title: The forensic pathologist and the determination of driver versus passenger in motor vehicle collisions. The need to examine injury mechanisms, occupant kinematics, vehicle dynamics, and trace evidence.
abstract: Five cases of vehicular homicide are presented in which the determination of an occupant's role in a motor vehicle collision was an important medicolegal question. The identification of the occupant's role in a motor vehicle collision can be determined by the forensic pathologist. The investigation that coordinates an examination of injury mechanisms, occupant kinematics, vehicle dynamics, and trace evidence will facilitate such a determination. This determination protects the innocent passenger, when faced with criminal or civil charges, from being falsely prosecuted as the driver. The examination of the above-mentioned components in a multi-occupant collision takes on particular forensic importance when a surviving driver claims to be a passenger: the victim rather than the assailant.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, University of Louisville School of Medicine, KY 40292.
authors.forename: W S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Smock
authors.forename: G R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Nichols
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Fuller
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Weakley-Jones
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic; D000328:Adult; D001334:Automobile Driving; D005260:Female; D005554:Forensic Medicine; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009068:Movement; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000473:pathology