11/11/06 (CA):
Expert: Faulty Tire Not To Blame For Deaths
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A California Highway Patrol sergeant spent almost 11 hours on the witness stand this week in the trial of Joseph Allen Tidwell. Using more than 200 photographs, Deputy District Attorney Alex Martinez asked Sgt. Jeff Arnswald to identify and explain every piece of evidence at the accident scene.
Tidwell, 37, is accused of second-degree murder in the deaths of Philip Calvert and Scott Johnston, members of the San Gorgonio Search and Rescue Team, who were on their way to Joshua Tree National Park to search for a missing hiker.
The collision occurred shortly after 5 a.m. July 17, 2004.
Prosecutors say Tidwell was driving under the influence of heroin and methamphetamine when his pickup veered onto the wrong side of Twentynine Palms Highway in Morongo Valley and collided head-on with the vehicle driven by David Atchley.
Arnswald, the lead investigator at the time for the Multidisciplinary Accident Investigation Team, or MAIT, testified extensively about the accident scene and about the tires on both vehicles involved in the accident. He is an accident reconstructionist and an expert at “understanding collision dynamics.”
Arnswald explained how he and his team could take the debris from an accident scene and determine almost exactly what happened.
For example, by examining the “critical skid marks” on the roadway, Arnswald was able to determine how fast both vehicles were going at the time of impact. According to his calculations, the search-and-rescue vehicle was traveling 67 mph and Tidwell’s Ford Ranger was going 50 mph.
Similarly, Arnswald was able to determine the search-and-rescue vehicle took evasive measures to avoid the crash, but he said there was no evidence to indicate that Tidwell attempted to slow down or avoid the collision.
Arnswald was well-spoken and thorough, delivering his sometimes technical testimony in understandable language. He often addressed the jury directly.
The former MAIT investigator refuted the defendant’s claim that the temporary spare tire that he was driving on blew, and that was what caused the accident.
Indeed, the tire had a large tear in it, but Arnswald said the cut was caused at impact.
“The temporary tire, with its one-ply sidewall, would’ve been in pieces if it had ruptured before the collision,” he said. “I would’ve brought it in a bucket.”
The prosecution’s next witness, Daniel Artinger, also a former MAIT investigator, corroborated Arnswald’s testimony about the temporary tire.
A mechanic and a vehicle-inspection specialist, he further testified that Tidwell’s truck suffered no mechanical failure that contributed to the collision.
© X-Pro 2006
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