Human Factors Expert Witness: What could the driver see, notice and respond to?
Independent human factors analysis and expert witness services in motor vehicle accident cases, for attorneys in Texas and nationwide. The focus is the driver's side of the crash: whether, and how soon, a driver could have seen, recognized and responded to a hazard.
Capabilities
Ten areas of driver behavior
Each area is analyzed from the published research, by an expert with more than a decade in transportation safety research. Select one to read a plain-language explainer.
- Distracted DrivingCell phones, texting, voice-to-text and in-vehicle technology
- Perception-Reaction TimeTime to detect, recognize, decide and respond
- Hazard Detection and “Looked But Failed to See”Inattentional blindness and noticing hazards
- Nighttime Visibility and ConspicuitySeeing, noticing and recognizing after dark
- Looming and Closing SpeedRear-end collisions with slow or stopped vehicles
- Gap Judgment and AcceptanceLeft turns, crossing and pulling out into traffic
- Traffic Signs and Control DevicesVisibility and comprehension of signs, signals and markings
- Driver Expectancy and Positive GuidanceWhat the road leads a driver to expect
- Young and Novice DriversExperience, hazard recognition and risk perception
- Impaired Driving and Driver PerformanceAlcohol, attention and driver performance
- A case often raises more than one of these questionsView all capabilities and services
When to call
Questions a case can turn on
Attorneys retain a human factors expert witness when a case turns on questions such as these. They arise in accidents involving pedestrians, motorcycles and commercial vehicles as well as passenger cars. Common questions from counsel are answered in the frequently asked questions.
- Was the driver distracted, for example by a cell phone, and how did that affect detection and response?
- How much time and distance did the driver need to perceive and react?
- Could the hazard be seen and recognized, including at night?
- Would an attentive driver have detected the hazard in time?
- Could the driver tell how quickly the distance to a slow or stopped vehicle was closing?
- Was the gap in oncoming traffic one that drivers would typically accept?
- Did the road and its signs give the driver the information needed, in time to act?
- How does inexperience affect a young driver's hazard recognition?
Two disciplines
What human factors adds to accident reconstruction
An accident reconstruction establishes where the vehicles were and how fast they were moving, and often applies a standard perception-reaction time. A human factors analysis asks whether that time fits the conditions of the crash, and what the driver could see, notice and do.
Consider a human factors expert witness when
- The case turns on whether a driver should have seen a hazard sooner
- The reconstruction relies on an assumed reaction time
- A driver says they looked and did not see
- The crash happened at night or in poor visibility
- A vehicle was struck from behind while stopped or moving slowly
Independence
The analysis is the same whichever side retains the practice.
The role is to analyze, not to advocate. Opinions rest on published research and the evidence in the record. The practice accepts civil and criminal engagements from plaintiff, defense and prosecution counsel nationwide.
Discuss a matter
Submit a case inquiry to discuss whether a matter raises human factors questions.