June 4, 2010

Palmquist vs. Ziegler

On February 22, 2005, a multi-vehicle collision occurred near Edmonton, Alberta, resulting in the death of Joseph Palmquist.  Mr. Palmquist was operating a pickup truck southbound on Highway 216 when it was struck by another vehicle travelling in the same direction.  The collision sent the Palmquist vehicle across the centre median and into the northbound travel lanes where it was struck by a tractor-trailer unit.

Collision Analysis was asked to evaluate the collision event and to analyse whether seatbelt usage by Mr. Palmquist would have prevented or reduced the severity of his injures.

The case went to trial March 2010 at the Court of Queen’s Bench in Edmonton.  Mike Ellis was qualified in the area of accident investigation and reconstruction.  His evidence was unchallenged.  The Honourable Madam Justice D.C. Read accepted his testimony regarding the events of the collision and that the collision severity experienced by the Palmquist vehicle in the collision with the tractor trailer unit was in the range of 70 to 100 km/h.

Craig Good testified in the area of injury biomechanics.  With the assistance of the computer modeling program MADYMO, he showed that, due to the severity of the collision with the tractor-trailer unit, Mr. Palmquist likely would have been killed or seriously injured regardless of belt usage.  His evidence was also unchallenged and accepted by Madam Justice Read in her June 4, 2010, Judgement.