Læknablaðið - 15.03.1980, Page 45

LÆKNABLADIÐ
b5
were the heels very high but also the sandal
uppers might have caught in the pedals. ln
another case a lorry crashed into a ditch on
the drivers off side. He was wearing unlaced
heavy boots, far too large for him.
Examination of the soles of the footwear
may not only identify the driver but may also
help in the reconstruction of the accident, as
one may learn whether they were braking or
accelerating at the moment of impact. Fig 5
shows the clear impression of the accelerator
pedal upon the sole of the drivers shoe. The
Fig. 5. Sole of shoe showing imprint of acceierator
pedal.
driver was apparently late for work and tried
to pass the vehicle ahead of him when he
collided head on with a goods vehicle.
A comparison of marks left by contact with
the cabin upon the clothing and those by the
clothing upon the interior of the vehicle may
also provide indisputable evidence of the
position of the car occupants at the moment
of impact. This includes paint flakes upon the
clothing and an imprint of the weave of the
clothing, which may be left upon the metal
work of the cabin.
The injuries to motor cyclists and cyclists
are a particularly large and involved field of
traffic investigation and time does not permit
me to cover adequately the pathological
investigation of these accidents. All I wish to
say is that since the wearing of approved
helmets became mandatory there has been a
dramatic fall in motor cycle fatalities.
I shall now pass on to accidents in which
pedestrians are involved.
A pathologist frequently has a major role to
play in the reconstruction of fatal accidents
involving pedestrians, for there are rarely any
eye-witnesses. There may be plenty of wit-
nesses, however, who, on hearing the noise of
the impact, look round and visualise in their
own minds exactly what happened as if they
had in fact been genuine eye-witnesses. One
has only to read the honest accounts of
witnesses to realise how unreliable such state-
ments are. The factual evidence therefore
comes from the police investigation at the
scene and from the pathologist.
When a pedestrian is struck he may have
injuries related to:
(I) impact with the vehicle;
(II) impact with the roadway or verges;
(III) running over;
(IV) dragging;
(V) contact with a further vehicle
Impact with certain parts of the vehicle may
cause characteristic injuries. In the old days of
the honeycomb radiator the point of impact
might leave no doubt as to the relationship of
the vehicle with the deceased. Another char-
acteristic injury is the bumper-bar type frac-
ture of the legs below the knee, which occurs
when a pedestrian receives a frontal or side
irnpact.
When a person is struck by a vehicle he may
be thrown into the air and whilst in the air
rotate so that the injuries due to impact with
the vehicle are on the same side of the body as
those due to impact with the road. On the
other hand, he may be pushed over onto the
other side of his body.
When a pedestrian has been knocked down
he may be run over or may even have fallen
under a car and have only simple running-over
injuries. Running-over injuries may produce a
tyre pattern upon the skin or clothing. These
marks may be important as although not
capable — except in exceptional circumstan-
ces — of identifying a particular tyre positive-
ly, it may reveal the tread and therefore make
of tyre. In one case, following a party, a man
who was known to be on bad terms whith his
wife went to fetch his car and later came back
to the party to look for his wife, who was
eventually found dead on the road with a well-
defined tyre mark in dust upon her trunk. The
husband was naturally the number one suspect
but was excluded on the dust mark. If the
mark had been washed off in hospital before
the body was conveyed to the mortuary, the
husband might have been in considerable
difficulty. His wife’s blood alcohol was over
400 mgms. If one is doubtful concerning a
mark on clothing this may often be developed
by using infra-red photography.
In one case a man was found dead slumped