08x40 - Deadly Curve

[bunniefuu]

NARRATOR: It was supposed to be a routine motorcade

for the Queen of England.

But along this two lane highway leading to Yosemite National

Park, a car carrying Secret Service agents

collided with another, k*lling three people.

[car crash sound]

What went wrong?

Who was responsible?

Hidden, in this photograph, was the clue to the mystery.

[theme music]

In , Yosemite National Park in California

was selected to be the site of a royal visit,

by the heads of the British monarchy.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip

were scheduled to tour the park, following

a visit with President Reagan at his California home.

Don Schneider, a photographer and reporter for a local radio

station, monitored the preparations for her arrival

on a shortwave radio.

In advance of that, there were three car loads

of Secret Service agents that were

going to Yosemite to provide security

at that location for her.

They were not directly involved in her transport,

but were supposed to be preceding her

and have things ready up there in the park.

NARRATOR: Four cars, carrying Secret Service agents,

traveled along Highway , a two-lane road

that snaked its way through the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.

There were three agents in the second car.

The driver was George LeBarge.

years old, he was married with a young son.

George LeBarge was a year veteran of the Secret Service

from Dayton, Ohio.

He had been, for many years, assigned to the protection

detail of the Vice President.

NARRATOR: As the three agents made their way eastward

toward Yosemite, Deputy Sheriff Ron Sinclair, of the Mariposa

County Sheriff's Office, was preparing to check the road

closings for the Queen's visit.

Rod was a big man, heavy, and was

quite macho and authoritative.

We had heard-- but we never produced any hard evidence

of this fact-- that Sinclair was something of a loose cannon.

NARRATOR: Sinclair, and another deputy,

climbed into a Chevy Impala patrol car similar to this one,

and sped west on Highway , to check on the road closings.

At the same moment, the Secret Service agents continued

eastward in a small rental car.

None of the agents was wearing a seat belt,

and the road was wet from a light rain.

Both Sinclair and the convoy of Secret Service agents

believe the road had been cleared of traffic.

The sheriff's car was coming from our right,

around this curve.

The Secret Service cars were coming from our left.

NARRATOR: The road curved around a small hill

that blocked the driver's view of approaching cars.

That location had been the scene of seven accidents

in the previous three years.

At : AM on March , it happened again.

The two cars entered the curve at the exact same moment.

The three agents were k*lled instantly.

Protected by seat belts, the two deputies

suffered only minor injuries.

It appeared to be a terrible, but unavoidable, tragedy.

But was it?

The answer lay in the scarred surface of the roadway,

and twisted metal of the wrecked cars.

A car with three Secret Service agents,

and a Sheriff's patrol car with two deputies,

collided along the back road near Yosemite National Park.

The collision demolished both cars

and claimed the lives of three Secret Service agents.

The question facing investigators was why?

Within two hours, a special unit of the Fresno,

California Highway Patrol called the Multidisciplinary

Accident Investigation Team, or MAIT, arrived at the scene.

Their job is to take a look at everything that's there,

document it, classify it, photograph it, and then use it

later in the reconstruction process,

to develop a model as to how the vehicles were moving.

You want to know what the damage patterns are.

Where's the contact damage?

Where's the induced damage?

What is the nature of the damage?

How does that relate to objects or other vehicles?

Are there people or anything else the vehicle

may have come in contact with?

NARRATOR: The investigators found the point of impact

marked by scattered debris, a pool of brake fluid,

and more than a dozen gouge and scrape marks.

They also found a set of skid marks, feet long.

They began in Sgt. Sinclair's lane,

crossed the yellow center lines, and ended in the oncoming lane

traveled by the Secret Service.

It was clear the skid marks would be a critical clue.

They photographed the roadway in detail.

That was their first job, and they

needed to do that before it was lost,

before the roadway could be opened.

The MAIT investigators then interviewed

eyewitnesses, one of whom was driving

behind the Secret Service cars.

According to her, the agents did nothing wrong.

They were relaxed, taking their time,

driving along at a reasonable speed

for the area and the terrain.

NARRATOR: After gathering all the evidence,

the MAIT investigators began the hard work of reconstructing

what caused the accident.

What I'm doing here is called motion analysis.

I'm using the scale physical evidence, and the scale

vehicles, to try to determine how

the vehicles were moving during particular phases

of the collision.

NARRATOR: The motion analysis provided the data for a series

of critical calculations.

The first was the momentum of each car

immediately after the collision.

Momentum is determined by multiplying

each car's speed by its weight.

According to the laws of physics, when objects collide,

as in this demonstration, their momentum after the impact

is equal to that before.

If the investigators could figure out the speed of the two

cars as they separated immediately after impact,

they could calculate how fast they

were going before the crash.

The investigators knew the weights of both cars.

By measuring the distance and direction they had slid,

their rotation, and the amount of friction,

they were able to calculate their post impact speeds.

miles per hour for the Sheriff's car.

miles per hour for the Secret Service.

