February 2010
We are pleased to announce that Heather Andrews has been promoted to lead MEA’s Business Development department in our Vancouver office. Heather has been a key part of our Transportation group for the last four years. She is excited about the opportunity to work more closely with our valued clients and industry leaders in the Vancouver market.
MEA’s Vancouver office welcomes Nita Dun to the position of Project Coordinator. Nita has a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Victoria in Geography, and has spent the last 5 years living in New Zealand. We are very excited to have her join our busy and diverse Transportation group. Welcome Nita!
January 2010
Dennis Turriff PhD PEng joins MEA’s Toronto office as a Senior Engineer in the Product and Property Groups. He has expertise in metallurgy and materials science with an emphasis on microstructural, mechanical, and thermal characterization of numerous metallic and non-metallic materials. This includes phase transformations during materials processing including welding, brazing, soldering, heat treating, plating, forming as well as failure analysis. Prior to joining MEA, Dennis was an instructor within the Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering Department at the University of Waterloo.
November 2009
MEA Forensic sponsors the Canadian Defense Lawyers’ Law Clerks Ontario Rules Audioconference on November 16th, 2009.
Navid Nastar attends the 5th American Society of Civil Engineers Forensic Engineering Congress in Washington, DC on November 11-14, 2009.
Kurt Ising attends the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America’s Annual Conference in Seattle, WA, on November 16 and 17. Mr. Ising will present his paper. “Threshold Visibility Levels Required for Nighttime Pedestrian Detection in a Modified Adrian/CIE Visibility Model”.
Ismail El Maach, Pamela D’Addario and Lucy Zhao attend the Women’s Law Association of Ontario’s 90th Anniversary Gala at the Royal York Hotel on November 26th, 2009.
Navid Nastar PhD, PE joins MEA California’s office as a Senior Civil/Structural Engineer in the Product and Property Groups. He specializes in the field of earthquake engineering and earthquake damage assessment. Navid is also an adjunct faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of Southern California.
MEA Forensic sponsors a hole at the Orange County Trial Lawyers Association's Annual Bench & Bar Columbus Day Golf Tournament held at the El Niguel Country Club.
John Gardiner, Ryan Fix, Check Kam, Julie O’Brien, Lucy Zhao, and Melinda Munroe attend the 1st OCTLA-ABOTLA Conference held at University California of Irvine. The topic of the conference was Courtroom Solutions for Today’s Lawyers with keynote speakers Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of UCI School of Law and Kenneth Starr, Dean of Pepperdine University School of Law.
Melinda Munroe attends Insurance Group Blue Goose International meeting for the Los Angeles/Orange County area.
John Gardiner, Navid Nastar, and Melinda Munroe attend the CAALA-ASCDC joint reception “Reaching across the Aisle” with keynote speaker Judge “Tim” McCoy of the Los Angeles Superior Court.
October 2009
Kurt Ising attends the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society's 53rd Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, and presents his research, “The Distribution of Visibility Levels at Target Detection in a Modified Adrian/CIE Visibility Model”.
James Bowler attends the Collision Safety Institute’s Crash Data Retrieval Course for Advanced Technicians in Seattle on October 29-31st.
Ken Iliadis and Lucy Zhao attend the Canadian Defense Lawyers’ 2nd Annual Accident Benefits Conference in Toronto on October 8th, 2009 at the Ontario Bar Association.
MEA Forensic attends the Toronto National Career Event on October 14th at the Hilton Toronto.
MEA Forensic attends the Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia's “Perfecting Your Trial Story” and “BC Supreme Court Rules” workshops in Vancouver, BC, on October 30-31st.
September 2009
MEA Forensic Engineers & Scientists receives the #8 ranking for the Best Places to Work Small Business Category in Orange County, California by the Orange County Business Journal (OCBJ). The list was compiled for OCBJ by Harrisburg, Pennsylvania based Best Companies Group, an independent work-place researcher.
Dave King, John Gardiner, Vicki Norton, Chuck Gang, Julie O’Brien and Melinda Munroe attend the annual Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles’s 27th Annual Las Vegas Convention on September 3rd to 6th. Dr. John Gardiner speaks on the “Biomechanics of Auto Accidents: Using Advanced Testing to Prove Injuries”
Kurt Ising teaches the Human Factors & Traffic Safety course to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police RCMP Level III Collision Analysts at the RCMP Pacific Region Training Center, Chilliwack, BC.
