Explaining to a Jury how and Why People Fall

Abstract

Human factors expert witnesses may be called upon to explain the mechanics of a particular physical falling event to a jury using only verbal, intellectual tools. Photos or diagrams of the falling event area usually show only the environment, not the human interacting with the environment during the critical falling event. The reconstruction the accident may be done with computer-generated 3-D mannequins to substitute for the humans involved in the falling event. This paper discusses the illustration of the mechanics of the falling process using 3-D mannequins to illustrate the laws of motion and of human behavior as accurately as possible.