Hardwire Horror | Accident Investigators | Episode 2 | FD Real Show

[Music] next on accident investigator a young man is run down and severely injured while riding his bike with few leads to go on investigators find themselves in a race against the clock to track down the runaway driver this case is probably the most disturbing case that i have ever worked with then when two people are killed in a bizarre crash reconstructionists are called on to establish if the police have done their job correctly or if they are in part to blame for the events oh it looked like a bombing went off compared to what i had seen before and an accident investigator must make sense of mysterious break marks to explain why a driver failed to stop at an intersection [Applause] i think that there were more things going on than just maybe a trailer not able to break completely every year violent collisions kill three thousand canadians and injure another two hundred thousand but there is no such thing as an accident every collision has a story as unique as the people involved rusty hate is a leading authority on accident reconstruction he trains investigators around the world to read the clues and solve the mysteries i'm going to bet he's going to land about here that's my bet here i'll put your stack of quarters here crashes are like puzzles and when you've got a crash scene you've got all the pieces of the puzzle but you don't know how they go together it's the accident reconstruction it's the accident analyst job to put those pieces together and sometimes you're missing pieces like for example one of the cars involved as in a hit and run it's a beautiful friday afternoon in a little town charlie newsome is riding along a quiet local road on his way to a nearby restaurant he's been working there for nearly a year now and charlie's never missed a day on the job today will be an exception [Applause] [Music] it's 4 p.m when accident investigator weston brown is called to the scene of a serious hit and run by the time he arrives the victim has already been transported to a trauma center the responding officer informs him that charlie was unconscious and appeared to be critically injured this case seemed at the time to be so very disturbing and as i went on it became even much more disturbing [Music] as detective brown soon discovers charlie newsome is no stranger to tragedy at the age of three he was in a devastating car accident that killed both his parents and left him with neurological damage and slight autistic tendencies [Music] adopted and raised by his aunt after the accident charlie courageously fought his way through high school and finally received his diploma at age 20. he got his first job the following year when he was hired as an assistant cook in a restaurant just outside of town charlie had had thought of getting a license but had chosen not to get a driver's license because he didn't feel that that he had the faculties to safely operate a motor vehicle and he didn't want to hurt anyone and so rather than rather than get a license and drive which would be the easiest thing to do he had to ride his bike something like eight miles each way to work he chose to do the hard do it the hard way in a hit-and-run situation the crash scene is also a crime scene as a first step wes starts collecting as much roadway evidence as possible but the site isn't offering much information then on the edge of the road west discovers some kind of crack in the asphalt in one precise spot it appears to west that the crack has been cleaned out possibly by the bike tire which would fit inside the crack almost perfectly what happens is that car strikes the back of that bicycle and it locks up that rear tire it wipes this crack clean it just takes the dirt and debris out of this crack west establishes the point of impact to be right there this tells him that charlie did not swerve into traffic the car must have come off the travel portion of the road prior to hitting him always be thinking of what possibilities there are one of those could be the drivers falling asleep another one could be that the driver's um distracted not paying attention to what's going on changing the radio dialing a cell phone could this have been an intentional act the reason the car left the roadway could have serious ramifications for the driver but the fact that the person fled the scene automatically makes it a crime and west's immediate priority is to find any clue that will lead him to this individual the longer that that we go without finding the suspect the less likely we are to find the suspect of the suspect vehicle okay for a police accident investigator at the scene of a crash where there's a hit and run the idea is to get the word out as to what kind of car is missing so he's gonna have to work from evidence at the scene to figure out what kind of car it is what it might look like where the damage is we're gonna do an experiment we're gonna see exactly what kind of damage what kind of evidence on the road what we can find that was some crap all right assuming we found this car after the hit and run they tracked him down the idea is tie this car to this bicycle hit what we'd be looking for is stuff on the front bumper some indications here of the tire having been struck we'll even see print from the tire mark this is going to help him identify that this car hit a bicycle we'd be looking through the hood area and then up into the windshield for some indication of a body in particular the body that was hitting this crash in here's where his head struck we're gonna find hair you know if it's a real