Elizabeth Hassan MESc PEng joins MEA’s Toronto office as a Project Engineer in the Transportation group.
Alyssa DeMarco and Nicholas Mang attend “The Best Defence” conference hosted by the Canadian Defence Lawyers on September 16th in Vancouver, BC.
August 2009
MEA is a sponsor and participant of ICBC Richmond’s Annual Golf Tournament at Mylora Golf Course. Jonathan Lawrence represents MEA Forensic in the August 29th tournament.
Andrea Ho and Mathieu King attend the iWitness close range photogrammetry training course held in Langley, BC
MEA Forensic hosts a 4 day PC Crash software course starting on the 25th of August, in Downtown Vancouver. August 25th -26th is an Essentials Workshop, and the 27th – 28th is an Expert Models Workshop. Bradley Heinrichs spearheads the workshop as engineers and accident re-constructionists from both U.S. and Canada sign up for the program. Also in attendance are MEA Engineers Check Kam, Anthony Geach and Brian Mac Giolla Ri..
Ryan Fix participates in the California Association of Accident Reconstruction Specialist (CAARS)’s Motorcycle Crash testing from August 24th to August 27th at Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County airport where participants in the study preformed 25 motorcycle into vehicle crash tests and 6 motorcycle slide tests.
July 2009
MEA is a sponsor and participant of the Canadian Insurance Claims Managers Association's 10th Anniversary Charity Golf Tournament. This year’s event takes place at the Northview Golf & Country Club, and all the proceeds raised will be given to the Canuck Place Children’s Hospice. Mark Bailey is MEA’s 2009 representative at the charity event.
MEA is a sponsor of the Orange County Trial Lawyers Association Ultimate Lien seminar in Tustin. Speakers include Hon. James J. DiCesare, Mark Wilson of Klein & Wilson, and Michael Behr of Conferencing Advisors.
June 2009
MEA develops a technique for recovering Event Data Recorder (EDR) data from severely damaged cars. A fire following an automobile accident badly damaged the EDR. MEA engineers were able to transplant a computer chip from the damaged recorder box into a new box. The crash data, which had survived the fire, was successfully downloaded from the new box. This new research offers a potential breakthrough for cases where traditional download methods do not work because of damage to the EDR.
John Gardiner, Julie O'Brien and Check Kam attend the Orange County Trial Lawyers seminar on Preparing the Case to Settle Before, During & After Mediation.
MEA sponsors the photo booth at the Ontario Insurance Adjusters Association Open Annual Golf Tournament in Ajax, Ontario.
MEA sponsors the photo booth and attends the Canadian Insurance Claims Managers Association Annual Golf Tournament at Kleinburg Golf Club.
Nicholas Mang attends the 2009 Annual General Meeting by the Canadian Defence Lawyers in Vancouver, BC.
Dennis Chimich presents a telephone-seminar on the Injury Biomechanics of “Slip, Trip and Fall”, for the Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia.
Nicholas Mang attends the 2009 LA Law by the Canadian Defence Lawyers in Vancouver, BC.
May 2009
MEA Forensic announces a new brand identity. The new MEA Forensic logo incorporates icon, wordmark and tagline components in a red and black color scheme. The three-point icon is a stylized glyph that draws its origins from the mathematical “therefore” symbol.
John Gardiner participates in the Consumer Attorneys of San Diego Annual Golf Outing.
Check Kam attends the Orange County Trial Lawyers seminar on What Lawyers Can Learn From Actors Persuasive Storytelling.
Chuck Gang, Check Kam, and Julie O’Brien attend the 2009 West Coast Casualty Conference in Anaheim, CA.
MEA attends the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association 2009 Spring Conference in Toronto, ON.
MEA attends the Canadian Association of Insurance Women Annual General Meeting and Convention hosted by the Toronto Insurance Woman’s Association in Toronto, ON.
MEA sponsors a hole at the Ledgeview Golf and Country Club for the 13th Annual ICBC Abbotsford Charity Golf Tournament. The proceeds from the event will help support programs and services of The Salvation Army.
Brian Mac Giolla Ri, joins the Transportation Group in the MEA Toronto office.
MEA Forensic’s 2nd Annual Collision Reconstruction Summit takes place in Vancouver, British Columbia. The in-house seminar brings together members from MEA’s Transportation Group in all three offices to discuss and exchange new technical knowledge and research developments in collision reconstruction.
