Traffic Accident Reconstruction
A highway is closed while a collision is documented, and every minute is measured. What is not recorded before it reopens is reconstructed from photographs — or estimated.
Origin Forensics cut scene capture from around four hours to under one with Artec Leo, and left the site with the geometry a reconstruction needs already in hand.
No sensitive case details required.
How does 3D scanning change accident reconstruction?
The road, the vehicles, tire marks and debris are recorded as one measurable dataset in under an hour — so rest positions, crush and sightlines are derived from geometry, and the road reopens sooner.
75% less scan timeFour hours to under one, in a documented case.
Road and vehicles togetherRest positions, marks and debris in one coordinate system.
Crush measuredDeformation profiles against undamaged geometry.
Simulation inputSite geometry exported into the reconstruction package.
Why the clock decides what the reconstruction is built on
Scene documentation at a collision is a queue worked under pressure to reopen the road: total station points, photographs, a sketch, then the backlog at the office. The measurements taken are the ones there was time for, and the reconstruction is built on exactly those.
Origin Forensics reported vehicle scene capture dropping from about four hours to under one with Artec Leo, and the team leaving with the documentation complete. Leo records a vehicle at up to 0.1 mm wirelessly, so an operator moves around it freely; Artec Ray II records the roadway, marks and debris field from a tripod in about 1.7 minutes per dome, out to 130 metres, day or night.
The dataset supports crush measurement, rest-position geometry, sightline work and simulation input from the same file — and a question raised months later is answered from the archive, not from a road that has since been resurfaced.
The workflow, end to end
The road first, the vehicles second, the analysis on the merged model.
- 1. Capture the roadwayTripod scans of the scene — marks, debris, rest positions, sightlines — in minutes.
2. Capture each vehicleHandheld, around and inside, at 0.1 mm. Coverage confirmed on screen.
3. MergeVehicles registered into the roadway model in Artec Studio.- 4. MeasureCrush profiles, rest positions, distances and gradients from the model.
5. Export and presentInto the reconstruction package, and into the courtroom as an exhibit.
Which scanner for this work
Range for the road, detail for the vehicles. Most reconstruction units run both.
Artec Ray II
- Best for
- The roadway, marks and debris field
- Accuracy
- 1.9 mm at 10 m
- Range
- 0.5–130 m
- Scan time
- About 1.7 minutes for a full dome
- Portability
- Wireless, tripod-mounted
Ray II records the scene from a tripod out to 130 metres in about 1.7 minutes per dome, day or night, as a dense point cloud that carries gradients, rest positions and skid marks as geometry. No targets on the road.
Artec Leo
- Best for
- The vehicles
- 3D point accuracy
- Up to 0.1 mm
- 3D resolution
- Up to 0.2 mm
- Capture
- Wireless, screen and processing onboard
- Capture speed
- 35 million points per second
- Typical time
- A vehicle in about an hour, inside and out
Leo records a vehicle at up to 0.1 mm without cables or a laptop, inside and out, and HD Mode handles dark paint and glass. Origin Forensics' four-hours-to-under-one figure was measured on exactly this work.
“Our experience with the Artec scanners has been excellent. The ability to capture an entire scene in 3D, with accurate measurements, casts and transformed data we can document and present in evidence.”
See how a collision scene is captured in under an hour and handed to the reconstruction — book a demo for your unit.
Book a demoQuestions practitioners ask
How much faster is it, really?
Origin Forensics reported scene capture dropping from around four hours to under one, and the team leaving with the documentation complete rather than a backlog.
Can it capture at night on an unlit road?
Yes. Ray II is a laser scanner and does not depend on ambient light; Leo projects its own structured light. Both work in darkness.
Does the data go into our reconstruction software?
Artec Studio exports OBJ, PLY, STL, E57 and other standard formats, so site and vehicle geometry lands in the analysis and simulation package you already use.
What about crush measurement?
The vehicle scan is compared against undamaged geometry to give crush profiles at any station, measured rather than estimated from a tape.
Tell us about the work you do
A forensic application specialist will come back with the device that fits it, the accuracy to expect at that scale, and how the data reaches your existing workflow.