person as opposed to the dummy we may find skin clothing imprints through here and bits and pieces off his clothes we'd look for little teeny threads and that's going to tie this guy to this hit and run tiny pieces of glass found on the scene tend to confirm what wes was already expecting just like in the typical car cyclist collision charlie's body was thrown up onto the windshield for the windshield to break the car needed to be rolling at a minimum speed but wes also notes that charlie and his bike were not found too far from the point of impact based on the position of the body and the bike west is then able to estimate the speed of the vehicle i did establish the speed range somewhere between 28 and 38 miles an hour having a good idea of the vehicle's speed at the time of impact wes is able to theorize on the severity of the car's damage he puts the word out to dispatch that he's looking for a passenger car with only limited damage to the extreme right front and a smashed windshield [Music] meanwhile at the hospital charlie's aunt is receiving devastating news the doctor explains that charlie's fourth and sixth vertebrae have been crushed and his spinal cord has been irreparably damaged the injuries are consistent with wes brown's theory of how the crash happened charlie's body was thrown onto the car and his head violently smashed the windshield his helmet apparently protected him from major head injury but his neck took the shock his vertebrae broke on impact and the resulting damage to the spinal cord cut off most of his nerves from his brain at age 22 charlie newsom will live the rest of his life as a quadriplegic car accidents are a common cause of quadriplegia and it's oftentimes the most frequent cause that we see in our hospital typically there are injuries to the spinal cord between the fifth and seventh cervical vertebrae where the spinal cord is either cut or damaged to the point where the the nerve signals that are coming from your brain can't go out to your arms and your legs after hearing of charlie's devastating injuries detective brown is more determined than ever to bring this hit-and-run driver to justice i learned about charlie and his his disability and the the things that he'd been through early on in his life and i say that because charlie worked his whole life to be his own man to be on his own he just bought his first house on his own with no help from anyone else and the very thing that he'd worked for all his life he will never ever have again from eating to something as personal as going to the bathroom charlie will have to be helped and waited on the rest of his life which was the very thing that charlie didn't want coming up a lucky break leads detective brown to a suspect but will the evidence be enough for a conviction sergeant morrison contacted me and said i may have a vehicle here it matches the description that you gave me the victim of a hit and run will spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair now police are counting on investigator weston brown's damage profile of the striking vehicle in order to track down a runaway driver the following morning sergeant dave morris is on a routine patrol when he notices a red import sedan traveling about eight kilometers away from the crash site he only catches a glimpse of the car but thinks that he observes some damage to the front of the vehicle he quickly turns around and runs the license plate number through dispatch as soon as he learns that the car has an expired registration he pulls the driver over the driver is identified as eric mcmahon he tells the police that he's on his way to an auto glass shop to repair his windshield but when asked about the cause of the damage mcmahon offers an unlikely story he insists that the car was attacked by a gang of children throwing eggs and rocks sergeant morris takes a closer look at the windshield and notices a few strands of hair in the upper portion sergeant morrison contacted me and said i may have a vehicle here it matches the description that you gave me the damage is the same and there's some hair in the windshield can you come out and take a look at it eric mcmahon is arrested for an expired registration and driving with a suspended license wes also obtains a search warrant for the vehicle and the car is impounded for further investigation when wes enters the garage to inspect mcmahon's car he immediately knows he's on the right track the front bumper is seriously damaged and west discovers marks consistent with a bike tire on the underpinning of the vehicle the hair from the windshield also matches charlie's hair color and length wes collects the hair samples for dna testing i'm feeling good that i have the right car this is the car that's involved in the collision now i have to do some some interviews and in order to put the driver behind the wheel the question really is who was driving that vehicle west interrogates mcmahon who claims that he has no idea what the police are talking about he has no knowledge of charlie's accident at all and goes so far as to say that he was at home all day the day before questioned about the hair he adds a new line to his story saying that he now thinks he might have also hit a small deer with his car just the week before so i'm feeling very confident that this guy's starting to get caught up in his lies looking for more evidence wes obtains a search warrant for mcmahon's house good evening are you eric mcmahon yes i am the suspect is a university student living with his parents his mother and little sister are obviously distraught when wes tells them that