There is always something somebody could have done differently.
Although Jim Henderson is best known to us as a scrupulously fair IAM Examiner, in his day job he has been a police officer for nearly twenty years. His work has mainly involved roads policing but since 2012 he has been a member of the Thames Valley Police Force’s Forensic Collision Investigation Unit.
Last year, Jim gave a presentation to members of the Banbury and Oxford groups about his work. It was a fascinating and – inevitably rather alarming – insight into what he and his colleagues have to deal with when they attend a road traffic collision. Although part of the Thames Valley force, Jim’s team works with Hampshire Constabulary, which includes the Isle of Wight. He told us that, on every ferry crossing to the island, a space is kept free for an emergency vehicle. He also told us, somewhat unnervingly, that he was actually on call that evening.
In an average year, Jim’s team deals with 120 fatal collisions. He stressed that he and his colleagues avoid using the word ‘accident’ as it can imply that nobody was at fault and that it was ‘just one of those things'. As he points out, ‘You'll appreciate, there is always something somebody could have done differently!’
The unit attends all KSI collisions – that is, collisions in which someone is killed or seriously injured. Jim explained that, in fact, cases of serious injury are often the more important, as they are likely to involve significant insurance claims where detailed evidence is needed to prove criminal or civil liability. In essence, their job is to identify, record and preserve evidence to show what happened.
It hardly came as a surprise to hear that physical evidence at the scene tends to be much more reliable and accurate than that provided by witnesses. When asked to describe what they saw, it is all too easy for witnesses to miss things that they weren’t expecting. Equally likely – and human – is for a witness to have ‘seen’ what they expected to see rather than what actually took place in front of them. Jim demonstrated the truth of this by asking us to recall details of a video he had shown in his introduction. He also showed how difficult it can be to accurately estimate the speed of an oncoming vehicle.
All of which means that physical clues are more likely to give the true picture. Jim and his colleagues are careful to examine scratches and gouges on the road. Tyre marks, and the condition of the tyres themselves, can reveal a lot – including whether a car has been moved into a less compromising position after the crash. Well established sources of information – the position of debris on the road, the condition of seatbelts after an collision, even filaments in the headlights – are now being added to by data stored digitally. The vehicle’s Engine Control Unit (ECU), the Satnav and a dashboard camera can all provide invaluable information.
As for the causes of collisions, where should we look? Well, there are environmental factors – the weather, the light conditions or the design of the road itself. Sometimes the vehicle itself is the cause – a mechanical fault or the failure of a component, maybe. More and more collisions are due to faulty tyres; don’t just check the tread, take time to regularly look for bulges or bumps on your tyres, especially if you have hit the kerb recently.
But there’s no getting around it: the overwhelming majority of collisions are the fault of bad driving. As advanced drivers, we can be reasonably sure we won’t be caught speeding, driving under the influence, not wearing a seatbelt, driving while using a mobile, or simply being inexperienced drivers. All of these are amongst the most common causes of road collisions. But what about these? Being careless or unnecessarily aggressive, failing to look, losing concentration, misjudging distance or speed…. Sound familiar?
All in all, Jim’s talk was a reminder that observation and concentration are among the most important skills we learn on the advanced driving course. It is vital that we continue to practise them whenever we drive.