Product Liability
A large number of product liability cases result from traffic accident reconstructions and fire cause determinations but, of course, all kinds of products fail for one reason or another (or for many reasons in combination). 

Accident reconstructionists use their knowledge of how things work to determine how things fail. While the rest of the work force continues to become more and more specialized, a true accident reconstructionist is - by necessity - more of a generalist with a working knowledge of a large number of subjects.

Metal parts can fatigue and fail due to stress, poor design, poor materials, and other factors. A thorough metallurgical exam can often identify the exact point of failure at a microscopic level to confirm or deny the reconstructionist's determination of the mode of failure. An examination of the crystalline structure of the steel in a broken axle, for example, can often conclusively show whether the axle failed due to the collision or to metal fatigue. But there are usually other clues which also tell how and why the break occurred; the metallurgist, because of his/her specialty, sees one.

If a tire fails (like the Firestone tire shown at left), the reconstructionist  must do more than simply examine the tire. ALL the circumstances surrounding the accident must also be reviewed to determine why and how the tire failed, and if it caused - or was caused by - the accident.

A chemist can tell you that the tire's plies were not properly bonded during curing, but was that really enough to cause the failure?

By studying the "big picture", the reconstructionist has the advantage. In the recent Firestone debacle, where the dust has still not yet settled, most of the failures apparently occurred due to a variety of factors, including vehicle design.

Much progress has been made in the past 20 years in electronics safety. Where TV fires were once relatively common, for example, they are extremely rare today. In good designs, circuitry is typically well-protected from a fire-causing failure. But even the best design can fail if the device is not made properly or is improperly used. 

And sometimes, a fire is set intentionally in or around an electrical appliance to make it appear "accidental".  A specialist who examines only the fire-caused electrical damage in the appliance may be blithely unaware that other fire evidence points to another cause.

Circuits still fail accidentally, and even circuitry designed to prevent problems can cause them. Devices used as circuit protection, such as that commonly found in multi-outlet strips, for example, can themselves cause fires under certain circumstances, especially if the casing is made of a flammable plastic, as most are.

Why these devices fail, though, is often found by examining the electrical system of the structure and nearby structures as well - the details of which may be unknown to the specialists studying only the electronic properties of the devices they've been presented.

A successful analysis requires the gathering of the available facts, and the reconstructionist provides the insight which ties these facts together. In short, product liability is not really a specialty. In this field, it is the generalist who provides the comprehensive viewpoint.



In the photo at left, a construction worker was killed when he removed the cross bracing from this platform piled high with cinder blocks, then crawled under the platform to inspect the wall he was building.

The cross bracing, of course, was there to prevent a collapse of the platform.

In the photo at left, a man was injured when this coke bottle reportedly exploded at a grocery store. The bottle pieces were carefully gathered and meticulously reconstructed to recreate the bottle and its fracture pattern.

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