Title :
Securing and preserving the scene of an electrical accident
Author :
Magee, Allan H. ; Hittel, Michael J.
Author_Institution :
Unified Investigations, Ballwin, MO, USA
Abstract :
One of the intended purposes of forensics engineering is to help establish what happened (accident scene reconstruction) and to identify the failure mode. This is done by carefully documenting the conditions at an accident scene and recognizing all relevant evidence. The ability to secure the scene, recognize and properly collect physical evidence is critical to the process. Evidence that is fragile or not readily visible may be destroyed or lost if not secured and collected immediately. In addition the evidence may be subject to future litigation. For these reasons, it is necessary to establish procedures for how to secure the scene of an electrical accident to preserve the evidence
Keywords :
accidents; accident scene reconstruction; electrical accident evidence preservation; failure mode identification; forensics engineering; physical evidence collection; physical evidence recognition; Electric shock; Electrical accidents; Electrical engineering; Fires; Forensics; Injuries; Law; Layout; Legal factors; Security;
Conference_Titel :
Industrial and Commercial Power Systems Technical Conference, 2001. Conference Record. Papers Presented at the 2001 Annual Meeting. 2001 IEEE
Conference_Location :
New Orleans, LA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-7055-4
DOI :
10.1109/ICPS.2001.966508