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Automotive Forensic Investigator

Interviews

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Each car accident has a story to tell. But sometimes there is no storyteller. Enter the automotive forensic investigator.

The investigator must weave a plausible tale for those involved. Life goes on for most of us after the traffic thins and the smashed cars are towed away. But this is just the first page for some.

Robert Sokol didn't even know there was such a thing as an automotive forensic investigator. Then a police officer called the college where he taught. The officer was looking for an expert on Pontiacs.

"It so happened that I worked for Pontiac for about 10 years prior to teaching, so the dean recommended me," he explains. His first job was dissecting a Pontiac Grand Prix.

"I was able to tell from the speedometer that the vehicle was traveling 80 miles per hour at the time of impact. The transmission was in fourth gear, and the throttle spring was broken. That indicated the vehicle throttle was stuck in the 'full' position, which caused the accident," he remembers.

Denise Hyde discovered the profession while working as a crime scene investigator for the Palm Beach, Florida, sheriff's office. Hyde says that many reconstructionists, as these professionals are also known, are retired deputies or cops.

Andrew Happer, too, was in the dark about the profession. Then a firm that investigates and reconstructs accidents hired him. "I did not know this field existed until I was interviewed for the job," says Happer.

He is now an automotive forensic investigator. He enjoys the problem-solving, physics and forensic (detective) aspects of the work.

Sokol lives in Kansas, but investigates accidents in six states. He says he has encountered many unusual stories. The cause of one accident was bad housekeeping. "I once found a shoe lodged behind the brake pedal," he says.

Sokol says the owner was a slob. The car manufacturer hired him because the owner claimed the brakes failed. In reality, with the shoe stuck behind the pedal, the driver couldn't stop her car.

Or there is the inattentive driver, says Hyde. By far, the stupidest accident she has seen is one that she is currently solving. There isn't much of a puzzle. "The driver was reading a magazine and crashed into a school bus. Luckily, there were no children on the school bus," says Hyde.

In this line of work, car crashes may bring you to surviving family members and widows. It can be depressing, says Sokol.

Don Peak works in Colorado. He is a former firefighter. He says that to survive day to day, you must detach yourself from the case. Hyde says the worst cases are accidents involving children.

Sokol relates one of his first depressing cases: a 16-year-old wrecked her Jeep because she was in a hurry to get home. "It was 12:30 a.m. Her mother called and told her she was in trouble for being late," says Sokol.

"She was doing about 90 miles per hour. As she tried to turn into her neighborhood, the Jeep flipped a few times. She died," Sokol says. "It was necessary to go through all the paperwork in the Jeep. She had love notes from her boyfriend, honor roll and all sorts of other things. I didn't sleep for a week."

Recently, Sokol investigated another accident involving a 16-year-old girl. She was on her way home from a drug awareness party at church and fell asleep at the wheel.

"She ran into a light pole and died. Her cap and gown were in the trunk. She was supposed to graduate in two days. All her family and relatives were in town for this," says Sokol. In time, say Sokol and Peak, you become immune to these disasters.

What is really gratifying about the job, says Peak, are meeting the good guys who rally around those in need. He says they far outweigh the bad guys -- the ones we hear about in the news. "Or you deal with people who have lost everything and they're upbeat and outgoing and say, 'Oh geez, it could have been worse,'" says Peak.