Roll-by Fatality

Fay Engineering was retained to assist two railroads in analyzing a fatal accident involving a railroad conductor who dismounted his parked locomotive to do a required 'roll-by' inspection of another train and was struck by the locomotive of the approaching train.  Although the accident occurred on a very cold winter night and the conductor was seen putting on his coat as he dismounted, he did not have his gloves, lantern or his radio. 

In order to accurately reconstruct the accident, Fay's forensic team applied multiple state-of-the-art technologies, enabling the visualization of the actions of the conductor as seen from the appraoching locomotive.  These technologies included aerial photography, video matching and human motion capture.  Extensive interviews were also performed with the conductor on the approaching train to determine critical details for the reconstruction.

The first movie you see is a side-by-side comparison of a motion capture scene.  On the left is Patrick Fay wearing a motion capture suit, and on the right is a computer character performing Patrick's actions.  The second movie is a night view from the engineer's seat of the passing train, with scaling markers which can be seen in between the tracks.  In addition, the captured motion from the first movie is added with video tracking, showing the conductor descending the steps of his parked locomotive.

In conclusion, Fay Engineering's reconstruction proved that there was no time for the engineer to react and that neither railroad was at fault in the accident; and these findings assisted the railroads in reaching a favorite conclusion.