Accident Scene Investigation
Introduction
An accident scene can be a hectic place for one to be involved. It is without a doubt that no two accident scenes can be the same, but a common goal is shared amongst the people present, getting everyone into safer grounds. As such, they are raising awareness of accident safety is vital as well as being aware of the hazards involved in ensuring the safety of everyone. This paper will delve into the events that can occur in an accident scene, from the interviews conducted to the witnesses to the investigation of the process of preserving an accident scene. It will also seek to investigate the importance of a “ready” safety kit and possible questions that a witness may answer relating to the accident scene.
Question 1
It is prudent for any person interviewing in any scenario to have excellent professional interviewing skills. It goes ahead to note that an interviewer can follow the steps step by step correctly by posing open questions, allowing the interviewee to answer not only a yes or no problem, but be sufficient enough in giving elaborate answers. It would also mean that the interviewer would have to select a favorable site to conduct the interview, an environment that would be comfortable to the interviewee (Marwick et al., 2013). If the interviewer is not competent in his field of work, the desired result will be far-fetched if he does not adhere to the basics. It means that an interviewer who is keen on asking questions in a resourceful manner would stand a great chance at gathering more information than one who is not.
Reference
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Marwick, K. F. M., Birrell, S., In Horton-Szar, D., & In Hall, J. (2013). Crash Course Psychiatry – E-Book.
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Question 2
Preservation of an accident scene is crucial as it prevents the contamination of the available evidence. The first step, in the event of an accident occurring, is to secure the scene to avert extensive harm and preserve the evidence. Turning off the machines and power plants to avoid disturbance and as such enabling access of the medics within the area. An emergency team should be in a position to evacuate people of staff in the field while getting those that have been hurt already into safer grounds and provide first aid and medical care to prevent further loss of blood and damage if any (Lynch & Duval, 2011). The nest step should be accounting for all people that operated in the plant or premises in which the accident had occurred. Enable an investigator to know with whom he or she is dealing.
Reference
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Lynch, V. A., & Duval, J. B. (2011). Forensic nursing science. St. Louis: Mosby/Elsevier.Bottom of Form
Question 3
An accident investigator needs to have a “ready” investigative kit at all times. It should be well-stocked and well organized with all the tools required for an accident scene for conduction of thorough investigation. The kit needs to be easily accessible to help cut down the response time in case of an accident. Several tools need to have included in the safety kit; they include a security tape that will use to secure the area as well as some personal protective equipment’ that will serve the purpose of protecting the investigator (Hess & Orthmann, 2010). A camera would also be essential in recording the scene as it found as well as taking snaps of the same.
Reference
Hess, K. M., & Orthmann, C. M. H. (2010). Criminal investigation. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar, Cengage Learning.
Question 4
At a scene, it might not always be the right environment to conduct an interview, but at the same time, information collected must be sufficient to provide a lead or guide of the investigation. As such, an interviewer must possess top-notch professionalism in conducting such an interview (Prott & Unesco. 2009). To get sufficient information, some of the questions that could get asked may include.
- Can you explain in your words what you saw? The open-ended question seemingly inviting the witness to provide as much information as possible. It would be better as it lets the witness establish his or her narrative before asking to follow up questions.
- What were you doing just before the accident occurred? It will help know the extent of focus the witness had on the misfortune to be able to determine the sufficiency of the information provided.
- Where were you in the accident? It should be able to determine the location of the witness when the accident was occurring, was he in a better viewing point to give accurate information or not. It would help the interviewer make a rough sketch of how the accident looked.
- Can you go into detail about what you saw? In this one, the witness should be able to give detailed information about their position before the accident. As such, the narrative that will be delivered by the witness will be enabling the interviewer to apply to follow up questions.
- What did you do after the accident? In this specific, one should be able to determine the events that happened after the accident, how the witness and other related people might have involved in the attempt to assist the scene. Moreover, it would help get a clear view of how serious the witness thought the accident was.
Reference
Prott, L. V., & Unesco. (2009). Witnesses to history: A compendium of documents and writings on the return of cultural objects.
Question 5
People Evidence
Investigation in a scene should start with witnesses. It will give an investigator the route to take when looking into the case. People’s evidence includes conduction of interviews, any fatigue-related information, and injury based evidence (Emanuel, 2018). An investigator styled firstly determines the people involved, worker #3, look into the workers’ capacity, training and qualification to acquiring the role offered to him as well as that of worker #1 and #2, who are unfortunately diseased.
The investigator should be able to determine if the worker has been involved in a similar incident before and if those involved had any kind of work restriction or medical conditions reported before climbing down the ladder. An understanding of how the employees worked will help determine the team performance and why there was no supervision on site that fateful day.
Paper Evidence
Paperwork evidence includes regulatory paperwork, personnel paperwork, as well as the equipment manual and policy and procedure paperwork. A problem arises to this species as an investigator, as the papers obtained from this activity might also include irrelevant ones hence wasting on time. As such, the timeline of the events leading to the accident should provide the guideline to what paperwork required, anything relevant, and that might give facts to the events (Davis, 2016). In this event, insurance records of the workers and employment papers from the company should serve relevant in the collection of evidence.
Physical Evidence
This type of evidence ranges from large pieces of machinery to small tools found in the scene. In this context, the ladder and the opening tools should serve the purpose required. The ones that can be collected should be carried to the relevant center while the ones that cannot be collected can equally be documented as evidence. The documentation will include fingerprints on the tools and equipment, any bloodstain obtained on the scene, or the machine (Jones, 2007). Similarly, the transportation of the materials should also be recorded as well as the design as they might be relevant information in the investigation.
Photography Evidence
Recording evidence will include photography and video; as such, they should get captured as soon as possible to avoid the distortion of the information and the preservation of the scene before altering. It will aim to provide a documented view of the scene of the accident and should get done as soon as the qualified team can gain access to the scene. During the collection of this type of evidence, it would be prudent to note that the grouping gets done at the original state of the scene (Mancini & Sidoriak, 2017). The fragile, perishable pieces of evidence should also be kept in the record immediately to also capture them in their original. For the case at hand, a video record of the scene as it was should be kept at bay as this would help the investigator obtain all the information needed to fit in the puzzles.
In conclusion, to avoid the collection of biased evidence, an investigator will have to collect evidence based on all four categories. Every single element will aim to lead to the underlying truth of the incident that led to the occurrence of the accident, as such identification of the problems is essential, and as a result, all the corrective action will put to act with immediate effect. Top of FormTop of Form
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References
Davis, R. (2016). Evidence collection and presentation.
Emanuel, S. (2018). Evidence.
Jones, K. (2007). Physical evidence: Selected film criticism. Middletown, Conn: Wesleyan University Press.
Mancini, K., & Sidoriak, J. (2017). Fundamentals of Forensic Photography: Practical Techniques for Evidence Documentation on Location and in the Laboratory.