PHOTOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATION OF VISUAL FIELDS JUST BEFORE MISSTEPS AND FALLS INVOLVING STAIRS

摘要

Of three key environmental factors in stairway-related falls - visibility, step geometry and handrails - that are often implicated in injurious falls, stair visibility has gotten the least attention in forensic investigation as well as in research. Wide-angle photographs, especially those shot with flash lighting, do not depict adequately what a fall victim saw immediately prior to the critical misstep. A preferred technique is to make a series of many photographs, all taken from a fixed position using fixed exposure settings and a normal-perspective lens. A series of individual photographs is then assembled into a doubly-curved panorama which best represents a complete visual field with preservation of correct perspective for the environment faced by a falling person at the time of the initiating misstep. Presented here is one fall safety expert's experience with the long-term use of such panoramas within a litigation context in North America. The intention is to expand use of such visual documentation techniques in studies of missteps and falls associated with stairs and other pedestrian facilities.