Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 22, 1993 TAG: 9311220022
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CINDY CLAYTON LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Long
If your headlights weren't on just before you hit a tree, they can tell.
And by analyzing samples of hair, they can tell who was driving a car that struck and killed someone.
They are the three members of the Department of Motor Vehicles' Crash Investigation Team - highway engineer Dave MacAllister, psychologist Jan Carnes and state Trooper Rick Weyant.
Their goal is to save lives. Last year, 839 people died on the state's highways. In 1969, the worst year, 1,305 people died.
The team has helped convict drunken drivers of manslaughter, changed the face of highways and helped push through safety legislation.
Drivers who have been saved by seat belts can thank them. The team did extensive studies on the belts and child safety seats and found both really do save lives. Laws requiring them were passed.
The team's solutions for safety sometimes have been as simple as changing highway-sign wording. One accident led to a simple, but important, change in signs prohibiting crossovers on interstate medians.
In 1974, an elderly man was going west on Interstate 64 just outside Richmond in a pickup carrying furniture.
He realized he should have been going east.
He spotted a gravel crossover in the median and a sign that said, "Emergency and Authorized Vehicles Only." He swerved over to the crossover just as a tractor-trailer carrying thousands of gallons of gasoline was passing in the left eastbound lane.
The tanker clipped the rear of the pickup, rolled over and hit a guardrail. Sparks ignited the spilling fuel, starting a large brush fire.
The elderly man lived, but the truck driver and a passenger died.
MacAllister, the engineer, looked at the highway sign. He and Carnes, the psychologist, reasoned that the word "emergency" probably led the man to believe he was authorized to use the crossover because he thought he had an emergency.
The team recommended such signs be changed to read "Authorized Vehicles Only."
MacAllister, 46, joined the team in 1974. He looks at the dynamics of the highway. Poor visibility, road signs, irregular pavement and other hazards are notorious, he said, for causing accidents.
MacAllister said there is a tendency for drivers to fudge the truth. Sometimes all it takes is a little prodding to help them "remember" what actually happened. Sometimes you have to just bluff.
That's where Weyant, 32, comes in. He joined the team in August and, like his predecessors, is on loan to the team from the state police for about three years.
A trooper for nine years, his job is to look at the physical evidence - the skid marks on the pavement, the star burst on the windshield, the burn marks on the seat belts.
This evidence tells the truth about an accident. If a driver tried to stop or tried to miss a tree, the skid marks will show it.
Physical evidence can be used to find out who was driving if a car's occupants are thrown clear in an accident. Hair samples are taken from the windshield if marks show the driver's head hit it.
If not, fingerprints can be lifted from the steering wheel. They can't be lifted by dusting because of small grooves in the wheel. Instead, state troopers ignite glue, put it in the car, then seal the car. The vapors caused by the glue raise the prints on the wheel.
"It's like a puzzle that somebody's dropped on the ground, and you've got to go out and pick up the pieces," Carnes said.
Her job as psychologist is to analyze drivers. She asks what they may have been thinking before, during and after a collision.
Did the driver have a fight with his girlfriend, or was he on his way to propose marriage? Did he have a bad day at work? Was he preoccupied with the kids?
Carnes, 30, joined the team eight years ago. She works part-time and teaches at Virginia Commonwealth University's Transportation Safety Training Center.
She said the hardest part of the job is interviewing drivers and families who have lost loved ones. "I've been in tears almost when we've walked out of the places. They're hurting so much," she said.
She once had to interview an ambulance driver whose ambulance had been hit by a car. After rolling on its side, the ambulance was hit in the rear by another car. Both emergency medical technicians in the back were killed.
The driver still can't live a day without thinking of his co-workers.
Sometimes the team stumbles onto the bizarre. The strangest crash the members can remember happened a few years ago in Charlottesville.
It was late at night and seven drunken teen-agers were in a pickup, five in the cab and two in the bed. The driver had the wheel and one of the passengers had her foot on the gas pedal.
They lost control and hit a tree. Five people died, one in the bed and four in the cab.
State troopers and the Crash Investigation Team found faulty brakes. Barely distinguishable on the shattered windshield was a rejection sticker.
The team testified against the teen-age driver, who was convicted of manslaughter.
Often frustrating is the fact that the team can't make it to every crash site. Now, MacAllister said, the team is looking into about 10 cases.
The Crash Investigation Team was formed in 1971 under the Virginia Highway Safety Division. It became a part of the Division of Motor Vehicles in 1983. Its annual operating budget is $75,000 to $100,000.
by CNB