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John Daley ReportingTechnology, we've seen it change every part of our lives. It's also changing police investigations in ground-breaking ways.
A violent car crash begins and ends in mere seconds, but advances in digital imaging allows police to replay the event and see a crash or crime scene from every angle.
In Magna last summer a devastating collision sent two women to the hospital.
Witness Description: "She's coming down here. Bang! Flying down the road."
Police immediately began putting the pieces together. The white car was heading eastbound on 31st South when it slammed into the red vehicle. The driver of the maroon car, 46 year-old Michelle Williams, a mother from Magna, died.
The other driver, 32-year-old Candy Housley of Murray, may face criminal charges.
Based on their experience and the fact the cars traveled upwards of 150 feet upon impact, police believe speed was a factor.
Lt. Rod Norton, Salt Lake County Sheriff's Dept.: "Certainly based on all the initial information, this suggests that would be highly preventable."
But how can they be sure? Precision measurements, that's how, using digital cameras. The county's Major Accident Team documents skid marks, scrapes and gouges, debris and fluid trails, the mangled cars.
Deputy Mike Schoenfeld, Investigator, Major Accident Team: "What we're looking for is speeds. We want to know how fast this car was going and how fast that car was going when they interacted with each other."
That's just the beginning. Back at the Sheriff's Department every data point is entered, every digital photo assigned a number. It's called photo grammetry. The computer crunches the info and the big picture, even in 3-D, starts to emerge.
This kind of technology is getting less expensive and saving a lot of time at the scene.
Deputy Mike Anderson, Investigator, Major Accident Team: "This is the key to our analysis of what happened. This is huge to us."
It helped police investigate the death of bicyclist Josie Johnson, struck from behind and killed by an SUV. They're even using it on murder scenes, like a shooting in West Valley City where they mapped out shots fired from a parking lot, felling the victim near an apartment complex.
The technological arsenal police can deploy also includes a radio-controlled mini-chopper. First pioneered by UHP it too is equipped with a digital camera. Send it up in the air at a crime or accident scene instead of using a bucket truck and you can see the aftermath from every angle.
For police all this technology has a very human impact. It can provide answers.
Deputy Mike Anderson, Investigator, Major Accident Team: "These cases are very important. And peoples lives are affected forever out of these. In this case here someone's life was taken."
In that Magna accident, investigators now believe the driver of the white car was going more than twice the speed limit when she ran the red light. This technology, pioneered here in Utah, is now being used by police agencies all over the country.