April 2009
MEA Forensic hosts members from the California Highway Patrol’s Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team (MAIT) program to an accident reconstruction training seminar at MEA’s Laguna Hills facility. Staged crash tests demonstrate various concepts related to vehicle and crash dynamics to our guests. An article of the day’s event is featured in the OC Register.
Craig Wilkinson presented at the Annual Law Clerks conference held by the Canadian Defence Lawyers in Toronto on “Asking the Right Questions: Getting the Most from Your Expert”.
Mark Bailey, Andrea Ho, Craig Wilkinson, Ken Iliadis and Pamela D’Addario attend the Society of Automotive Engineers’ (SAE) 2009 World Congress in Detroit, Michigan. Mark Bailey presents MEA research on the “Mechanics of Wheel Separation” as Craig Wilkinson discusses “The Accuracy of 1997 to 2005 General Motors Event Data Recorders in NHTSA Crash Tests”.
MEA Forensic hosts 15 members of the Society of Automotive Engineers, British Columbia Chapter to a tour of our Vancouver office facilities. Led by Dale Goudie, Elvis Cepuš, Elizabeth Hassan, Jeff Nickel and James Bowler, the guests are given presentations on polymer identification using FTIR, an impact sled demonstration in our Biomechanics Lab, and a Crash Data Recorder (CDR) demonstration involving vehicle-to-barrier crash test.
Nicholas Mang and Alyssa DeMarco attend Boot Camp Vancouver hosted by the Canadian Defence Lawyers.
A review paper entitled “The anatomy and biomechanics of acute and chronic whiplash injury” is published in Traffic Injury Prevention. Gunter Siegmund co-authors this review with Beth Winkelstein of the University of Pennsylvania, Paul Ivancic of Yale University, Mats Svensson of Chalmers University of Technology, and Anita Vasavada of Washington State University.
MEA research demonstrating that collision jerk plays little or no role in the genesis of whiplash injuries is published in the Journal of Physiology. This research was conducted in collaboration with Jean-Sébastien Blouin of UBC’s School of Human Kinetics.
Gunter Siegmund is awarded a 5 year Discovery Grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to pursue research into gender-related differences in neck biomechanics relevant to whiplash injury.
Mircea Oala-Florescu and Marcia Araujo celebrate their 10 year anniversaries at MEA Forensic.
March 2009
Gunter Siegmund, Alyssa DeMarco and Nicholas Mang attend The Essential Soft Tissue Injury Conference 2009 hosted by the Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia. As a podium speaker for the conference, Gunter Siegmund reviews recent science regarding the anatomy and biomechanics of acute and chronic whiplash injuries
February 2009
January 2009
Captain Vickie R. Norton, BSME, ATP joins MEA's California office as a Mechanical Engineer in the Aviation Group. Vickie brings over 20 years of multi-disciplined aviation experience ranging from engineering design and airframe certification to Captain with a major US airline. She has held the prestigious FAA Designated Engineering Representative Certification as well as Certified Flight Instructor/Ground Instructor licenses and currently holds her Private Rotorcraft-Helicopter license. Her areas of specialization include Aircraft systems, failure analysis, FAA Operating rules and pilot training and human factors.
Nicholas Mang joins our Vancouver office as a Business Development Specialist. Nicholas comes to MEA after working extensively in China, as he represented and promoted the international interests for one of the largest private mining companies in China. Nicholas was also most recently acting as an Asia-Pacific Consultant to the British Columbia Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, during the ministry’s trade mission and talks throughout the Pacific Rim
Craig Wilkinson presents a seminar on Injury Biomechanics at the Ontario Insurance Adjusters Association Hamilton Chapter Dinner Meeting on Wednesday January 14th.
Lucy Zhao attends the Toronto Insurance Women’s Association Dinner Meeting at the Toronto Board of Trade on Tuesday January 20th.
Gunter Siegmund and Ismail El Maach presents biomechanical training seminar to graduate students in the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at the University of Western Ontario on Wednesday January 21st.
December 2008
MEA research into differences in the dynamic response of females and males in rear-end impacts is published in Traffic Injury Prevention. This research was done in collaboration with Astrid Linder and Anna Carlsson of the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute and Mats Svensson of the Chalmers University of Technology.
Dennis Chimich presents a seminar on Injury Biomechanics and Concussion, this presentation inculded research relating NFL football injury data to assess concussion risk in a motor vehicle collision. This was in conjunction with an ICBC Focus on Concussion Seminar in Vancouver, BC.