Next they looked at the angle at which

the two cars had collided.

TOM SHELTON: The angle of impact,

in this particular collision evaluation,

was critical to determining how this collision took place.

NARRATOR: MAIT calculated that the two

cars collided at a degree angle, almost directly head on.

They already knew the direction the Sheriff was traveling

from the skid marks, so the angle of impact

allowed them to calculate the path of the Secret Service car.

degree approach angle between these two vehicles

places the Secret Service Dodge Aries

within its lane of travel, and moving slightly from

left to right as a potential evasive tactic as impact

takes place.

NARRATOR: Eyewitness testimony had already established

that the Secret Service agents were driving

at around miles per hour.

The critical question was, how fast

was Deputy Sinclair driving?

Sinclair claimed he was going or miles per hour.

Applying the laws of conservation of momentum,

MAIT calculated he was actually doing miles per hour.

When he came into that curve, his vehicle was out of position

for the speed that he was traveling.

When he saw traffic coming at him in the eastbound direction,

he simply didn't have enough distance or enough time

to safely negotiate the curve.

He panicked, locked up the brakes on the patrol car.

Once he did that, the patrol car slides straight

across the inside of the curve, into the opposing traffic lane,

and struck the second Secret Service vehicle.

NARRATOR: Based on its three week investigation,

the California Highway Patrol believed that Sergeant Sinclair

was grossly negligent, and recommended that he

be criminally prosecuted.

I believe the facts were there, given

the circumstances, that you could make a case

for misdemeanor manslaughter.

NARRATOR: But one man had lingering

doubts about the investigation.

Attorney Charles Brunn, who represented Rod Sinclair,

believed something vital might have been missed.

Rod kept saying, over and over again,

"They were in my lane of travel, they were heading right at me.

There was nothing I could do but hit the brakes."

NARRATOR: Was deputy Sinclair telling the truth?

Brunn hired his own investigators to find out,

and what they would discover would force the highway patrol

to reopen their investigation.

Three Secret Service agents had been

k*lled in a near head on collision

with the Sheriff's patrol car.

All the evidence indicated that Deputy Sheriff Rod

Sinclair was solely to blame.

But then, a local photographer, Don Schneider,

was looking at slides of the accident

when he discovered a clue the highway patrol had missed.

Another skid mark.

It was a surprise to me to see the mark there,

because I had not observed the skid mark at the accident site.

And I asked the question of the group that was there,

hey fellows, what is this?

And pointed to the skid mark that I saw on the screen.

And it was obvious, in the matter the discussion

a few moments later, that had something to do

with the Secret Service car.

NARRATOR: Attorney Charles Brunn showed

the faint skid mark to a team of accident

reconstruction experts.

From the angle of the mark, it appeared

that the Secret Service car had been over the center line,

and was turning back into its own lane when it was hit.

And all of a sudden, I thought to myself,

we have cause here for optimism.

Sergeant Sinclair, it would seem, was vindicated.

He said they were coming right at him.

NARRATOR: The new evidence suggested

Sinclair had hit the brakes.

Not because he was going too fast,

as the highway patrol contended, but because he

saw danger ahead.

The California Highway Patrol investigators

dismissed the new evidence, calling it

the phantom skid mark.

The CHP experts covered that ground

on their hands and knees, literally inch by inch,

and never saw that skid mark.

NARRATOR: Why they didn't find it wasn't clear.

But the discovery gave new impetus

to Brunn's team of forensic accident

reconstruction experts.

Paul Kayfetz, a photographer and engineer,

is an expert in something called photogrammetry.

It's a $ word for making measurements from photographs,

or using photographs to make measurements.

NARRATOR: Brunn's experts needed a map of the accident scene

with the skid marks to conduct their investigation.

Kayfetz's job was to reproduce the mark on the road,

in its exact position, so that a surveyor

could map its location.

He began by making a millimeter

negative of Schneider's photograph

showing the skid mark.

I put it into a special camera that I take back to the scene.

I locate the exact point from which he took his photograph,

and then looking through my camera,

I can remark the position of the skid mark on the ground,

and have a surveyor record it.

NARRATOR: The chalk marks help Kayfetz verify

that the mark he recreated was exactly

as it appeared in the photo.

Once the new survey map was created,

Doctor William Blythe, an expert in applied mechanics

and accident reconstruction, was able to trace the path

of the Secret Service car.

The results confirmed Sinclair's statement

that the Secret Service cars were over the center line.

I think that the amount of the vehicle over the center line,

as I recall, was something in the neighborhood of one third

or one half of the vehicle.

It wasn't fully in the oncoming lane.

NARRATOR: The highway patrol had determined that the collision

was virtually head on.

Blythe showed that the Sheriff's car had struck at an angle,

as if Agent LeBarge had been turning to the right

to get back into his own lane.

