Forensic Anthropology Forensic Chemistry Forensic Document Examination Forensic Entomology Forensic Firearms and Tool Marks Forensic Impression Evidence Forensic Medicine and Pathology Forensic Odontology Forensic Serology and DNA Forensic Trace Evidence Miscellaneous and Crime Scene Forensic Toxicology Computer Forensics Forensic Engineering Forensic Profiling

Forensic Engineering Time Line

1908

Fort Meyer, Virginia, first recorded fatal accident involving an aircraft. Orville Wright was piloting a plane and demonstrating the value of flight to his passenger, U.S. Calvary Lt. Selfridge. A violent vibration in propeller was followed by loss of lift, causing the plane to crash and killing Selfridge [Ref. 48, p. 131].

1920

Wisconsin. First reported use of traffic accident reconstruction in a U.S. court. Skid mark evidence admitted to explain how a pedestrian was hit by a truck while boarding a streetcar [Ref. 48, p. 101].

1926

Air Commerce Act. Authority for the Department of Commerce to determine aviation accidents [Ref. 48, p. 132].

1942

Coconut Grove fire in Boston, Massachusetts. Led to engineering changes in building codes [Ref. 48, p. 40].

1944

Establishment of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) [Ref. 48, p. 133].

1963

Product Liability became more clearly defined following the Greenman vs. Yuba Power Products Trial. In this case a man suffered an injury when a piece of wood flew from a lathe he was working on. The product was being used in the way it was designed and the plaintiff was not aware of the design defect which made the system unsafe [Ref. 48, p. 88].

1966

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), independent agency working within the Department of Transportation and responsible for investigating aviation safety, highway, railroad, pipeline and major marine accidents [Ref. 48, p. 132].

1978

Failure: “Failure is an unacceptable difference between expected and observed performance.” Leonards, G.A. [Ref. 48, p. 17 and p. 31]. Demonstrated through the Willow Island, West Virginia, cooling tower collapse, killing 51 workers, due to procedural errors in construction sequencing [Ref. 48, p. 19].

1982

National Academy of Forensic Engineers established [Ref. 48, p. 11].

Air Florida Flight 90, Boeing 737 crashes into the Potomac River after ice build up reduces thrust. A case study for procedures in aviation accident investigations [Ref. 48, p. 130].

1984

Methyl isocyanate gas leak, Bhopal, India.
1986

The Chernobyl, USSR, nuclear plant accident, caused by human error [Ref. 48, p. 19].

Challenger Space Shuttle Accident, partially blamed on deficiencies in quality control [Ref. 48, p. 19].

A brief description about the book Forensic Engineering

References

[48]. Carper, K. L., Ed., Forensic Engineering, Elsevier, 1989 (ISBN 0-444-01330-X).