Mark Bailey and Lucy Zhao attend the Career Transition Workshop for Automotive Engineers in Toronto presented by the Society of Automotive Engineers on Friday December 12th.
Dave King, Julie O'Brien and Chuck Gang attend the Orange County Trial Lawyers Annual Holiday Luncheon in Santa Ana, CA.
November 2008
Craig Wilkinson, Ismail El Maach, Ken Iliadis, and Lucy Zhao attend the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association Fall Conference at the Westin Prince on November 30th – 31st.
Dennis Chimich and Kurt Ising present a program on Accident Reconstruction and the application of Injury Biomechanics to assess motor vehicle collisions at the MVA Experts Conference for the SFU Segal School of Business at the Law Courts Center in Vancouver, BC.
Gunter Siegmund, Dennis Chimich, John Gardiner, Ishmail El Maach and Check Kam attend the 52nd Annnual Stapp Car Crash Conference in San Antonio, TX. The Stapp Car Crash Conference is the premier forum for the presentation of research in impact biomechanics, human injury tolerance, and related fields that advance the knowledge of land-vehicle crash injury protection.
Gunter Siegmund presents research findings related to sensory pathways mediating the neck muscle response in rear-end impacts. 36th International Workshop on Human Subjects for Biomechanical Research, San Antonio, TX, November 2, 2008.
MEA LA welcomes Ross Hunter to the Transportation Group. Ross has a Bachelors of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering from UC Davis.
October 2008
MEA Toronto welcomes two new employees! Jessica Noble, Project Coordinator and Lucy Zhao, Business Development Specialist!
Dr. John Gardiner, Senior Biomechanical Engineer is appointed to lead MEA's US Injury Practice Group. Dr. Gardiner, based in MEA's California office, has been with MEA since 2002. He specializes in conducting biomechanical analyses to assess injury causation in cases involving automobile collisions, slip/trip and fall, and sports injuries. He also is an expert in the use of finite element (FE) method to assess product failure and function in medical device and other fields. Areas of his research efforts include whiplash, slip and fall mechanics and knee and shoulder biomechanics.
Jim Bertoch's Patent #7,390,052, Light Weight Chassis and Hull, approved by the United State Patent Office. Patent Summary, the patent is for a Recreational Vehicle that is made of pre-assembled laminated wall, floor and ceiling sections. The sections fit together using aluminum extrusions or weldements that fit into one another, joining the vehicle together. Adhesive is used to join the sections. This forms a box that is then sat upon an aluminum chassis that bolts together. No welding or fabrication is required.
September 2008
Dale Goudie presents "Commercial Vehicle Event Data Recorders" (a.k.a. "Black Boxes in Big Rigs") to the Canadian Transportation Lawyers Association (CTLA) at their annual conference in Quebec City.
Gunter Siegmund, Kurt Ising, Jean-Francois Goulet, Jennifer Tyler and Heather Andrews attend the ICBC Annual Ward Kruse golf tournament. This event raises money for cancer research.
Ken Iliadis taught an Event Data Recorders course to the Ontario Provincial Police at the Highway Patrol Officers Conference on September 23, 2008, in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Kurt Ising teaches the Human Factors & Traffic Safety course to the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police RCMP Level III Collision Analysts at the RCMP Pacific Region
Training Center, Chilliwack, BC.
Ken A. Iliadis, P.Phys joins MEA Toronto as a Senior Scientist in the Transportation Group. Ken brings 14 years of experience as a forensic scientist specializing in accident reconstruction to MEA. Ken specializes in the analysis of complex collisions, occupant kinematics and road design cases. Ken is highly experienced in the simulation and animation of motor vehicle collisions as well as the investigation of collisions involving bicycles and pedestrians.
Kurt Ising joins the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America.
Dave King, Julie O'Brien and Gunter Siegmund join the Defense Research Institute.
August 2008
Jonathan Lawrence, Ryan Fix, Dale Goudie, Jeff Nickel, Josh Yanes, Mathieu King, Andrea Ho and Pamela D’Addario complete several crash tests at the MEA Forensic crash test facility in Richmond, BC. These tests will provide data to research relationships in the energy dissipated in offset impacts relative to standard NHTSA tests. The crash tests also offered a first hand look at the change in post impact vehicle behavior as a function of the percentage of the overlap of the impact.
