Course good for officers, not so good for bear

Thu., March 8, 2007

By Amy Cannata amyc@spokesman.com

“Thorny” wasn’t in the best position for crash testing.

Perched on top of an old Honda, he flew high into the air Wednesday morning when the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office ran an old Cadillac into his vehicle for a crash analysis course.

But the pink stuffed bear (named after course instructor sheriff’s Detective David Thornburg) landed unharmed, faring better than live crash test dummy sheriff’s Detective Don Manning.

Manning, decked out in multiple protective vests, a neck brace, helmet and goggles, avoided serious injury when he gunned the Caddie into the Honda, but did slightly hurt his leg.

Anything in the name of science, said Manning.

The staged wreck was the culmination of a three-week course on crash analysis designed to provide Washington and Idaho law enforcement officers with the tools they need to determine fault, cause and other details during accident investigations.

“After this class, they can start testifying as an expert witness,” said Thornburg.

Participants included officers from the Spokane, Yakima and Post Falls police departments and the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.

“I will definitely look at collisions a lot differently than I used to,” said Spokane police Officer Marie Rosenthal.

Rosenthal said she has a new appreciation for seat belts and an increased awareness of how much damage and injury crashes can inflict.

Investigating crashes is a methodical job.

“We always start at the end and work our way backwards,” said Thornburg.

Officers use surveying equipment and tape measures. They analyze skid marks, inspect crumple zones and plug their figures into physics, trigonometry and calculus formulas to determine what happened.

Thornburg said one technique he uses called crush analysis has been labeled “voodoo science” by some, but when used properly it’s highly accurate.

“Last summer when we did this, we came up with a speed with just a half-mile difference,” he said of the comparison between the calculations and the actual speed of the vehicle.

The key is using it in the right kind of crash. While it works for side impact collisions, it doesn’t necessarily work in situations where a car slides underneath another vehicle.

Getting crash investigations right is serious business.

About 600 people die in auto crashes each year in Washington, said Thornburg. Nationwide, the casualty total is about 40,000 people each year.

And little Thorny?

After surviving the collision, he met an undignified end. An officer moving the Cadillac away from the crash backed over the toy bear.

Ouch.

Time for a new investigation?

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