Evaluating a Workplace Injury Using Camera Matching
Background
A series of locomotives was stopped on a bridge traveling through a creek bed. A man claimed to have dismounted the lead locomotive of the series, walk down the second locomotive, and climb back up it at the far end. As he traveled back towards the first locomotive on the walkway, he claimed to have slipped, fallen off the walkway, and into the creek bed below. The claim was that an unsafe workplace was provided because of a slipping hazard.
Process
Explico was asked to evaluate the lead locomotive’s GPS enabled video camera footage, locate that locomotive with respect to the bridge, and evaluate the feasibility of the incident. During the inspection of the locomotive and location, our experts took photographs from the location of the camera on the locomotive as the position of the locomotive was moved relative to the bridge. The photographs were then cropped according to the crop factor of the locomotive's camera and compared to the GPS enabled video camera footage. The GPS coordinates were also recorded and compared to the footage at each position. With this information and data, Explico’s team evaluated the slip and fall from a biomechanics perspective.
Results
Through the comparison of the GPS and cropped photographs, our experts determined that the lead locomotive had in fact been on the bridge and not in front of the bridge as originally stated. Ultimately, the slip and fall was not feasible biomechanically, and the presented sequence of events were implausible. Explico presented two possible scenarios that agreed with the physical evidence.