eric has been arrested i really kind of felt bad for the family but um you know very nice upper middle class upstanding mom and dad still married good people they just they came across at least as very nice people and here's the police serving a search warrant on their house in this neighborhood west starts searching mcmahon's room for evidence one of the things i was looking for was anything that would lead me to the area that eric was the day before and that's exactly what wes finds a credit card receipt from a bar situated just a block away from the collision site at first when i looked at it i just looked and went oh the corner bar one beer not that big a deal and then i looked at the date and i said hey that was the day of the collision and then i looked at the time and i went oh my gosh that is the time the collision occurred that is just before the collision occurred this is really important and i was very happy to find that piece because now it leads me down another trail now i can go to that bar and contact people at that bar and talk to them about hey do you remember this person things like that okay the bartender tells wes that eric mcmahon is a regular on the afternoon of the crash he distinctly remembers him playing some pool by himself having only one beer and heading out alone and i've had to think to myself well geez here's a guy who's even only had one beer why is he just hitting this person leaving him leaving his broken body on the side of the road for this man to die weston can now prove that eric mcmahon was in the area of the crash scene at the exact time of the collision he can also prove that the damage to mcmahon's car matches the victim's injuries and the evidence at the scene and when the dna test finally reveals that the hair found on the suspect's windshield belongs to charlie newsome wes is confident that he can recount the events that led to this devastating hit and run the facts are the facts on a friday afternoon charlie newsom is riding his bike to work along the cycling lane of a local road at the same time eric mcmahon is on his way home after playing pool in a nearby bar we're never able to determine why the car left the road for whatever reason maybe he was distracted for a reason that remains a mystery mcmahon's vehicle leaves the roadway and strikes charlie newsome thrown onto the hood charlie smashes his head on the windshield the impact breaks charlie's neck and hurls him up onto an adjacent lawn fully aware of what has happened eric mcmahon contemplates his next move to stay and help his victim means to accept responsibility for his actions instead he chooses to flee leaving charlie's broken body on the roadside probably one of the most touching moments of this entire case for me was the sentencing charlie's aunt was there and she had a prepared letter that she read to the entire uh to the entire courtroom at sentencing and one of the sentences in there and i have the letter here with me one of the sentences in there was uh i did however read the entire file to charlie we haven't got a whole lot else to do these days and i asked him if there was anything he would like me to say to the court and charlie said no and this i believe was because he had already made excuses for mr mcmahon's behavior and dismissed them from memory that is what charlie does to people who injure him still the court may find it interesting as i did that as i was putting the file away charlie looked up and said and your honor this is verbatim boy i'm sure i'm glad i'm not that guy as he's laying in his bed without the use of his hands without the use of his arms without the use of his legs he says boy i'm sure glad i'm not that guy i find that pretty moving charlie newsome never moved to his new house he still lives with his aunt eric mcmahon is presently serving a seven year prison sentence [Music] coming up a car crash turns from bad to worse as two people are killed and a police officer ends up fighting for his life well it's no doubt police officers or brothers and so it gets a little closer to home and so it's something that you have to swallow a little bit more [Music] you're driving along and suddenly you find a police car parked in your lane across the road lights are on of course you slow down but what else are you supposed to do emergency vehicles particularly police cars don't stop like that for no reason they're blocking the lane something's going on the very least you should stop and see if someone comes out to give you directions when you do go through you start out at a real low speed and stay that way till you know it's clear because you never know what's going to be just around the curve after a nine hour flight elliot dobson is on his way home to his family fresh out of med school he spent the last 15 months in africa as a volunteer medic traveling swiftly on a road he knows well he's just minutes away from a clean bed familiar faces and his mom's home cooking then as he winds around a long curve a woman appears in the middle of the roadway waving her arms wildly he sees her just in time to react to the overturned van straddling the lanes in front of him the woman is hysterical she explains that she's been in a crash she's not hurt but the occupant of the other car has been ejected in the collision elliot takes one look at the driver and knows that he's been seriously injured the man has a wide open gash on his forehead that is pumping out a lot of blood and he's complaining of pains in his [Music] over chest he covers the victim with a blanket to control the man's temperature applies pressure to his wounds