ABSTRACT
Accident investigation and reconstruction, however, need not always be directly related to litigation. Sometimes the principal purpose of accident reconstruction is to determine causation so that the accident will not be repeated. For example, Chapter 7 discusses in detail the investigation of airline accidents by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). These investigations do not involve traditional litigation. In fact, the work product of an investigation by the NTSB is not admissible in legal proceedings arising from the accident. Such use of NTSB reports is forbidden by statute. The overriding concern is for a thorough and timely investigation. Recommendations are quickly disseminated to involved parties with the goal of reducing the potential for repetition of the accident (Figure 1.1). Structural failure investigations conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, formerly known as the National Bureau of Standards or NBS) have a similar purpose. NIST investigations focus on technical causation and do not attempt to assign responsibility
Figure 1.2 Test apparatus at National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, Maryland. This test was part of the investigation of the Kansas City Hyatt Hotel walkway failure in 1981.
