BRUNSWICK

Two cars sit crumpled, front ends smashed in, and a door twisted open and roof ripped off where firefighters had to extricate drivers who died from injuries in tragic seconds. Now it is the job of a crash reconstruction specialist to let the scene, cars and instruments within them tell police what happened.

That was the scenario that played out at Brunswick Landing on Wednesday, for those attending live crash testing as part of the National Association of Professional Accident Reconstruction Specialists-hosted joint annual conference in Portland. Conferencegoers made the short drive from Portland to Brunswick on Wednesday for the testing, that allowed them to look at crush damage and energy, and the science and physics behind it.

There are tools that allow accident reconstruction specialists to do this work and hours of training to understand how to use them, the science of a crash and how to process a crash scene. It is one thing to gather all these skills and knowledge, but priceless to see it in action in the field.

Tom Garrepy, a lieutenant with the Bruns- wick Police Department and a crash reconstruction specialist, explained that crush is what happens to two vehicles when they collide. The University of Tulsa’s Crash Reconstruction Research Consortium provided the live crash testing, while volunteers from local law enforcement agencies forensically mapped the vehicles.

“There’s nothing better than live crash testing,” Garrepy said. “The guys can see it as it is, they see what happens when the cars collide. The training we get out of this is invaluable.”

First two cars crashed, with half of the front of each car hitting the other causing them to spin. As conference participants — most current or former law enforcement — watched from behind Jersey barriers, the cars were pulled simultaneously by Garrepy’s truck using cables and a remote controlled hitch, guided by pulleys screwed into the pavement. The cars made contact at 39 miles per hour and the impact pushed the them off the ground. Next they crashed a car into stationary car at about 50 miles an hour.

No skid marks

One of the biggest misnomers Garrepy finds is that because there are no skid marks, “we can’t do anything with it, which with today’s technology is just absolutely not true. We have the black box technology in a lot of the vehicles, which state police can download for us,” providing information on speed, throttle, brake, application and seat belt usage.

“It’s absolutely amazing and it’s getting more technical every year,” he said.

“We have the capabilities of using governmental crash test data to come up what we refer to as stiffness co-efficients,” which can be used to solve the puzzle of a crash, said Chuck Veppert, president of NAPARS. It’s like telling people, “this works, believe me.”

“But it’s always better if you can say this works, we show it to you, but we actually show you how it happens, measure it and we prove that it works,” said Veppert, who used to work on highway patrol in Ohio.

“We have a diverse group where we have people who have been doing this for 20 years who are brushing up on their skills,” and gaining continuing education credits, Veppert said. But for some it was the first crash test they’ve seen.

New technology

In terms of taking advantage of the technology that exists, police departments are generally behind, Veppert said, “and it’s all about resources — having the money, training and equipment.”

For example, both of the Saturns involved in the first crash test have an event data recorder in them that came in the air bag system that records information about what happens during a crash, Veppert said. But he estimated that only about 2 percent of the police departments in the U.S. have the ability to download that information.

For law enforcement, in times of tight budgets, it’s hard to fund crash reconstruction specialists — which is extra resources and manpower, Garrepy said. Veppert said to be certified as a crash reconstructionist through the Accreditation Commission for Traffic Accident Reconstruction, you have to pass an all-day exam and renew certification with 80 hours of training every five years; Maine has additional requirements.

150 at conference

With about 150 people attending the conference, Veppert said he likes to offer an eclectic mix of subjects.

“Right now they’re getting training on the use of UAVs — drones — to actually fly over crash scenes and take photographs,” used to make a to-scale diagram on a computer. “They’re heavily looking at, can we do that and get out of the road a lot faster; get good information but get out faster.”

There is also new information contained in the infotainment center — basically the GPS in the dash which does track movements of the vehicle, Veppert said.

Becoming a more common problem in crashes are cellphones and, “was that person looking at their phone instead of looking where they were driving,” and how does one find out, Veppert said. They look at how to preserve a phone, and the answer isn’t just to shut it off.

“Most of the people that work in this (field) like puzzles,” Veppert said. “It’s all about puzzles.”

dmoore@timesrecord.com

FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT, in times of tight budgets, it’s hard to fund crash reconstruction specialists. To be certified as a crash reconstructionist through the Accreditation Commission for Traffic Accident Reconstruction, you have to pass an allday exam and renew certification with 80 hours of training every five years; Maine has additional requirements.