Forensic Files - Season 8, Episode 40 - Deadly Curve - Full Episode | Forensic Files

it was supposed to be a routine motorcade for the queen of england but along this two-lane highway leading to
yosemite national park a car carrying secret service agents collided with another killing three people
what went wrong who was responsible hidden in this photograph was the clue to the mystery
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] in 1983 yosemite national park in california was selected to be the site
of a royal visit by the heads of the british monarchy queen elizabeth ii and prince philip
were scheduled to tour the park following a visit with president reagan at his california home
don schneider a photographer and a reporter for a local radio station monitored the preparations for her
arrival on his shortwave radio in advance of that there were three carloads of secret service agents that
were going to yosemite to provide security at that location for her they were not directly involved in her
transport but were supposed to be preceding her and have things ready up there in the in the park
four cars carrying secret service agents traveled along highway 132 a two-lane road that snaked its way
through the foothills of the sierra nevada there were three agents in the second
car the driver was george labarge 41 years old he was married with a young son george labarge was a 14-year veteran of
the secret service from dayton ohio he had been for many years assigned to the protection detail
of the vice presidents as the three agents made their way eastward toward yosemite
deputy sheriff rod sinclair of the mariposa county sheriff's office was preparing to check the road closings for
the queen's visit rod was a a big man heavy and was quite macho and authoritative we had
heard but we never induced any uh hard evidence of this fact that sinclair was something of a loose cannon
sinclair and another deputy climbed into a chevy impala patrol car similar to this one and sped west on highway 132 to
check on the road closings at the same moment the secret service agents continued eastward in a small
rental car none of the agents was wearing a seat belt the road was wet from a light rain
both sinclair and the convoy of secret service agents believed the road had been cleared of traffic
the sheriff's car was coming from our right around this curve the secret service cars were coming from
our left the road curved around a small hill that blocked the driver's view of approaching
cars that location had been the scene of seven accidents in the previous three years
at 10 31 a.m on march 5th it happened again the two cars entered the curve at the
exact same moment the three agents were killed instantly protected by seat belts the two deputies
suffered only minor injuries it appeared to be a terrible but unavoidable tragedy
but was it the answer lay in the scarred surface of the roadway and the twisted metal of the
wrecked cars [Music] a car with three secret service agents and a sheriff's patrol car with two
deputies collided along a back road near yosemite national park the collision demolished both cars and
claimed the lives of three secret service agents the question facing investigators was
why within two hours a special unit of the fresno california highway patrol called
the multi-disciplinary accident investigation team or mate arrived at the scene their job is to take a look at
everything that's there document it classify it photograph it and then use it later in the reconstruction
process to develop a model as to how the vehicles were moving you want to know what the
damage patterns are where's the contact damage where is the induced damage what is the nature of the damage how does
that relate to objects or other vehicles or other people or anything else the vehicle may have come
in contact with the investigators found the point of impact marked by scattered debris a pool
of brake fluid and more than a dozen gouge and scrape marks they also found a set of skid marks 64
feet long they began in sergeant sinclair's lane crossed the yellow center line and ended
in the oncoming lane traveled by the secret service it was clear the skid marks would be a
critical clue they photographed the roadway in detail that was their first job and they needed to do that before it
was lost before the roadway could be open the mate investigators then interviewed
eyewitnesses one of whom was driving behind the secret service cars according to her
the agents did nothing wrong they were relaxed taking their time driving along at a
reasonable speed for the for the area and the terrain after gathering all the evidence the
mate investigators began the hard work of reconstructing what caused the accident
what i'm doing here is called motion analysis i'm using the scaled physical evidence and the scaled
vehicles to try to determine how the vehicles were moving during particular phases of the collision
the motion analysis provided the data for a series of critical calculations the first was the momentum of each car
immediately after the collision momentum is determined by multiplying each car's speed by its weight
according to the laws of physics when objects collide as in this demonstration their momentum after the impact is equal
to that before if the investigators could figure out the speed of the two cars as they
separated immediately after impact they could calculate how fast they were going before the crash
the investigators knew the weights of both cars by measuring the distance and direction
they had slid their rotation and the amount of friction they were able to calculate their post impact speeds
30 miles per hour for the sheriff's car 24 miles per hour for the secret service
next they looked at the angle at which the two cars had collided the angle of impact in this particular collision
evaluation was critical to determining how this collision took place mate calculated that the two cars
collided at a 10 degree angle almost directly head-on they already knew the direction the