and reassures him that help is on the way matthew glass is the first police officer to get on the site we have to make the scene safe first because the crash occurred just beyond a curve in the road drivers don't have a lot of time to react to the scene officer glass immediately backs up his cruiser and parks at an angle with the lights flashing to alert approaching traffic you want to build a shell around your scene to protect yourselves so you can get in there without worrying about who's coming behind you or who's coming this way so you can work and do what you've got to do to take care of these people matthew is relieved when he learns that a doctor is already on site this allows him to relay medical information about the victim to ems that are already on their way but elliott is worried he knows that traffic crashes are the cause of 55 percent of paralysis a few minutes later veteran accident investigator mike barnes is on his way home from work when he notices that the road is blocked ahead of him by this time a backup police unit has arrived and an officer is redirecting traffic i asked him what was going on he said he had an accident down the road and so i decided to go up and see if i could provide some help at the scene mike immediately recognizes his fellow officer matthew glass his first question is about the condition of the victims he was attending the driver of the van and a dr dobson was attending to him as well they had stopped the bleeding on his head and i asked matt if there was anything else i could do for him matthew asked mike if he could look after the woman who was also involved in the crash betty reynolds is not injured but she's still in tears her damaged white sedan is parked on the shoulder further down the road she explains to mike that she was driving alongside the other car when she dropped her cell phone she reached town to get it but before she knew it a van was skidding out of control in front of her at some point the vehicle started to flip over and the driver was thrown out once reynolds regained control of her car she pulled over and immediately ran to get help anytime you get behind the wheel there's an alarming number of other drivers around you using their cell phone to send a text message or talk while they're driving studies suggest you're four times more likely to be involved in an injury crash if you're using your phone and driving many states have actually outlawed the use of cell phones and it's being debated at other states and at the federal level should it be outlawed altogether still a controversial issue as emergency personnel arrive at the scene an officer approaches to take betty reynold's official statement sensing that everything is under control mike heads out i headed on home the scene was secured ems was was on the way and they did not need me but mike's day is far from over just minutes after he leaves the scene he gets an urgent call from the traffic bureau supervisor my cell phone rang and the lieutenant called me and and told me about there was an accident at this scene and i told him that i had just left there and then he told me he had two people dead officer glass was injured and so then i realized that he was talking about an accident that happened after i had left mike is now asked to handle this case personally he turns around and rushes back to the site expecting the worst when the lieutenant told me that officers were involved that heightened my awareness i think a little bit more i have to be honest about that when we need help who's going to help us but another cop coming up matthew glass fights for his life as fellow officer mike barnes struggles to bring order to a chaotic crash scene i just remember seeing shadows people running screaming [Music] after being thrown from his vehicle in a severe car accident a man now identified as bill witherspoon rests in the middle of the roadway as ems personnel arrive on the scene officer matthew glass and dr elliott dobson are tending to the victim's injuries drivers approaching the curve see police car lights flashing and stop all except for what i began to hear people screaming can't see anything because at that time i'm looking at the roof of the minivan and then i just remember hearing the rev the rev of an engine only minutes before accident investigator mike barnes had left a crash scene that had been completely secured and where everything was under control he quickly realizes why his boss asked him to return oh it looked like a bomb had went off compared to what i had seen before [Music] as mike gets closer to the vehicles he realizes that the minivan is back on its wheels the roof is completely destroyed and pinned beneath the vehicle is the body of bill witherspoon that van had rolled and then ended up landing on him and he died because of that that impact was real severe debris is now scattered over a 90 meter radius so mike knows that whatever hit that van kept running on its own momentum i could not find the doctor and could not find officer glass so i continued to walk and when i went around the van that's when i spotted officer glass over in the side of the road severely injured [Music] matthew glass has also suffered a tremendous blow to his head and his leg is crushed and mangled i just remember seeing shadows people were running screaming um none of it none of it was with clarity though no it's like i couldn't see details but i i could see people's bodies several meters down the road in the center of the roadway mike notices another body already covered with a blanket dr elliott dobson's trip home has come to a