Were those brakes on?

["Matthew Dooher" <matthew.dooher@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yes there is a way of telling if lights were on at impact. Works on any car.
It relies on the fact the tungsten filament will vaporise if power is
applied in the presence of oxygen.

if the brakes were applied at or AFTER the time of impact and the bulb was
broken and if there is white deposit on the remains of the glass then the
bulb was going.

So if the deposit is present on the remains of the bulb that are still
attached but not on the bits that are found on the ground or lying in the
bottom of the light unit then the brakes or whatever were applied after
impact.

I used this fact one in my previous profession to prove that a driver did
not have his headlights on at the time of an accident. he swore that he did
and in fact the one intact one was going when I arrived on the scene. But
after a couple of minutes grovelling around on the ground and inside his
headlight picking up glass.......

Matthew Dooher
Zoology Department
University of Otago, New Zealand
Phone 	+64 3 479-7968
Fax	+64 3 479-7584
E- mail 	matthew.dooher@domain.elided
http://www.otago.ac.nz/Zoology/staff/md.html

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