Courtney Drury joins the MEA Vancouver Team as a Project Coordinator!
Chuck Gang, John Gardiner, Dave King and Julie O'Brien attend the 26th Annual Consumer Attorney's of Los Angeles Convention in Las Vegas, NV.
Kurt Ising attends a Naturalistic Driving Methods and Analyses Symposium at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute in Blacksburg, Virginia.
James Bertoch, Ken Iliadis and Pam D'Addario attend the Essentials of PC-Crash Training at MEA's Vancouver office.
Ken Iliadis and Pam D'Addario attend the PC-Crash Expert Animations Workshop at MEA's Vancouver office.
Julie O'Brien attends the Orange County RIMS and Orange Empire CPCU seminar on Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution Methods presented by Darin McMullen, Esq. and Michael Conley, Esq. of Anderson Kill & Olick, PC.
July 2008
John Gardiner, Check Kam, Chuck Gang and Julie O'Brien attend the Orange County Trial Lawyers seminar on Premises Liability Issues for the Trial Attorney, presented by Gail A. Andler, Superior Court Judge for the County of Orange, Yoshi Kubota of Chambers Norona & Kubota and Kimberly Hall Barlow of Jones & Mayer.
John Gardiner and Julie O'Brien attend the Orange County RIMS 29th Annual Chapter Conference in Fullerton, CA.
Pamela D'Addario, BEng, EIT joins the Transportation Group in the MEA Toronto office.
Dale Goudie receives an invitation to present at the Annual Convention of the Canadian Transportation Lawyers' Association in Quebec City, Quebec on September 26, 2008. Dale will participate in the panel discussion titled "Getting to the Bottom of It: Official Investigations and Data Recorded Evidence."
MEA research into the effect of rotated head postures on the strain in the facet capsule ligament during whiplash is published in Spine. This research was done in collaboration with Dr. Beth Winkelstein from the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Barry Myers from Duke University and Drs. Susumu Ejima and Koshiri Ono from the Japanese Automobile Research Institute.
MEA co-sponsors the CICMA Golf Tournament at Northview Golf Course in Surrey, BC on July 24, 2008.
June 2008
Brad Heinrichs, Elizabeth Hassan, James Bowler, Jean-Francois Goulet, Mathieu King and Andrea Ho braved the rain for 3 days to complete the British Columbia Safety Council's Motorcycle Skills Course. This course consisted of control techniques, defensive riding tactics and emergency response techniques including braking and swerving. Lynne Allin with MEA's Vancouver office, assisted with the course. Lynne is a motorcycle riding instructor and course supervisor.
Kurt Ising teaches the Human Factors & Traffic Safety course to the
RCMP Level III Collision Analysts at RCMP Pacific Region
Training Center, Chilliwack, BC.
MEA research on the role that deep neck muscles may play in whiplash injury is published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders. This research was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Jean-Sebastien Blouin, Dr. Mark Carpenter and Dr. Tim Inglis at the University of British Columbia.
May 2008
MEA Forensic sponsors the student awards for Best Podium Presentations at the 4th Annual Northwest Biomechanics Symposium held at Boise State University in Idaho.
April 2008
A review of MEA research into the potential role of startle responses in whiplash injury is published in Exercise and Sport Science Reviews. This research was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Jean-Sebastien Blouin and Dr. Tim Inglis at the University of British Columbia.
Gunter Siegmund,
Craig Wilkinson, Jean-Francois
Goulet, Mathieu King,
Elizabeth Hassan and Ryan Fix
attend SAE 2008
World Congress in Detroit, MI.
Craig
Wilkinson is a guest
lecturer at the
Toronto Police Service Level 1 Accident Reconstruction
course on April 22, 2008. The purpose of the talk was to
provide new police reconstructionists some perspective on
how engineers approach accident reconstruction and
demonstrate advanced techniques such as accident
simulation software.
Dennis
Chimich presents a
training on Injury Biomechanics at the
Canadian Defence Lawyers, Boot Camp II on April 17,
2008 in Vancouver. This program was the sequel to CDL's
2007 Boot Camp: Basic Training for New Defence Lawyers,
approximately 80 lawyers from the greater Vancouver area
attended the session.
March 2008
MEA Forensic was a
proud sponsor of the 2nd Annual PI Charity Law Challenge
on March 27, 2008. The event raised over $18 thousand for
the Canadian Spinal Research Organization. Please see the
attached link for photos of the event.
