Eyewitness Reliability in Motor Vehicle Accident Reconstruction and Litigation

A necessity for anyone involved with eyewitness reports.

How often have you worked on an accident investigation and found that eyewitness testimony contradicts the physical evidence found on the scene? What do you do when you have a witness stating that he saw the driver of a white truck passing him at 80 miles per hour, but the physical evidence suggests that the driver was traveling at 50 miles per hour? How can an eyewitness remember seeing a barn on the scene, when in fact there was no barn?

Dr. Robins explains this and much more. Investigators, police officers, insurance adjusters, judges, plaintiffs' attorneys and defense attorneys alike should own this book. It explores, in layman's terms, the fallible aspects of eyewitness testimony. Discover how two witnesses can contradict each other over the same accident scene. Learn how witnesses acquire postevent misinformation. Find out the crucial role that human memory plays. Discover the way juries often evaluate witness testimony on the basis of witness confidence and personality.

Dr. Robins engages you throughout this book by citing case studies, research, and seminar demonstrations that both interest and educate you. If you are an investigator, you will learn what kind of questions to ask your witnesses to get the most information from them. As a defense attorney, you will learn where to undermine the eyewitness testimony against you. As the plaintiff's attorney, you will understand how to avoid the pitfalls of eyewitness evidence.

Dr. Robins raises issues you cannot afford to ignore. By learning from one of the world's experts, you can make eyewitness testimony an asset to your case!

Topics covered:

Physical evidence versus human evidence
Aspects of the human eye and vision
Introduction of misinformation
Aspects of memory as storage
Aspects of memory in perception
Confidence levels of witnesses
Case citations

Patrick J. Robins, Ph.D., is the president of Virtual Crash Animation & Reconstruction, which specializes in collision reconstruction and 3-D computer-generated forensic animations. He taught psychology for more than ten years at Ryerson Polytechnic University in Toronto, Canada, and was the senior investigator for one of Transport Canada's university-based collision and defect investigation teams from 1988 to 1997. Dr. Robins teaches a variety of collision reconstruction and human factors courses throughout North America and has written articles on memory, recall and eyewitness testimony.