(Completed: 2019)
Overview
In late June of 2019, a quite ironic incident occurred in which a vehicle crashed into the building of Augspurger Komm Engineering, where forensic engineers often investigate these types of cases. Fortunately, the building was vacant on that clear Sunday morning around 6 a.m. when a sedan at normal speed took a dangerously wrong right-hand turn into its driveway, suddenly accelerated into the back gate, across the rear yard into the electrical service panel, causing a power surge of 1,400 amps!
While there were no known eyewitnesses, aside from the two in the vehicle who were able to drive away after speaking with a police officer, the incident was recorded by security cameras located at the building across the street. Although it would have been a conflict of interest for Augspurger Komm Engineering to investigate its own insurance claim, they still played a key role in uncovering the facts of what happened and remediating the damage, which approached a quarter million dollars.
The Investigation & Findings
An estimated 100 incidents involving vehicles colliding into buildings occur per day, with over 16,000 injured and 2,600 deaths per year across the United States, according to the Storefront Safety Council as of 2023.
With no one in the office at the time of the incident and the alarm system not engaging, the pushed-open gate and crushed electrical service panel were not discovered until Monday morning, the following day. The police officer had also left his business card on the door for the team to contact him about the report.
Augspurger Komm Engineering President David Komm called upon commercial electrician, Don Ross of Roscoe Electric, who immediately understood the situation. After discovering the collision had caused an incredulous power surge, Salt River Project (SRP) was immediately called to come out that afternoon and shut down the building for safety.
A new switch gear was needed but was unavailable for about six months due to the demand and volume of construction that was occurring during that time. During this waiting period, Roscoe was able to secure a generator the size of a Volkswagen bus so that the business could remain operating. More time-consuming issues arose from that collision including needing to tear up the parking lot to relocate the transformer and submitting a permit application.
Although the company’s insurance had hired a third-party forensic engineer to investigate the claim, Augspurger Komm Engineering conducted its own investigation and walked them through everything that needed to be documented.
Conclusions
The case of the vehicle crashing into the Augspurger Komm Engineering building was no mystery as the cause was determined to be “inattentive driving” and the driver was unfamiliar with the vehicle as it was the passenger’s. Research shows that 21% of car–building crashes are caused by ‘operator error’, the highest amount of any other category including DUI.
Another main takeaway of this case is that many more events are being captured on video than ever. This is helpful in providing more open-and-shut cases for insurance companies to expedite determining damages and planning remediation, as well as for forensic engineers such as Augspurger Komm Engineering to navigate exactly what occurred and what needs to be done to ensure safety.
