How Do Slip & Fall Accidents Happen?

In the modern world, we have grown accustomed to interacting with an environment that has been standardized. Curbs, sidewalks, stairs, doors…Since each of these behaves very similarly to others of its kind, we do not stop and freshly puzzle each one out when we come across one in our daily lives. Our brains naturally routinize redundant events, freeing its resources to concentrate on new or unresolved issues instead. Thus we go through much of our day on a kind of auto-pilot. Case in point: Which foot did you begin the last set of stairs with? Left? Right? You probably don't know. Your brain has delegated that decision to a situational habit years ago.

However, our minds are always ready to kick off the auto-pilot to address a new issue. For example, if we are walking down a sidewalk and a soccer ball suddenly bounces out from a yard towards us, we notice this new event, break from our routine and decisively respond to

the situation. The same goes for any obvious hazard we encounter on the sidewalk. The catch is that we have to perceive the situation as a hazard, before we can react to it.

Ironically, situations that are close-to-but-not-quite-normal are the ones that can hurt us the most. Take the average parking lot wheel stop for a simple example. We have all stepped over these concrete barriers at some point in our lives. Likely it's safe to say we have stepped over many wheel stops in our lives. In doing so, we have learned just how high we have to raise our feet to clear those stops. Over the years, we have relied on our body memory to glide us over those stops. So, when a wheel stop is sitting one inch higher than what our instincts say is necessary to clear them, accidents can happen.

Where exactly is the line drawn between pedestrian vigilance and property owner responsibility? Fortunately, in this modern world, there are codes, standards and experts who can interpret and apply them. The experts at CED Technologies utilize a full range of techniques to analyze a Slip & Fall injury, including Architectural, Biomechanical and Human Factors.

Investigating Car Fires

According to the National Fire Protection Association there were 258,000 vehicular fires reported in the United States last year. These fires caused 385 civilian deaths, 1675 civilian fire-related injuries and $1.4 billion in property damage.

Motor vehicles can catch fire easily because of the volatile combination of fuel, ignition, airbags, exhaust and electrical systems. Any time a vehicle is on fire there is a danger that it could explode. In most accidental fires, the fire begins in the engine compartment. Many vehicle fires are not caused by engineering defects- they are caused by poor maintenance. Still, the cause of many car fires may require an independent investigation to uncover the fire cause and origin.

There can be other factors that come into play in an accidental vehicle fire, such as the installation of aftermarket electrical or performance components, debris accumulated around hot areas on a vehicle, animals (building nests or hoarding food in engines), or drivers and passengers dropping burning items (like cigarettes) in cars. Arson is another common cause of car fires, which has been on the rise in recent months (in many cases believed to be an unfortunate derivative of high gas prices and delinquencies on auto loans).

It is important to retain CED Engineers as first responders in a vehicular fire case; as the intensity of a blaze tends to destroy evidence. In many cases the debris is cleared from the roadway before a thorough investigation can take place, leaving the fire department to make an educated guess about the cause. Determining causation can be a fairly daunting task, even if CED is not involved early on in the investigation, there is still a lot of different engineering and analysis that can be performed. If a forensic engineer cannot get to the scene immediately, pictures of the fire and damage can be very helpful. Also, preserving any evidence available can be invaluable to a car fire investigation.

Meet the Expert: Grant Bevill, Ph.D.

Dr. Bevill is one of CED's Biomechanical Engineers who specializes in solid mechanics (finite element theory, continuum mechanics, strength of materials, numerical optimization), bioengineering and material sciences. Dr. Bevill earned his Masters and Doctoral in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Denver.

Dr. Bevill has performed research utilizing a combination of experimental, numerical, and analytical methods to analyze the micro-mechanics of bone failure under various loading conditions (e.g. habitual loading versus fall conditions).

During his doctoral studies, he peer-reviewed three journal articles and co-authored several grants. Dr. Bevill lectured in Orthopedic Biomechanics in the Mechanical Engineering department at University of California, Berkeley and was also a teaching assistant in Orthopedic Biomechanics in the Mechanical Engineering department in the spring of 2005, where he received an Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award.

Prior to joining CED, Dr. Bevill worked as a mechanical testing consultant for honeycomb/cellular solid manufacturing company where he performed compression tests on honeycomb seat cushions for F-16 aircraft to assess long-term wear behavior