sheriff was traveling from the skid marks so the angle of impact allowed them to calculate the path of the secret
service car 10 degree approach angle between these two vehicles places the secret service dodge aries within its
lane of travel and moving slightly from left to right as a potential evasive tactic as impact
takes place eyewitness testimony had already established that the secret service agents were driving at around 35
miles per hour the critical question was how fast was deputy sinclair driving sinclair claimed he was going 55 or 60
miles per hour applying the laws of conservation of momentum mate calculated he was actually
doing 76 miles per hour when he came into that curve his vehicle was was out of position for the speed that he was
traveling when he saw traffic coming at him in the eastbound direction he simply
didn't have enough distance or enough time to safely negotiate the curve he panicked locked up the brakes on the
patrol car once he did that the patrol car slides straight across the inside of the curve into the opposing traffic lane
and struck the second secret service vehicle based on its three-week investigation
the california highway patrol believed that sergeant sinclair was grossly negligent and recommended that he be
criminally prosecuted i believe the facts were there given the circumstances that you could
make a case for misdemeanor manslaughter but one man had lingering doubts about the
investigation attorney charles brun who represented rod sinclair believed something vital
might have been missed rod kept saying over and over again they were in my lane of travel they were
heading right at me there was nothing i could do but to hit the brakes was deputy sinclair telling the truth
brunn hired his own investigators to find out and what they would discover would force
the highway patrol to reopen their investigation three secret service agents had been
killed in a near head-on collision with a sheriff's patrol car all the evidence indicated that deputy sheriff rod
sinclair was solely to blame but then a local photographer don schneider was looking at slides of the accident when
he discovered a clue the highway patrol had missed another skid mark it was a surprise to
me to see the mark there because i had not observed a skid mark at the accident site
and i asked the question of the group that was there hey fellas what is this and pointed to the skid mark that i saw
on the screen and it was obvious in the matter of discussion a few moments later that this
had something to do with the secret service car attorney charles brunn showed the faint
skidmark to a team of accident reconstruction experts from the angle of the mark it appeared that the secret
service car had been over the center line and was turning back into its own lane when it was hit
and all of a sudden i thought to myself we have cause here for optimism sergeant sinclair would seem as
vindicated he said they were coming right at him the new evidence suggested sinclair had
hit the brakes not because he was going too fast as the highway patrol contended
but because he saw danger ahead the california highway patrol investigators dismissed the new evidence
calling it the phantom skid mark the chp experts covered that ground on their hands and
knees literally inch by inch and never saw that skid mark why they didn't find it wasn't clear
but the discovery gave new impetus to bruns team of forensic accident reconstruction experts
paul kafitz a photographer and engineer is an expert in something called photogrammetry
it's a six dollar word for making measurements from photographs or using photographs to make measurements
bronze experts needed a map of the accident scene with the skid marks to conduct their investigation
kafit's job was to reproduce the mark on the road in its exact position so that a
surveyor could map its location he began by making a 35 millimeter negative of schneider's photograph
showing the skid mark i put it into a special camera that i take back to the scene i locate
the exact point from which he took his photograph and then looking through my camera i can
remark the position of the skid mark on the ground and have a surveyor record it
the chalk marks help kfitz verify that the mark he recreated was exactly as it appeared in the photo
once the new survey map was created dr william blyth an expert in applied mechanics and accident reconstruction
was able to trace the path of the secret service car the results confirmed sinclair's statement
that the secret service cars were over the center line i think that the amount of the vehicle
over the center line as i recall was something in the neighborhood of one-third of one-half of the vehicle it
wasn't fully in the oncoming lane the highway patrol had determined that the collision was virtually head-on
lithe showed that the sheriff's car had struck at an angle as if agent labarge had been turning to the right to get
back into his own lane dr blyth determined that the critical skid mark was made by one of the front tires on the agent's
car it did have dark edges to it which is indicative of a front tire when you apply your brakes the weight of
the car shifts to the front axle and when that happens the front tires tend to cup a little bit and the load is on
the edges of the tires on the side walls of the tires primarily the critical question was
which front tire the highway patrol experts after first denying the existence of the skidmark
argued it was made by the left if they were correct it meant the secret service could not have been over the
center line using photogrammetry kfit was able to determine the width of the tire that
made the skid mark and prove that it was in fact the right tire as it happened the right front tire on
the wrecked labarge car was almost an inch narrower than the other three tires it had been replaced
probably by a spare tire at some point and that particular tire mark matched only that narrower right front tire
