What can make the Mossos d'Esquadra investigate your traffic accident?

Sabadell"Ten people will die on the roads next month and they don't even know it yet." With this forcefulness, Commissioner Mònica Luis, head of the General Mobility Commissariat of the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan Police), summarizes the tragedy that regularly occurs on Catalan roads. This year, 62 people have lost their lives on the road. These are heartbreaking deaths, "of someone who doesn't return home and to whom you haven't been able to say goodbye." And many are preventable deaths, often caused by distractions from phones and screens, speeding, or alcohol or drug use. "We can all do more," Luis concludes.

That's why it's important to differentiate between an accident and a misadventure. While the former is usually accidental, the latter usually has a cause, a trigger, and a responsible party—or more than one, since responsibilities are often shared. This is where the Road Investigation Division (DIV) comes in, as if it were a crime scene, examining all traces of an accident to determine what happened. "A collision between vehicles is physics," notes Inspector Francesc Parra, head of the DIV. He explains that they work with "objective" and "scientific" data from accidents to reconstruct the five seconds prior to the collision.

All road incidents are reviewed and investigated, although only a portion—the most complex and serious—end up on the DIV's desk. Last year there were 21,000 accidents, more than two every hour, but 682 cases were fatal or resulted in serious injuries and required further investigation. Technology has evolved significantly, completely shifting the DIV's investigations. It now has computer tools to recreate a collision or determine exactly what the driver was doing in the moments before the impact. Previously, physical calculations had to be performed with braking to determine, for example, the vehicle's speed, and a range would be obtained. Now, with a black box, the definitive data can be obtained.

Drones in the air

The first thing is to go to the accident site and take an aerial view of the scene, says Mònica Carafi, a deputy inspector with the DIV. This allows for the creation of a zenithal view of a puzzle that other state-of-the-art devices will allow them to complete. This is where data recorders, also known as modules or EDRs, come into play. Speed, the driver's turns, when they pressed the brake, whether any lights were on... These are all codes that the Mossos d'Esquadra traffic specialists know how to decipher and that end up serving as evidence in a trial. But each model records data in its own way.

Precisely this week, some conferences were held at the Public Security Institute of Catalonia under the name Road accident investigation: challenges, synergies and innovationWith the participation of the German police, the Ertzaintza (Basque Police), and local police forces (who are responsible for accidents within municipalities), progress in traffic investigations was analyzed. The three police chiefs emphasize the importance of collaborating and sharing intelligence between forces to innovate in investigative techniques.

Paradigm shift

A recent accident exemplifies this perfectly. The scene of the accident is a white car that rear-ended a black car, with the unfortunate incident that a truck traveling in the opposite direction also collided with both. Given the scenario, it might seem that everything is quite clear: the white car was primarily responsible for the accident, having rear-ended the black vehicle (without maintaining a safe distance). However, the analysis of the black box of the first car, the black one, changed everything. It showed how five seconds before the collision, that vehicle had slowed down and turned left. What had really happened? The black car had wanted to take an exit and, at the last minute, had changed its mind, causing the white car to rear-end it. Suddenly, the responsibilities had changed.

These boxes are usually hidden in secure spaces within the vehicle so they don't get damaged during the collision. Last year, 147 cars were analyzed. In fact, newer-generation cars tend to fold more accordion-like in a crash than older ones. Does this make them more unsafe? No. Commissioner Luis points out that they do this to absorb the impact and protect passengers. In this regard, she recommends keeping loose objects out of the vehicle, especially on top of the trunk lid, because in an accident, they fly around and can be very dangerous.

Retrospective Breathalyzer

The investigation of a traffic accident can be as thorough as that of a murder. Does the driver flee after the accident and the car isn't his? DNA can be checked using the airbag, which most likely touched his lips when it deployed. Does the driver flee and is found six hours later? A retrospective breathalyzer test can still be performed to determine whether he was drunk at the time. They also inspect scratches to identify the paint of the car that trapped him. They look for cameras and also use the built-in car cameras. And with judicial authorization, they can analyze the cell phones of those involved and even the smart screens in vehicles. In this regard, police officials emphasize the importance of having a Prosecutor's Office specialized in road safety crimes.

This technological evolution has led to exemplary judicial convictions, as one of the Barcelona Court three months agoThe jury sentenced a suicide driver to 13 years in prison for "intentionally" killing a 17-year-old girl in a head-on collision while driving the wrong way, drunk and high. In the ruling, the Court emphasized the importance of the Mossos d'Esquadra report based on all this evidence. "Everything must make sense; this is physics, and everything must fit together," the inspector concluded.