Engineering news
Investigators must seal the road, and then painstakingly try and piece together what happened based on the final resting positions of the cars. They take photographs and measurements, and look for clues to what happened so they can provide evidence for any subsequent insurance claims or criminal investigations.
For those stuck in traffic behind the scene, it can be a frustrating time. But the wait could get shorter thanks to new drone technology.
French company Parrot are best known for their range of consumer drones, but a new product they’ve developed can be used by law enforcement to photograph the scene of road accidents quickly and safely.
The drone, which is based on the Bebop 2 model available to consumers, retails at $1099. It takes a series of high-resolution photos of the scene. The photographs can then be stitched together later on to reconstruct the position of the vehicles, removing the need for investigators to take precise measurement at the time.
Speaking at the IFSEC exhibition at London’s ExCEL centre today, Parrot’s Sebastien Vaillant said that evidence collected in this manner was already admissible in courts in the United States, and would soon be usable in Europe too. “You’re able to just launch the drone, fly over the accident for 10 minutes, and that’s all,” he said. “Doing that you’re able to fly over, you can leave and get the cars moving again.”
The scene can be reconstructed to an accuracy of 1cm, and investigators can use a computer or tablet to measure the distances between objects at a later date.
There are a host of other applications, including in the aftermath of fires. Drones were used by the authorities investigating the ongoing Grenfell Tower tragedy in London, when it was unclear whether the tower was safe for firefighters to enter.
Property is another potential use. Vaillant demonstrated software whereby the user can draw a square around the building they want to scan on a map, and then the drone will automatically fly around it taking pictures. These pictures can be uploaded to the cloud and analysed using Pix4D software. An hour later the user will have an accurate 3D model of the property.