MEA Toronto celebrates
their first anniversary and keeps growing...Ismail
El Maach, MASc, PEng, joins MEA as a Senior
Biomechanical Engineer with the Injury Group. Ismail brings more than 13 years of experience in impact and injury biomechanics, mechanical characterization of human tissues, ergonomics and human factors. His biomechanics research is extensively published and is multi-lingual.
Craig
Wilkinson will lead the seminar "Forensic
Engineering in Practice" at the Insurance Institute of
Ontario. This seminar qualifies for RIBO credits.
Craig
Wilkinson to present "From Black Boxes to
Broken Bones" at the Canadian Defense Lawyers' Boot Camp.
The Boot Camp is for law clerks and will be held at the
Ontario Bar Association. MEA is a proud sponsor and will
be exhibiting at the event.
February 2008
Andrea M.
Ho, Project Engineer joins
the Transportation Group in the BC Office.
Charles
Gang, PE joins MEA
California as construction defect expert. Chuck brings
thirty years of extensive civil/structural design
engineering, construction defect, and architectural
expertise to MEA.
January 2008
Gunter
Siegmund, John Gardiner and
Check Kam attend the World Congress on
Neck Pain in Los Angeles, CA.
1/18 - MEA sponsors The
Advocates’ Society, Tricks
of the Trade Conference at The Carlu, Toronto. MEA
exhibits at the conference, and Craig Wilkinson
participates as an expert witness in the mock trial.
1/30 - Gunter
Siegmund presents a two-hour Injury Biomechanics
seminar at The OIAA 2008 Professional Development and
Claims Conference at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
MEA is exhibiting at Booth #1107.
November 2007
11/8 - Mark
Bailey and Elvis Cepus teach Forensic Engineering
in Practice at the Insurance Institute of BC. The 3 hour
course focuses on assisting insurance professionals to
understand material and mechanical failure, product
litigation, fire, personal injury, human factors & vehicle
collision losses through engineering and science
11/9 - Check Kam performs research at the USC
Musculoskeletal Biomechanics Research Laboratory to
investigate and compare the performance of 11 different
tribometers on a suite of walkway materials. The results
will be used to assist the ASTM F13 committee in drafting
a standard to validate tribometers (instruments that
measure coefficient of friction for walkway safety).
Time Magazine article
entitled "Head
Games" (November 29, 2007) references research
recently published by MEA Forensic and Washington State
University on the difference between head and neck
geometry and strength of size-matched females and males.
October 2007
10/29-31 - MEA Injury
Biomechanics Group attends the 51st Stapp Car Crash
Conference in San Diego.
David King
and Ryan Fix participate at the
California Association of Accident Reconstructionists,
CA2RS Conference 2007. David King presents Night Time
Visibility and Understanding Low Speed Impact Collisions
seminars. Ryan Fix presents “How to assess high speed
offset collisions using NHTSA data.”
September 2007
Kurt Ising teaches the Human Factors & Traffic Safety course to the
RCMP Level III Collision Analysts at RCMP Pacific Region
Training Center, Chilliwack, BC.
David King
's article “Hanging
by a tread: The role of tires in accident reconstruction”
is published in the Advocate, The Journal of Consumer
Attorneys Associations for Southern California.
David King participates at The Consumer Attorneys
Association of Los Angeles Annual Convention in Las
Vegas. MEA biomechanist testifies in the Mock Trial as
the plaintiff’s expert in a premises liability case.
David King co-presents Accident Reconstruction
Experts: When Are They Needed and How to Use Them
Effectively.
MEA is a proud
sponsor of these upcoming industry events:
MEA Toronto: 9/6 -
TIWA Annual Golf Tournament, MEA is the golf foursome
photographer - we look forward to meeting you.
August 2007
August 3, 2007 -
MEA CELEBRATES 25 YEARS!
MEA research into the differences between female and male necks is published in the Journal of Biomechanics. This research was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Anita Vasavada at Washington State University.
Alyssa
DeMarco, Craig Wilkinson and Gunter Siegmund
publish "The
Right Helmet Helps" in CI, Canada's Insurance Business
Magazine.
MEA just keeps growing...
Norman Jang joins MEA as
Controller.