tragic end just a few kilometers from his destination having just arrived on the scene in response to the first accident ems personnel can no longer help bill witherspoon or elliot dobson the priority is now to save the life of officer matthew glass i know him i've known him for some time so i immediately went to him and so i helped them load him up into the ambulance i talked to him assured him that he was being taken care of and everything was going to be okay although mike is a professional who knows he has a job to do he can't help but be concerned about the well-being of his fellow officer well it's no doubt police officers or brothers typically i would show up it's a job but now it's someone that i know so it gets a little closer to home and so it's something that you have to swallow a little bit more and but keep your focus on what the job is and that is to investigate this accident betty reynolds tells mike that as she'd been giving her statement to one of the police officers a black truck came flying into the curb at an incredible rate of speed it steered left around the police cruiser and then back onto the roadway speeding up even more as it entered the crash scene neither betty nor the officer saw what happened next but both agree the impact was like an explosion the truck ultimately ended his run slamming into betty's car on the shoulder of the road its driver is identified as jamie knight when i first approached jamie he was already talking to an ems attendant he was obviously intoxicated he smelled of alcohol his eyes were bloodshot he had blood on it some blood on his face so he was obviously injured though but he was very combative uncooperative so i asked the officer to secure him and to stay with him as the ems personnel took him to the hospital my intentions were for the officer to stay with him so we can get a search warrant for his blood and his urine to find out how much alcohol or drugs he may have had in his system as the ambulance transports knight to the hospital mike now sets about documenting and exploring his crash scene as mike begins his reconstruction of the second crash he is struck by one thing there is no trace at all of jamie knight trying to avoid the flipped ban you know one would expect to see skid marks they weren't there witness statements support mike's findings nobody can recall seeing the brake lights on jamie knight's truck instead they have him going way above the 90 kilometer per hour speed limit considering the momentum needed to send the van flipping back up onto its wheels mike makes his own calculations we're talking about speeds up to 70 to 90 miles an hour as mike considers the evidence knight's blood test results come back from the lab indicating that knight's alcohol concentration was more than three times the legal limit after 12 hours of on-scene investigation mike is finally ready to reconstruct the events leading to this catastrophic collision after being ejected from his flipped van bill witherspoon lies sprawled in the middle of the roadway as ems personnel arrive on the scene the victim is already being looked after by officer glass and dr dobson drivers approaching the curve noticed the emergency vehicles ahead and stopped but not jamie knight jamie knight was traveling at a high rate of speed he went around the police car and the front end of his car hit the bottom of the van causing it to rotate violently spin and land on top of bill witherspoon and matthew glass tells us that he felt a hand shove his back it had to be dr dobson saving his life in a heroic effort eliot dobson tries to push matthew glass to safety but the full force of jamie knight's truck barrels into them it caught part of me hitting my leg and unfortunately caught all of the hood the hood caught all of him he gets hit full force with the front bumper of jamie knight's vehicle and gets projected down the roadway knight's vehicle continues to travel down the road and crashes into the next object that's in his lane which is betty reynolds's vehicle officer matthew glass underwent five surgeries to save his leg including bone grafting and metal rod implants matthew has now fully recovered from his injuries but his life will never be the same you know you feel guilty for celebrating your life for celebrating surviving when the guy standing beside you died the man at my feet died and the man beside me died and i survived so i wasn't my time i guess at the trial the medical examiner report reveals that elliot dobson suffered a serious head injury and died instantly when knight's vehicle struck him the report also suggests that bill witherspoon would have survived his injuries from the first accident had he not been crushed to death by his own van as a result of the second crash with a staggering wealth of incriminating evidence against him a jury finds jaime knight guilty on two counts of murder assault in the first degree and dui he is sentenced to 20 years in prison you know as an accident reconstructionist we can tell you how the accident happened but to tell you why someone did something is out of our realm we don't cannot get into their head we can only speculate and as a police officer i would speculate that jamie knight did not want to get caught by the police because he was intoxicated so he was going to run but unfortunately when he came around the police car there was the van he had already made up his mind he was not going to stop coming up an accident investigator is mystified by a strange set of skid marks made by a trailer full of cattle i hate to use the word mystery but there was an element here that