull his hand brake.
Adjusting the variables that affect the virtual cars on the laptop screen, Fox explained that had the driver pulled his hand brake as he said he did, the impact on the Volkswagen Beetle would have been lessened.
MAIT also investigated a January 2001 incident where a truck driver rammed his vehicle into the state Capitol; a 2003 crash where an elderly man killed 10 people and injured 65 at a Santa Monica farmers market; and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge collapse in April 2007, when a tanker truck fire melted a tangle of freeways known as the MacArthur Maze.
Three-dimensional visuals generated by the scanner helped state Transportation Department officials quickly assess damage, such as which beams to replace, CHP officials said. Roads are also cleared faster after a crash because of the scanner's ability to acquire data efficiently, they said.
"These guys are the equivalent of DNA experts who help a crime scene investigation involving a murder," CHP spokesman Tom Marshall said.
Call The Bee's Chelsea Phua, (916) 321-1132.
