Making sense of the senseless: UHP uses 3-D laser technology to solve deadly crashes


16 photos
Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY — Deadly crashes are devastating to families and friends and sometimes can be extremely difficult for investigators to solve.

Nobody knows this more than Sgt. Randall Akers, who has reconstructed and analyzed hundreds of crashes in his nearly 17 years with Utah Highway Patrol.

"I've just come to the realization that when it's your time, it's your time," Akers said. "Unfortunately, we're the ones who have to go and try to figure out what happened when it's someone's time."

Fortunately for Akers and others in Utah Highway Patrol's Multi-Disciplinary Accident Investigation Team, they're equipped with the tools to solve the most perplexing fatal crashes.

He deployed a FARO scanner at a mock crash site to show how troopers get their answers.

The device uses lasers and a camera to create a 3-D image of the crash scene that investigators can analyze later.

"It takes all the data points, which will be more than a million typically in this situation, and it just overlays them," Akers explained. "It'll pick up everything as it goes around."

The 3-D image is so detailed, Akers said he has used it before to check a tire size on a black-on-black tire.

In the mock example, keys, a phone and a flashlight were placed randomly on the outskirts of the crash scene.

Back at the office, Akers had no trouble locating the items on the 3-D image.

"There's your phone right there," Akers said after a few seconds. "The yellow that you can see right there — that's your keys."

(Photo: Steve Breinholdt, KSL-TV)
(Photo: Steve Breinholdt, KSL-TV)

The capability comes in handy regularly for accident scene investigators, who have to document everything from skid marks to debris involved in crashes that didn't come from either of the vehicles.

"We can figure out skid distances, we can figure out movement after impact, which helps us understand speeds before impact," Akers said. "We actually use this for shootings, stabbings, murder investigations — all that kind of stuff as well. It would work very well for plane crashes."

Akers said the point to laser reconstruction is eliminating the possibility of human error and missed details, while identifying key factors in serious crashes.

"Similar to the body camera issue that's out there right now, if I use this FARO scanner, it shows everything that exists at the time; it relieves me of being the filter," Akers said. "The equipment that we use for surveying is good equipment; it's accurate, it works, but I'm the filter. I decide while I'm standing at the scene 'this is important, this is important, this is important,' and I might miss something being a human being, whereas with this, it picks up everything and somebody else can come back and look at it later and it still exists just as it did at the time we were there."

In the end, Akers said an analysis of the reconstruction yields answers that are important for investigators and families alike.

(Photo: Celeste Tholen Rosenlof)
(Photo: Celeste Tholen Rosenlof)

"Were they able to see that there was a hazard, were they impaired and how did that impairment affect what occurred at the crash? Did they fall asleep? Were they distracted? All those things come into play as questions first," Akers said. "We need to come to the conclusion of what was the primary contributor, what traffic law was violated, why did this crash occur? And that's what we're after when we go out to those scenes."

Akers noted investigators have to be unbiased in uncovering and reporting facts, but he also acknowledged the satisfaction of answering unsolved questions to some of life's most incomprehensible tragedies.

"We know they have families, they have friends, and we do our best to try to make sure they get some answers," Akers said. "That's kind of what we're trying to do."

Photos

Most recent Utah stories

Related topics

Utah
Andrew Adams

    STAY IN THE KNOW

    Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast