all the evidence indicated that deputy sheriff rod sinclair was solely to blame. but then, a local photographer, don schneider, was looking at slides of the accident when he discovered a clue the highway patrol had missed, another skid mark. it was a surprise to me to see the mark there, because i had not observed the skid mark at the accident site. and i asked the question of the group that was there, hey fellas, what is this? and pointed to the skid mark that i saw on the screen. it was obvious in the matter of discussion a few moments later that this had something to do with the secret service car. attorney charles brunn showed the faint skid mark to a team of accident reconstruction experts. from the angle of the mark, it appeared that the secret service car had been over the center line and was turning back into its own lane when it was hit. and all of a sudden, i thought to myself, we have cause
argued it was made by the left. if they were correct, it meant the secret service could not have been over the center line. using photogrammetry, kayfetz was able to determine the width of the tire that made the skid mark and prove that it was, in fact, the right tire. as it happened, the right front tire on the wrecked labarge car was almost an inch narrower than the other three tires. it had been replaced probably by a spare tire at some point. and that particular tire mark matched only that narrower right front tire. proving the skid mark belonged to the secret service car was one of two critical issues facing dr. blythe. what was the sheriff reacting to when he applied his brakes? was he reacting to his perception that he was going too fast to make the corner, or was he reacting to some other danger
critical calculations. the first was the momentum of each car immediately after the collision. momentum is determined by multiplying each car s speed by its weight. the investigators knew the weights of both cars. by measuring the distance and direction they had slid, their rotation, and the amount of friction, they were able to calculate their post-impact speeds. 30 miles per hour for the sheriff s car, 24 miles per hour for the secret service. next, they looked at the angle at which the two cars had collided. the angle of impact in this particular collision evaluation was critical to determining how this collision took place. mait calculated that the two cars collided at a ten-degree angle, almost directly head-on. they already knew the direction the sheriff was traveling from the skid marks, so the angle of impact allowed them to calculate
the path of the secret service car. ten-degree approach angle between these two vehicles places the secret service dodge aries within its lane of travel, and moving slightly from left to right as a potential evasive tactic as impact takes place. eyewitness testimony established that the secret service agents were driving at around 35 miles per hour. the critical question was how fast was deputy sinclair driving? sinclair claimed he was going 55 or 60 miles per hour. applying the laws of conservation of momentum, mait calculated he was actually doing 76 miles per hour. when he came into that curve, his vehicle was out of position for the speed that he was traveling. when he saw traffic coming at him in the eastbound direction, he simply didn t have enough distance or enough time to safely negotiate the curve.
in fact, she could not. from the beginning, the critical question in the case was always, why did deputy sinclair jam on his brakes? kayfetz s dramatic re-enactment answered the question. now, from sinclair s viewpoint, we can see that he sees the lead secret service car straddling the center line just a bit more than a second before he begins to skid in a straight line across the highway. the last view is that of agent labarge just before the fatal crash. based on kayfetz s powerful reenactment and the work of brunn s team of investigators, a judge ruled that the secret service agents were partially responsible for the accident. he also ruled that the united