proving the skidmark belonged to the secret service car was one of two critical issues facing dr
blythe what was the sheriff reacting to when he applied his brakes was he reacting to
his perception that he was going too fast to make the corner or was he reacting to
some other danger that he saw the highway patrol found sinclair was going too fast
but dr blythe ran his own test using a patrol car identical to the one sinclair was driving
the range for the surest vehicle that i found was between 62 and 66 miles an hour
at that speed sergeant sinclair had no reason to hit his brakes because he could have
comfortably negotiated the curve that left only one explanation we felt there was negligence on the part
of the drivers of the first two cars in that entourage in that they crossed the center line
okay let's begin a test run to help prove these findings brun asked paul kafitz to conduct a visibility
study like this one recreating what each driver saw an instant before the collision
the results would reveal another surprising piece of evidence [Music] a high-speed collision
three secret service agents killed california highway patrol investigators determined that sheriff's deputy rod
sinclair was solely responsible but then the discovery of a skidmark in this photograph suggested the secret service
was also at fault the problem was proving it to reconstruct the critical moments
before deputy sinclair slammed on his brakes attorney braun asked paul kafitz to conduct a visibility study
what we were trying to find out is did that skid and ultimate loss of control uh start because he perceived that the
oncoming lead car was in his lane kayfits mounted cameras in vehicles identical to those involved in the
accident positioning them to record each driver's point of view then based on the physical evidence and
the calculations of dr blythe he reconstructed the events that preceded the fatal collision
from this viewpoint you can actually see that the lead car is halfway over the center
line and the labarge car in front of this car is also a couple of feet over the center line
now comes the view from the fourth car driven by a key eyewitness mona crocker who told mate investigators she had seen
the accident happen she testified that at no time did she see any of the three secret service cars
cross the center line she also testified that she saw the accident occur kafit's reenactment told a different
story so this is mona crocker's viewpoint and what's important here is that although the lead car
ahead of her goes halfway over the center line straddles the center line from her
viewpoint that is never visible because it's around the curve and over the hill crocker thought she could see the
position of the cars in fact she could not i was actually surprised at the result about what mona crocker could
or couldn't see i hadn't predicted or expected that from the beginning the critical question
in the case was always why did deputy sinclair jam on his brakes kafit's dramatic reenactment answered
the question now from sinclair's viewpoint we can see that he sees the lead secret service car
straddling the center line just a bit more than a second before he begins to skid in a straight line across the
highway the last view is that of agent labarge just before the fatal crash [Music]
based on kafit's powerful reenactment and the work of bruns team of investigators
a judge ruled that the secret service agents were partially responsible for the accident
he also ruled that the united states should reimburse mariposa county thirty percent of a four million dollar
settlement that had been paid to the families of the secret service agents killed in the accident
i felt good that the judge believed sergeant sinclair that the secret service agents had
driven across the center line i felt very good about that the verdict was later overturned on a
technicality but brun and his team of forensic experts had proven their case it is phenomenal it is amazing what they
can put together and how they can reconstruct an accident and how they can make those small pieces of evidence
tell a story there's satisfaction when the pieces come together in a case like this and
other similar cases that was a very powerful presentation and i recall having a lump in my throat
when i watched it it was as if you were in the driver's seat watching your life come to an end in
that split second it was a very powerful videotape [Music] ah [Music] you

It was supposed to be a routine motorcade for the Queen of England. But on the way to Yosemite National Park, a car carrying three Secret Service agents collided with a car driven by a deputy from the local sheriff's office.

Forensic Files is the longest-running true crime series in television history. Evidence and interviews with experts help solve real crimes, disease outbreaks and accidents around the world.

#truecrime #forensicfiles #fullepisodes Click here to watch full episodes from Forensic Files - Season 8: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gAB0hcY3Z0&list=PLC4mqmKvz1IbdnLKfCt8--pOV0xEpMIP5 Forensic Files is the longest-running true crime series in television history. Evidence and interviews with experts help solve real crimes, disease outbreaks and accidents around the world.

Brief Summary

A motorcade accident near Yosemite kills three secret service agents, revealing shared blame in a complex investigation.

Key points

A Routine Motorcade Turns Tragic. What was meant to be a simple motorcade for the Queen of England ended in disaster.
The Collision. A tragic accident claims the lives of three secret service agents.
New Evidence Emerges. A skid mark discovered raises questions about the responsibility for the accident.
Judgment and Repercussions. A judge rules that the secret service agents were partially responsible for the accident.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It was supposed to be a routine motorcade.

0:06WatchDec 16, 2021

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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