Doctor Blythe determined that the critical skid

mark was made by one of the front tires on the agents' car.

It did have dark edges to it, which

is indicative of a front tire.

When you apply your brakes, the weight of the car

shifts to the front axle.

And when that happens, the front tires to cup a little bit,

and the load is on the edges of the tires,

on the side walls of the tires, primarily.

NARRATOR: The critical question was, which front tire?

The highway patrol experts, after first

denying the existence of the skid mark,

argued it was made by the left.

If they were correct, it meant the Secret Service could not

have been over the center line.

Using photogrammetry, Kayfetz was

able to determine the width of the tire that

made the skid mark, and prove that it

was, in fact, the right tire.

As it happened, the right front tire on the wrecked LeBarge car

was almost an inch narrower than the other three tires.

It had been replaced, probably, by a spare tire at some point.

And that particular tire mark matched only

that narrower right front tire.

NARRATOR: Proving the skid mark belonged

to the Secret Service car was one of two critical issues

facing Doctor Blythe.

What was the Sheriff reacting to when he applied his brakes?

Was he reacting to his perception

that he was going too fast to make the corner?

Was he reacting to some other danger that he saw?

NARRATOR: The highway patrol found Sinclair was going too

fast, but Doctor Blythe ran his own test,

using a patrol car identical to the one Sinclair was driving.

The range for the Sheriff's vehicle that I found

was between to miles an hour.

At that speed, Sergeant Sinclair had no reason

to hit his brakes, because he could have comfortably

negotiated the curve.

That left only one explanation.

We felt there was negligence on the part of the drivers

of the first two cars in that entourage, in that

they crossed the center line.

Okay, let's begin a test run.

NARRATOR: To help prove these findings,

Brunn asked Paul Kayfetz to conduct a visibility study,

like this one, recreating what each driver saw an instant

before the collision.

The results would reveal another surprising piece of evidence.

A high speed collision.

Three Secret Service agents k*lled.

California Highway Patrol investigators

determined that Sheriff's deputy, Rod Sinclair,

was solely responsible.

But then the discovery of a skid mark in this photograph

suggested the Secret Service was also at fault.

The problem was proving it.

To reconstruct the critical moments before Deputy Sinclair

slammed on his brakes, attorney Brunn asked Paul Kayfetz

to conduct a visibility study.

What we were trying to find out is, did that skid,

and ultimate loss of control, start

because he perceived that the oncoming lead

car was in his lane?

NARRATOR: Kayfetz mounted cameras in vehicles

identical to those involved in the accident,

positioning them to record each driver's point of view.

Then, based on the physical evidence and the calculations

of Doctor Blythe, he reconstructed the events that

preceded the fatal collision.

From this viewpoint, you can actually

see that the lead car is halfway over the center line,

and the LeBarge car in front of this car

is also a couple of feet over the center line.

NARRATOR: Now comes the view from the fourth car, driven

by a key eyewitness, Mona Crocker,

who told MAIT investigators she had seen the accident happen.

She testified that at no time did she

see any of the three Secret Service cars

cross the center line.

She also testified that she saw the accident occur.

NARRATOR: Kayfetz's reenactment told a different story.

So this is Mona Crocker's viewpoint.

And what's important here is that, although the lead car

ahead of her goes halfway over the center line,

straddles the center line, from her viewpoint that

is never visible, because it's around the curve

and over the hill.

NARRATOR: Crocker thought she could

see the position of the cars.

In fact, she could not.

I was actually surprised at the result about what Mona

Crocker could or couldn't see.

I hadn't the predicted or expected that.

NARRATOR: From the beginning, the critical question

in the case was always, why did Deputy

Sinclair jam on his brakes?

Kayfetz's dramatic reenactment answered the question.

From Sinclair's viewpoint, we can

see that he sees the lead Secret Service car straddling

the center line, just a bit more than a second

before he begins to skid in a straight line

across the highway.

NARRATOR: The last view is that of Agent LeBarge

just before the fatal crash.

Based on Kayfetz's powerful reenactment, and the work

of Brunn's team of investigators,

a judge ruled that the Secret Service agents were partially

responsible for the accident.

He also ruled that the United States should reimburse

Mariposa County % of a $ million

settlement that had been paid to the families

of the Secret Service agents k*lled in the accident.

I felt good that the judge believed Sgt. Sinclair,

that the Secret Service agents had

driven across the center line.

I felt very good about that.

NARRATOR: The verdict was later overturned on a technicality,

but Brunn and his team of forensic experts

had proven their case.

It is phenomenal, it is amazing,

what they can put together, and how they

can reconstruct an accident.

And how they can make those small pieces of evidence

tell a story.

There's satisfaction when the pieces

come together in a case like this, and other similar cases.

STEVE LAPHAM: That was a very powerful presentation,

and I recall having a lump in my throat when I watched it.

It was as if you were in the driver's seat,

watching your life come to an end in that split second.

It was a very powerful videotape.