Traffic Collision Investigation

EVANSTON, Ill.---Northwestern University Center for Public Safety's long awaited revised edition of its traffic accident investigation manual is now in print.

Traffic Collision Investigation by Kenneth S. Baker represents the culmination of more than 70 years of research and instruction into the science of traffic accident investigation. Baker writes in the preface, "It is my hope that my efforts and the efforts of the many co-authors will make a significant contribution to the improvement of the investigation of motor vehicle collisions, the prosecution and defense of those related to such events, and the protection of the public welfare.

Investigating traffic crashes began in 1929 when Franklin Kreml, the founder of Evanston Police Department's Accident Prevention Bureau, would present conferences on police traffic services. University faculty and instructors who specialized in highway safety used their own lecture materials because there were no textbooks on the subject. Students paid only $2.00 to attend each one-day session. Because of the increasing number of motor vehicle crashes, one-day sessions on traffic safety were not enough to reduce the number of fatal and serious injuries on America's roads. It became necessary to expand the scope of university-level education in traffic safety.

In an effort to provide that critical traffic safety training, Kreml established Northwestern University's Traffic Institute (now known as the Center for Public Safety) in 1936. In 1940 he wrote the first version of the accident investigation manual with four other authors. After World War II, the need became so great for accident investigation instruction that Northwestern University's Traffic Institute established a research and development division to study traffic crashes and to revise the textbook.

In 1957 Division Director J. Stannard Baker completely revised the manual and it has been the standard for traffic crash investigation ever since. The Traffic Institute or Center for Public Safety has published and updated the textbook under various titles and reprinted it numerous times in English, once in Spanish.

Traffic Collision Investigation represents the work of the many faculty members who taught through the Traffic Institute or the Center for Public Safety over the years. Northwestern University Center for Public Safety's retired Accident Investigation Division Director, Kenneth S. Baker, brings to this revision, nearly 30 years experience investigating, reconstructing and teaching traffic accident investigation. His knowledge, combined with contributions from Lynn Fricke and other experts in the fields of traffic engineering, accident reconstruction, and vehicle dynamics have produced the most updated in-depth study of the skills needed to systematically investigate traffic collisions.

Traffic Collision Investigation by Kenneth S. Baker is available through Northwestern University Center for Public Safety's website: www.northwestern.edu/nucps.