really needed to be looked into well they're fresh but they're going to go away every crash has a story to tell you heard that in the outset of the show right well those pages of that story are written out here on the asphalt tire marks are like the fingerprints of a given car but sometimes marks on the roadway can cause more questions than give us answers best part is walk around all the kids ranchers john and kevin drake have driven to the regional stock show more times than they can remember but this year will be different for the first time in their lives the two brothers will be attending the event without their father who died of cancer the previous winter remember the time when dad fell off the floor exchanging fawn childhood memories they tow their stock trailer on what they think will remain a pretty quiet road until they reach their destination [Applause] at the same time hank spinner is returning home from work telling himself the exact same thing they couldn't be more wrong [Music] [Music] when accident investigator rod sadler arrives at the crash scene he learns that he's got one dead and one seriously injured i've learned over the years to separate myself from the personal aspect not because i'm a person that doesn't care it's because i have a specific job that i have to do on the side of the road a police officer is looking after kevin drake who has suffered what seems to be a serious head injury during the crash this is not surprising to rod considering the severity of the damage on the drake's vehicle but what is surprising is the condition of the unhitched stock trailer it's only slightly damaged and the two cows still in there appear to be unharmed hank spinner's truck is parked on the other side of the road and has extensive damage to the cab although he is severely injured kevin drake is still conscious as officers await the arrival of the paramedics he keeps asking for his brother john drake was not so lucky having been seated on the collision side of the vehicle his body was crushed by the impact of the crash and he died almost immediately from massive internal injuries well when i arrive at a scene like that it's obvious because a death is involved it's going to affect somebody's family very deeply and the important thing to me is to help the family through this process because they want to know what happened why it happened and how it happened [Music] by the time the ambulance arrives kevin drake's head has become dangerously swollen the severity of his head trauma and his state of consciousness indicate that kevin could have suffered internal cranial bleeding and the risk of irreversible damage to the brain is very real if it's the case time is against him as the emergency medical technicians left him inside the ambulance kevin manages to tell rod that he was driving the pickup truck but has absolutely no recollection of what has just happened the driver of the other pickup truck is in shock hank spinner only suffered minor injuries but when rod asks him about the accident spinner does not remember much either he says he hadn't even realized there was another vehicle coming towards the intersection until he felt a tremendous crash his own vehicle came to a skidding stop and only then did he even become aware of the other pickup truck rod assesses the scene he has two paved country roads connecting together in a t intersection with a stop sign in the direction the drakes were traveling [Music] well it's pretty obvious that he didn't break until he reached the stop sign which is far too late to be able to stop he slides into the intersection see those offset skids there that's where impact was the drakes had to stop and it was very clear that they were not able to in time was it human error is there a mechanical problem so do you think a little weight behind a car might make a difference in terms of stopping distance we're going to find out what we're going to do is we're going to take this cone we're going to put it out here on the road i'm going to drive the trailer toward the cone at a certain speed trailer's going to be empty i'm going to get on the brakes and see how long it takes to stop then i'll come back through after we load the trailer i'll drive the same speed and try to break from the same point see if it doesn't take a lot longer to stop more distance let's try that experiment [Applause] [Applause] so that works out to be about 20 percent longer in this case now here's the deal if you don't allow for enough space in front of you when you're towing a heavy load you could be 20 further into the car ahead of you then an odd looking set of skid marks suddenly catch rod's eye just behind the pickup truck set of skids are what reconstructionists call skip skids see these skids here they're almost like a dotted line such intermittent marks are usually made by a trailer bouncing along the road with its brakes locked it can be the result of bumps potholes or other irregularities in the roadway surface i don't think that in this particular instance the trailer bouncing was a factor and the reason that i came to that conclusion is the beef on board was extremely heavy so i knew there was a i hate to use the word mystery but there was an element here that really needed to be looked into because i think that there were more things going on than just maybe a trailer not able to break completely coming up suspect wires found at the mechanical inspection of the trailer put rod's investigation on an unexpected trail what caught my eye was there was two new wires running along the trailer that looked out of place a tragic