MEA
is a proud sponsor of these upcoming industry events:
MEA Toronto: MEA is
the golf foursome photographer for several industry events:
8/10 - OIAA Hamilton
Chapter Golf Tournament
8/22 - Huntington Benefit Golf Tournament
8/29 - Sean Corner Golf Tournament
8/20 - MEA California
sponsors the First Annual American Board of Trial
Advocates Golf Classic at the Marbella Country Club & Golf
Course, San Juan Capistrano
July 2007
7/12 -
MEA Toronto participates as the Official Photo Sponsor at
the Hamilton District Insurance Association Golf
Tournament.
7/26 - MEA Vancouver is a
hole sponsor at the CICMA Golf Tournament, stop by and say
hello.
June 2007
Duane
MacInnis and Craig Wilkinson publish "Motorcycle
Accident Reconstruction: For the Times, They Are A-Changin'"
in WP Without Prejudice, The Official Journal of the
Ontario Insurance Adjustors Association.
Craig
Wilkinson publishes "Event
Data Recorders in Cars - Are You Sitting on Important
Evidence?" in The Litigator, The Journal of the Ontario
Trial Lawyers Association.
June 26 - stop by and
visit our Vancouver Products, Property & Premises team at
the Family Insurance 3rd Annual Charity Fundraiser
Golf Tournament & Silent Auction at the Northview
Golf Course, Surrey, BC.
We're Growing Again!
Check Kam joins the Injury Group in our
Lake Forest office. Check recently received his Masters of
Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the
University of Virginia.
MEA Forensic Toronto
participates as sponsors at the OIAA Annual Open
Golf Tournament (June 8th) and the CICMA
Annual Open Golf Tournament (June 13th).
May 2007
Steve
Yamashita attends Basic
Fire Investigation training at the 2007
International Association of Arson Investigators/
Northwest Fire Investigators Association Joint Fire
Investigation Conference. The IAAI/NFIA coarse
certification adds great value to Steve's industry
experience in conducting failure analysis and fire
investigation.
MEA Forensic sponsors the
Best Podium Presentation and Best Poster Presentation
Awards at the
3rd
Annual Northwest Biomechanics Symposium held at the
University of Oregon in Eugene, OR.
April 2007
Kurt Ising presents "Digital camera calibration for luminance
estimation in nighttime visibility studies" at SAE
in Detroit.
MEA research into neck
muscle strain during whiplash exposures published in
Spine. This research was conducted in
collaboration with Dr. Anita Vasavada at Washington State
University.
MEA Forensic continues to
provide our clients answers and the latest technology in
Forensic Engineering. We have expanded our
laboratory and now offer
FTIR(Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer)
capabilities. MEA is one of the few forensic
engineering firms to have our own FTIR to identify unknown
substances in a wide spectrum of cases and practice areas.
Dale Goudie
PEng returns to MEA after
several years working on low emissions heavy-truck
engines. Dale led MEA's skid research in the late 90's
and we are excited to have him back. Dale will specialize
in the investigation of heavy-truck accidents.
March 2007
MEA is pleased to
announce the addition Steven Yamashita, BS as a Product Engineer. Steve leads the technical
investigation and failure analysis of product defects,
system malfunctions, accidents and fires.
MEA research on the use
of tribometers for evaluating slipperiness published in
the
Journal of Forensic Science. This research project
done in collaboration with the USC Musculoskeletal
Biomechanics Research Laboratory and J2 Engineering.
Dave King,
featured on
Discovery Channel's Survive This Series!, examining
the evidence from a semi truck vs. train collision at a
railroad crossing in Oxnard, California. Mr. King then
explains how the structure of the trailer and the
massiveness and the speed of the train combined to allowed
the female driver to emerge from her cab unharmed.
MEA is featured on
Discovery Channel's Survive This Series!, analyzing
the incident during the World Extreme Skiing Championships
in Valdez, Alaska, where competitor Garret Bartelt
stumbles and falls for 37 seconds down a terrifying chute
studded with cliffs and rocks. Mr. Brault examines the
amazing feat of Garret's survival and explains how he beat
the odds.
February 2007
MEA Is
Growing Again! Proudly in
our 25th year, MEA Forensic is pleased to announce the
opening of our newest office. With offices in Vancouver,
Los Angeles and now the Greater Toronto area, we are able
to offer comprehensive opinions, accident investigation,
analysis, reconstruction and testifying services
nationwide.
Duane MacInnis, Director,
Craig Wilkinson, Senior Engineer, Shannon Payne, Marketing
and Client Relations and La Firn Brazel, Project
Coordinator will be serving our Toronto clients. Give them
a call to discuss how MEA can handle the most complex
technical cases from start to finish.
