What happened before the run over? Morphometric 3D reconstruction.

In traffic accidents, the differentiation of run-over and other injuries is crucial because questions about the origin of fatal injuries often arise. It is sometimes difficult for forensic pathologists to answer them due to the superimposition of injuries or competing, potentially fatal findings. Therefore, using morphometric three-dimensional (3D) reconstructions offers new perspectives based on an interdisciplinary evaluation of all findings and traces. The morphometric 3D reconstruction includes the allocation of patterned injuries or transferred material, the determination of the origin of injuries as well as the reconstruction of the incident. The generated 3D models of persons, clothes, vehicles, incident sites and relevant objects resulting from forensic imaging, photogrammetry, 3D structured-light and laser scanning are included, as are all detected traces and damages. Three case studies are presented to illustrate the possibilities and results of morphometric 3D reconstruction. Run-over accidents have received less attention than the topic of pedestrian, bicycle and motorbike accident analysis for which there is a large body of literature. Our goal is to add to the understanding of run-over accidents using morphometric reconstruction in order to improve their analysis in the future. The possibilities of morphometric reconstructions by means of 3D techniques in run-over accidents are wide-ranging and can provide new, unexpected and significant insights.