Human Factors and Transportation Investigations Webinar

Nearly every accident involves a human response or the lack thereof. Human factors investigations examine the interaction between people, machines and the environment.

Our multidisciplinary team of experts use their knowledge of human capabilities and limitations to investigate behavior in dynamic situations. Often, their work is integrated with a colleague’s collision reconstruction, injury biomechanics, or failure analysis investigations to understand all the contributing factors. They might be determining a pedestrian’s ability to judge the speed of an oncoming car before deciding to cross, an operator’s ability to see a hazard on train tracks, or investigating the cause of airplane or helicopter crash.

In this CLE-eligible* webinar explicitly crafted for legal and insurance professionals, Pamela D’Addario, Kurt Ising, and Vickie Norton will explain how they investigate human factors in plane, train and automobile accidents. We hope you will join us.

REGISTER HERE

*Our presenters are certified continuing education providers by the California State Bar. Our courses are accredited by the Law Societies of British Columbia and Ontario. Alberta lawyers, consider including this course as a CPD learning activity in your annual Continuing Professional Development Plan.

For more information and to get your name on our mailing list, contact Jahvanna Ryan.

The presenters – Human Factors Webinar

Pamela D'Addario MASc PEng - Human Factors

Pamela D’Addario is a senior engineer and leads MEA Forensic’s Human Factors group. She assesses the behavior of individuals to determine how their action, or lack of action, could have contributed to a collision or injury-causing event. Pam also has a background in collision reconstruction; she assesses collision severity, vehicle speed, avoidance potential, nighttime visibility, and driver response times. Read Pam's full bio.

Pam's presentation:

• Introduction to human factors
• Human cognition and its influence on perceptual errors
• Car crash case study

Kurt Ising, MASc PEng - Human Factors

Kurt Ising is a senior engineer in MEA Forensic's Human Factors group. He investigates motor vehicle accidents and driver performance issues. With a background in mechanical and aerospace science engineering, he has developed a method for measuring light levels at accident locations and objectively assesses drivers' visual performance. He has published peer-reviewed research on nighttime visibility, perception-response time and the effects of driver distraction. Read Kurt's full bio.

Kurt's presentation:

• Human ability and quantitative measurements used in human factors analysis
• The effect of distance and lighting on pedestrian conspicuity
• Train accident case study

Vickie Norton, MS - Airline Transport Pilot

Vickie Norton is a project engineer in MEA Forensic’s Aviation Investigation group and a captain with a major commercial airline. With engineering and aviation backgrounds, Vickie investigates various issues relating to aircraft incidents. She reconstructs accidents, examines pilot actions, assesses system and powerplant malfunctions, analyzes failures, and examines operational, maintenance and regulatory issues. Read Vickie's full bio.

Vickie's presentation:

• The role of human, machine, and environment interactions in aviation incidents
• Who is responsible for a human factors issue?
• The effect of organizational influences