Front & Center: Truth seeker

Crash investigator Jarrod Carter’s motto is “veritas, fidelitas, claritas” – Latin for truth, faithfulness and clarity.

“We want to be able to find the truth by being faithful to the evidence,” he explained, “then present our findings with clarity.”

Carter’s former Riverside High School teachers would be impressed.

“Actually, they’d be shocked I even went to college, much less earned a doctorate in bioengineering and started my own company.

“Back then,” he recalls, “I was interested in two things: football and girls. Teachers would tell my parents I seemed smart, but lacked focus.”

That changed when Carter met WSU alumnus John Habberstad, who regaled the teenager with tales of crash investigations.

Carter, the owner of Liberty Lake-based Origin Forensics, recently recounted his unlikely transformation from jock to expert witness, discussed which vehicles are safest and why learning an unpleasant truth is better than never knowing for sure.

S-R: Where did you grow up?

Carter: I was born in Pecos, Texas, but we moved around a lot – Alaska, Singapore, Montana, Wyoming – because my stepfather worked in the oil fields. Eventually, we settled in Elk.

S-R: What was your first job?

Carter: We raised cattle, so I worked on our farm. I also bucked bales and moved irrigation pipe for nearby dairy farmers and later worked for a Deer Park truss manufacturer.

S-R: Did you envision a career?

Carter: I thought about going into the military. Then I met Dr. Habberstad during a party at his lake cabin, and he started telling me about reconstructing car crashes and running crash tests, which appealed to my sense of exploration. So I decided to go to college.

S-R: Was WSU a change of pace?

Carter: My first semester was really rough. Then something inside me clicked, and it was all A’s and B’s. During summers, I worked full time for Dr. Habberstad.

S-R: What did you do after graduation?

Carter: My mentor told me I’d needed to get a Ph.D. if I wanted to do what he did on a national level. So I enrolled at the University of Washington. And while earning my doctorate, I got to know Dr. Habberstad’s clients, work on cases, and start building a reputation. In 2003 – the year after I graduated – he turned things over to me on the condition that I give him an office and support staff.

S-R: What’s a key lesson he taught you?

Carter: That in this business, finding the truth is very important. But so is having the guts to make sure your clients understand what the truth actually is, regardless of whether it’s good or bad for them.

S-R: Can you give an example?

Carter: An attorney brought us an intersection-collision case two or three years after the incident, and we were able to locate the remains of both vehicles – one in Yakima, the other in Bonner County. We downloaded the crash data off his client’s car and established that she was going 45 to 50 mph in a 25-mph zone at the time of the crash. It’s not what the attorney wanted to hear, but his reaction was, “Well, at least now I know.”

S-R: How much do you charge clients?

Carter: My hourly rate is $320, and my engineering staff cost $150 to $175. Our bills can range from a few hundred dollars to more than $100,000.

S-R: Was your business successful from the start?

Carter: Early on, I had a lot of self-doubt. Also, the birth of my first child added another layer of pressure – worrying about providing for my family. But my wife, my family and friends, my staff and my pastor got me through that tough time.

S-R: How has the business evolved since then?

Carter: One of the biggest changes has been the addition of our rapid-response mobile evidence-preservation unit – a van loaded with the latest technology to document evidence after a crash. We have a drone for surveying and mapping, 3-D laser scanners and vehicle dynamics instrumentation, plus black-box imaging, which allows us to download crash-data recorders from passenger cars and commercial trucks.

S-R: How far afield have you taken the van?

Carter: North Dakota.

S-R: Does the economy affect your business?

Carter: Yes. Our revenue dropped during the recession, when auto manufacturers were hit hard. That taught me the importance of diversifying my client base. Now I also work with trucking and insurance companies. About 50 percent of our clients are from outside the region.

S-R: What’s been your most high-profile investigation?

Carter: The one that will resonate locally is the Ryan Holyk case. (Note: The 15-year-old was killed while riding his bicycle on May 23, 2014, and crossing a Spokane Valley intersection late at night against the traffic light. His family’s attorneys and experts insisted a Spokane County sheriff’s patrol car traveling 60 mph and operating without flashing lights or siren struck Holyk’s head.) The incident was investigated by law enforcement and outside experts, who all concluded the vehicle had not struck Mr. Holyk. The Sheriff’s Office asked my team to review the case, which we did for free, and we didn’t see any evidence that the cruiser had struck Mr. Holyk. But if it had struck Mr. Holyk at 60 mph, there should be obvious physical evidence. So I went back and looked at photos of the bumper, as well as photos of Mr. Holyk’s baseball cap, which I hadn’t seen before, and discovered a very subtle pattern on the cruiser’s pit bumper that turned out to match the adjustable band on the back of the cap. That evidence was a clear indication the cruiser had struck Mr. Holyk.

S-R: Most of what you investigate involves death or injuries. Does that weigh on you?

Carter: The Holyk case weighed on me, because what I eventually found contradicted my original opinion. But if nobody had found the cap imprint, there would be a dispute in the community about what happened. At least I helped provide some resolution.

S-R: What do you like most about your job?

Carter: That it’s not the same thing every day.

S-R: What do you like least?

Carter: Trying to get clients to pay their bills.

S-R: What has this job taught you about yourself?

Carter: It’s taught me humility. When you’re in a position of constantly looking at evidence and trying to tease out what happened, you run the risk of becoming a know-it-all. But being arrogant doesn’t help me or anybody else.

S-R: Are there misperceptions about your industry?

Carter: (laugh) The popularity of TV shows like “CSI: Las Vegas” lead people to believe what my team does is very sexy, and that we can reach conclusions after looking at evidence for five seconds. My wife won’t watch those shows with me, because I’ll sit there going, “That’s wrong” or “That’s way more sophisticated than anything we can do today.”

S-R: When you tell someone what you do, what questions do they ask?

Carter: Which cars are safest?

S-R: What do you tell them?

Carter: Drive the biggest, heaviest vehicle you can get your hands on affordably, because mass wins. (laugh)

S-R: What should people do if they’re in an accident?

Carter: Before they’re in an accident, they should get a dashboard camera that documents everything straight ahead. Mine cost $250, records in five-minute blocks, and will save the video if there’s a crash.

S-R: Has this career changed the way you drive?

Carter: Yes. I drive much more defensively, always looking around and paying attention to my mirrors, because you can never predict what other drivers are going to do.