Accident Reconstruction
Unsafe Intersection Layout Leading to a Crash
Uncovering the Hidden Dangers of Faulty Road Design
How One Intersection Setup Led to Disaster
This legal animation demonstrates how improper intersection design can lead to serious accidents. The first portion of the video illustrates how traffic should safely flow when the intersection is correctly configured, including proper signage and lane markings. The second part contrasts this with the actual intersection layout at the time of the crash—showing missing “No Turn” signs, a misplaced yellow line, incorrect pavement markings, and improperly positioned construction drums. These visual comparisons highlight how critical design errors directly contributed to the collision.
PROPER INTERSECTION LAYOUT
The video begins by illustrating the intersection as it should have been properly configured. It shows clear lane markings, correctly placed “No Turn” signs, and properly aligned traffic signals, guiding drivers safely through the crossing.
This segment demonstrates how proper signage and pavement markings create a predictable traffic flow, helping drivers navigate the intersection without confusion. By highlighting the correct setup, the animation clearly shows how the crash could have been avoided if proper safety measures had been in place.
DAY OF INCIDENT LAYOUT
Missing “No Turn Allowed” signs gave no warning that turns were prohibited.
Improperly spaced barrels left the roadwat center open to traffic.
Instead of a yellow line separating opposing traffic, white lines were painted, suggesting same direction lanes.
A double yellow line was positioned towards the southbound lane, giving the impression of two-way traffic beside it.
The faulty layout created the appearance of a false lane that confused northbound motorists.
Because of these design and signage errors, the collision occurred exactly as shown. Proper signals, clear markings, and correctly placed signs could have prevented the crash.
Accident Reconstruction
Accident reconstruction is pivotal in discerning causation. More often than not, the plaintiff and defendant disagree on the events that led up to an incident. There are a few ways to reconcile potential differences, but the strategy you use will depend on a variety of factors.
Some of these are: what happened, whether or not it was avoidable, what the opposition is willing to admit, what experts you’re able to retain, and the evidence your experts are able to find during discovery. With these in mind, it’s possible to create an animation that depicts the scene of the incident with incredible precision.
Legal Animation for Accident Reconstruction
You may ask why a legal animation would be helpful when reconstructing an incident. The answer is simple. Animations demonstrate liability by showing that a collision could have been avoided if a certain party avoided negligent behavior. For example, without the use of a visual aid, it would be challenging to depict to a jury the exact location of a vehicle in reference to a place they might have never been.
Oftentimes, we find that the facts in a case are complex and challenging to understand for the average person. In a society that is inundated with visual media, it’s critical to be able to teach them the ins and outs of a situation in a way that they’ll be able to understand. If you’ve heard somebody say “I’d have to see it to believe it,” then you know the extraordinary value of providing a visual display for the jury in order for them to understand.
Mark Dombroff says it best: “The varied uses of courtroom visual aids are limited only by your imagination. Legal graphic consultants and artists can be an important part of your team, in helping you highlight salient points, increase comprehension, illustrate the unknown and hard-to-imagine, permit audiences to digest large amounts of data quickly and easily, increase critical events in an evidentiary chain, add dramatic effect [and] make your presentation effective.”
Legal Graphics Help Jurors Decide
Jurors are more likely to sympathize with your client’s injuries when they see that the defendant’s actions were blatantly negligent. Adjusting points of view allows jurors to evaluate a driver’s actions from multiple angles. We work with such precision that our animations have actually been used as substantive evidence, not just demonstrative.
In our extensive experience developing crash reconstruction animations, we’ve done trucking collisions, multi-vehicle collisions, low-speed spine injuries, motorcycle collisions, and many other kinds of incidents. We perform FARO scanning, topographical mapping, forensic analysis, and nighttime visibility studies to determine the precise circumstances under which the incident occurred.
Fox Animation Engineering - Industry Leader for Legal Graphics
Our industry-leading legal graphics have been used by some of the top attorneys in the country. We’re able to achieve this level of excellence because our engineers are the animators. We have certified medical illustrators, medical practitioners, and 3D modeling engineers that collaborate together to create our state-of-the-art animations.
