Enhancing Forensic Human Factors/Ergonomics Analyses Using Digital Surveillance Video

Abstract

The increased need for physical security and rapid technological developments has created opportunities for enhancing the validity of expert opinions offered in the courtroom by human factors/ergonomics professionals. Digital surveillance equipment typically yields more information from several perspectives as well as affords more control than ‘old’ technologies such as closed-circuit television, video cassette recorders, and multiplexers. This poster illustrates three case examples in which human factors/ergonomics experts used digital surveillance video as part of forensic analyses on cases retained by attorneys representing both plaintiffs and defendants. The first case is a rear-end collision on a freeway between a moving bus and a stopped pickup truck. The second is a collision between a moving bus and falling pedestrian, while the third is a more common slip-and-fall incident in a retail grocery store. The implications of improved digital surveillance video for the practice of forensics human factors/ergonomics are discussed.