By Lance L. Kite
SPD Operations Captain
The Scottsbluff Police Department is proud to announce that Sergeant Philip H. Eckerberg has completed training to become a Certified Accident Reconstructionist. This course of instruction is very demanding. Sgt. Eckerberg had to complete the following courses at the Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Center in order to become certified:
Intermediate Crash Investigations: 2020-40 hours
Advanced Crash Investigations: 2021-40 hours
Technical Crash Investigations: 2022-40 hours
Traffic Crash Reconstruction: 2023-80 hours
Total classroom hours 200 plus 40 hours during his basic academy session=240 hours of crash investigations.
By completing this course of study, Sgt. Eckerberg will be able to conduct reconstruction of accidents within the City of Scottsbluff, a task which used to require a reconstructionist from another agency.
Sgt. Eckerberg stated that the final exam was very challenging. “The final exam for traffic crash reconstruction was 50 questions and took a total of 12 hours to complete.” Mathematics are the cornerstone of the reconstruction course. “The mathematical part of the training was intimidating and proved to be a challenge; however, the instructors are very good at it and do everything they can to help.”
Sgt. Eckerberg reported that the biggest challenge of the course was completing the scale diagram. “One of the more challenging parts of the test was the scale diagram. I was handed a two-foot by two-foot piece of paper and given a set of measurements. I had to draw a scale diagram and then answer several questions related to time speed and distances for each vehicle. The vehicles had crossed multiple types of surfaces with different drag factors (coefficient of friction) that all had to have a separate formula and then combined. One of the vehicles had gone airborne for a short distance so that speed equation had to be computed to. We had to show all of our math work for each question and the math work by its self was several pages long. This particular crash was not hypothetical but was based on a real crash that happen on Hwy 20 in Nebraska. The hard part is that is you get one thing wrong it changes all of the other answers.”
Sgt Eckerberg reported that he has already been using his newly acquired skill set. “So far thing part of the class that I have used the most was the module on video analysis. In the last six weeks I have used it on three cases to determine the pre-crash speed of 4 different vehicles.” In terms of long-range goals, Sgt. Eckerberg has plans in place. “I am looking forward to obtaining more advanced technology to have greater captaincy and be able to get quicker results.”
Congratulations to Sgt. Eckerberg for completing a rigorous course of study.