Mathieu
King, joins the
Transportation Group in the MEA Toronto office.
MEA research on the
response of superficial and deep neck muscles to various
tasks—including whiplash—is published in the
Journal of Biomechanical Engineering.
January 2007
MEA was featured in the
January 2007 Issue of the National Post, Financial Post
Business section with the article entitled, A Crash Course
In Forensics written by award-winning magazine journalist
and sports columnist
Kerry Banks.
Kristina
Basto, joins MEA as
Marketing & Client Relations Specialist in the Vancouver
office.
Shannon
Payne, joins MEA as
Marketing & Client Relations Specialist in the Toronto
office.
La Firn
Brazel, joins MEA as a
Project Coordinator in the Toronto office.
December 2006
MEA research into the
interaction of whiplash and startle responses published in
the
Journal of Applied Physiology.
Dave King
presents to ICRMA, the
Independent Cities Risk
Management Association monthly
ICRMA
University Workshop on Roadway, Lighting and Traffic
Signals Liabilities Mitigation.
MEA research on the
potential interaction of whiplash and startle is published
in the
Journal of Applied Physiology.
November 2006
Gunter
Siegmund, John Gardiner and
Alyssa DeMarco attended the
50th Stapp Car Crash Conference in Dearborn, MI.
Alyssa
DeMarco presented
“Motorcycle Helmet Impact Response: Comparison of Helmet
Type and Impact Severity” at the 34th International
Workshop on Human Subjects for Biomechanical Research in
Gunter
Siegmund presented
“Cervical Multifidus Muscle Activity during Whiplash and
Startle Responses” at the 34th International Workshop on
Human Subjects for Biomechanical Research in Dearborn, MI.
Julie
O'Brien inducted into
Irvine Spectrum
Rotary Club as a District 5320 Rotarian.
October 2006
Mark Bailey presents research entitled “Failure analysis of PVC pipe
joint separations” at the Materials Science & Technology
Conference in Cincinnati, OH.
Mark Bailey
is designated a CFEI (Certified Fire and Explosion
Investigator) having met the qualification and examination
requirements of the
National Fire Protection Association.
Kurt Ising
completes ED 100, a 3-day
lighting fundamentals course taught by the
Illuminating Engineering Society of North America.
Gunter
Siegmund's research on
startle and whiplash is profiled in
The Vancouver Sun, The Province, CTV and CBC.
Bill Cliff
leads two-day PC-Crash Introductory training as well as
two-day Advanced PC-Crash training in Vancouver, BC.
September 2006
Jonathan
Lawrence joins CBC's
On the Coast broadcast for a discussion of forensics
in the Lower Mainland.
Kurt Ising
and Jonathan Lawrence teach sections of
the RCMP Level 3 Accident Investigation course held in
Chilliwack, BC.
The
New Scientist, a popular weekly science and technology
magazine, features Gunter Siegmund’s
research into
startle and whiplash responses in their September 2,
2006 issue.
Elvis Cepuš
publishes "Electron
Microscopy: What is it, What it can do, and Why is it
Useful in Claims Investigations" in the Summer edition
of Adjuster's Quarterly.
John Gardiner
participated as a Biomechanical Expert in the at the 24th
Annual Consumer Attorney's Association of Los Angeles (CAALA)
Convention Mock Trial in Las Vegas NV.
August 2006
David King
and Jonathan Lawrence publish "Capturing
the Big Bang: Event Data Recorders in Cars" in the
American Bar Association's Spring edition of Tort Source.
Gunter
Siegmund presents research
entitled “Superficial and deep neck muscle activity during
isometric, voluntary and reflex contractions” at the 2006
World Congress on Biomechanics in Munich, Germany.
Andrea
McCandless, BA joins the LA
office as a project coordinator and Isabel
Vititpong, BSc joins MEA as a project coordinator
in the BC office.
July 2006
Jonathan
Lawrence, Craig Wilkinson
and Alyssa De Marco provide a
presentation on Crash Data Recorders as well as
Biomechanics to ICBC North Richmond.
Alyssa
DeMarco presents "Brain
Injuries and Airbags: The Effect of a Seatbelt" at the
ASME
2006 Summer Bioengineering Conference, Amelia Island
FL.
Ryan Fix, BSME
and Matt Petros, BSME join the
Transportation Group in the MEA LA office |
