accident reconstruction, was able to trace the path of the secret service car. the results confirmed that sinclair s statement, that the secret service cars were over the center line. i think that the amount of the vehicle over the center line, as i recall, was something in the neighborhood of one-third or one-half of the vehicle. it wasn t fully in the oncoming lane. the highway patrol had determined that the collision was virtually head-on. blythe showed that the sheriff s car had struck at an angle, as if agent labarge had been turning back to the right to get back into his own lane. dr. blythe determined that the critical skid mark was made by one of the front tires on the agent s car. the critical question was, which front tire? the highway patrol experts, after first denying the existence of the skid mark,
sheriff s patrol car. 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 here for optimism.
crocker thought she could see the position of the cars. 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
secret service car. the results confirmed that sinclair s statement, that the secret service cars were over the center line. i think that the amount of the vehicle over the center line, as i recall, was something in the neighborhood of one-third or one-half of the vehicle. it wasn t fully in the oncoming lane. the highway patrol had determined that the collision was virtually head-on. blythe showed that the sheriff s car had struck at an angle, as if agent labarge had been turning back to the right to get back into his own lane. dr. blythe determined that the critical skid mark was made by one of the front tires on the agent s car. the critical question was, which front tire? the highway patrol experts, after first denying the existence of the skid mark,
the data for a series of 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.