Biomechanical Analysis in Slip, Trip, Stumble, and Fall Incidents

摘要

The use of biomechanics in investigating slip, trip, stumble, and fall incidents is a relatively new concept. Simply defined, biomechanics is the study of how the body responds to forces that are applied to it. Approximately ten years ago, Sacher discussed the application of human biomechanics in, and provided a historical perspective of forensic investigations of, such incidents. Paraphrasing from Sacher, if a plaintiff was alleged to have slipped, then an engineer would measure the coefficient of friction of the floor surface. If a trip or stumble occurred, then the expert would identify a code violation relating to the physical design of the environment. Sacher then went on to state that, "[R]arely was the role of human location motion biomechanics examined or even introduced as a critical component in the analysis and reconstruction of the accident." His observation is consistent with this author's own experience analyzing hundreds of slip, trip, stumble, and fall incidents. In a similar fashion, this author has observed that the area of injury biomechanics is rarely used in slip, trip, stumble, and fall forensic investigations. In contrast, biomechanical injury analyses are widely used in automotive crash investigations.2 Injury biomechanics encompasses the study of mechanisms that causes injuries. It is noted that a distinction exists between a biomechanical and a medical opinion. A simplistic view of this distinction is that medical opinions provide the bases for an injury's diagnoses and treatment, while biomechanical opinions provide the bases of injury causation from a mechanical perspective. While not all slip, trip, stumble, and fall forensic investigations require a biomechanical analysis to arrive at conclusions to a reasonable degree of certainty, the biomechanical analysis has proven critical to many such incidents that this author has analyzed. Examples of biomechanical analysis in slip, trip, stumble, and fall incidents are presented.