crash has caused the death of a young rancher and left his brother battling for his life accident investigator rod sadler is struggling to determine exactly why the pickup truck failed to stop at the intersection and he's mystified by an uncommon type of skidmark originating about 27 meters behind the point of impact but the morning after the crash rod is faced with what is by far the worst part of his job interviewing john and kevin drake's mother in this particular case it was really difficult because mrs drake had already lost one son her other son was suffering critical injuries possibly fatal injuries she had so many things going through her mind but despite her grief mrs drake desperately wants an explanation for the crash she was willing to speak with me she answered what questions that she could she informs rod that her sons were on their way to the stock show they'd set off about 2pm for a four hour ride it was a regular trip for them so it was a route they both knew well and they were both accustomed to driving with cattle trailers this information would seem to cast doubt on the possibility that the brothers may have missed the stop sign or gotten confused at the intersection the mechanical examination of the pickup truck also shows that the brakes were in perfect condition this rules out the brake failure scenario but it's noted that the trailer's electric connector to the truck is old and full of rust the wires are so afraid that the trailer mechanic suspects that electric signals from the truck would possibly not even be transmitted to the trailer this would mean that the turn signals the brake signal and even the electric brakes on the trailer may not have been triggered when the corresponding devices were activated on the pickup truck what caught my eye was there was two new wires running along the trailer that looked out of place they really caught my eye they looked like they didn't belong there following the suspect wires rod notices that they had been connected directly to the trailer's electric brakes and if they receive power from another based on this observation rod develops an amazing theory in an attempt to bypass the rusted out trailer plug could the drakes have simply failed to properly wire the brakes and plug it into an identical plug rod recreates the scenario he has in mind he connects the trailer's brakes to the pin receiving power from the right turn signal instead of the one corresponding to the pickup truck's brakes would you spin that wheel for me might such a mistake have caused the trailer's brakes to lock and drag just before reaching the intersection pulling kevin's attention away from the stop sign let's see what happens when i turn on the right turn signal so when i turned on the right turn signal the brakes locked intermittently i knew from mrs drake that her sons had to turn to the right to go to the stock show i figured that this was a very important piece of information in our investigation after his accident kevin drake spends four days at the hospital under intensive observation about 48 hours after the crash he has recovered enough to be interviewed by rod hi mr drake kevin wasn't able to recall much about the crash but what he could recall was that the day before the crash they had had some problems with the wiring on the trailer and that they hardwired the trailer brakes directly into the truck's plug this really reinforced my theory [Music] about the brakes being wired wrong this testimony is the final piece of the puzzle and after nearly a month-long investigation rod is able to replay the chain of events that led to kevin and john's tragic accident [Music] on a sunday afternoon kevin and john drakes had offered a regular four-hour drive to the stock show on a road he knows well about 30 meters before a crossing kevin indicates his intention to turn right but because of a badly wired attachment between the truck and the trailer every time the right turn signal on the truck flashes the trailer brakes activate on and off leaving intermittent marks on the asphalt suddenly there's something dragging on his pickup truck intermittently and he's focusing on that rather than what's ahead of him because of that he loses his focus he refocuses and suddenly he realizes that he's too close to the stop sign he locks up his brakes by that time it's too late [Music] kevin drake completely recovered from his head injury but like many people involved in a crash he might never recover a clear memory of the events leading to the accident that cost his brother's life in this case no charges were ever brought against kevin drake [Music] sometimes it's just a little detail that makes the difference between being involved in a fatal crash and getting on with the rest of your life you drop your phone on the floor you leave it there you got a problem with your wiring you get a professional to fix it there are accidents they're collisions little common sense goes a long way in keeping us all safe on the road [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: FD Real

Views: 36,380

Keywords: Free Documentary, Reality Shows, Reality TV Shows, Show (TV Genre), Documentaries, Factual Entertainment, Factual Television, non-fiction, Best factual series, FD Real, FD Real Show, Accident Investigators, Accident Investigation, Accidents, Traffic Accident, Traffic Collision, Road Rage, Dangerous Road, Dangerous Roads, Dangerous Driving, Blue Light Documentary, Police, Fire Brigade, Fire Department, Canadian Police

Id: G8wDHXSzvxI

Length: 46min 36sec (2796 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 30 2021