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Stan Bezuidenhout is a forensic specialist on street accidents and the founding father of IBF Investigations, utilizing drones for accident reconstruction and investigation. IBF is an unbiased group engaged on professional evaluation of crash scenes for regulation enforcement, Department of Justice and insurance coverage corporations. And after hundreds of crashes and years of expertise, Bezuidenhout concludes that smaller and less complicated instruments are higher.
Bezuidenhout explains that crash investigation isn’t easy – his group has a 124 level protocol of every little thing that must be executed to assemble all the proof on the scene of an accident. An ordinary investigation yields 200-250 images per automobile – as a result of each crash scene is a possible crime scene. “We don’t know what will happen in court,” says Bezuidenhout. “We don’t know immediately if the accident involved airbags, seat belts, drugs, environmental damage… we never know which accidents will end up as criminal cases.”
“If you don’t handle the scene properly, those crashes cannot be prosecuted,” says Bezuidenhout. “There’s no such word as ‘only’ or ‘just’ at a crash scene,” says Bezuidenhout. “You didn’t ‘only bump.’ We don’t like to call them ‘accidents’… they are crashes.”
With all the the factors that have to be addressed at crash scenes, Bezuidenhout says that the best problem stays measuring and drawing of scenes. “I’ve done thousands of crash scenes,” he says. “My record stands at 36 accidents in a weekend, over 200 in a month… and I’ve only seen one scene actually drawn properly.”
“A very small percentage of people are able to stand on a crash scene and actually see it from above,” says Bezuidenhout.
Previously, his group used 3D laser options for precise measurements – however that was an costly and problematic answer, involving a number of consultants and taking typically upwards of three hours, an unacceptable size of time. “Do what you have to do, do it quickly, and leave,” says Bezuidenhout. “You can’t keep the roads closed for long periods.”
Drones – small, cheap drones – present the right answer. Simpler is much better for investigators, he says, declaring that he and his group need to be forensic crash specialists, not drone specialists. As his group has used extra advanced and costly gear, they’ve come again to the smaller and the less complicated. In reality, presently the group makes use of a DJI Mavic. “Collision avoidance, 4k video, 10 km range.. that’s all great stuff. But we don’t need it…we never go beyond a 500 m range, I never go over 100 meters and I don’t ever need more than 10 minutes to fly. If I need more than 10 minutes to fly, the case is too complicated to do this way.”
“We don’t need a point cloud,” he says. “We can’t use it in court… you need to dumb things down.”
By holding it easy, compact and straightforward to move, the IBF group is ready to get the job executed rapidly and effectively. They have a confirmed report of having the ability to show their instances in courtroom, and so they’ve established precisely what it’s that they have to be profitable. With a simple to make use of shopper drone, Bezuidenhout has made drone use at crash scenes accessible – proving the use case for this vertical quickly increasing throughout the globe.
