00:00:06
it was supposed to be a routine
00:00:08
motorcade for the queen of england but
00:00:10
along this two-lane highway leading to
00:00:12
yosemite national park a car carrying
00:00:15
secret service agents collided with
00:00:18
another killing three people
00:00:21
what went wrong who was responsible
00:00:25
hidden in this photograph
00:00:28
was the clue to the mystery
00:00:32
[Music]
00:00:43
[Applause]
00:00:44
[Music]
00:00:50
[Applause]
00:00:56
in 1983 yosemite national park in
00:01:00
california was selected to be the site
00:01:01
of a royal visit by the heads of the
00:01:04
british monarchy
00:01:05
queen elizabeth ii and prince philip
00:01:08
were scheduled to tour the park
00:01:10
following a visit with president reagan
00:01:12
at his california home
00:01:16
don schneider a photographer and a
00:01:18
reporter for a local radio station
00:01:20
monitored the preparations for her
00:01:22
arrival on his shortwave radio
00:01:25
in advance of that there were three
00:01:27
carloads of secret service agents that
00:01:29
were going to yosemite to provide
00:01:31
security at that location for her they
00:01:33
were not directly involved in her
00:01:35
transport but were supposed to be
00:01:37
preceding her and have things ready up
00:01:39
there in the in the park
00:01:41
four cars carrying secret service agents
00:01:44
traveled along highway 132
00:01:46
a two-lane road that snaked its way
00:01:49
through the foothills of the sierra
00:01:51
nevada
00:01:52
there were three agents in the second
00:01:54
car
00:01:55
the driver was george labarge 41 years
00:01:58
old he was married with a young son
00:02:01
george labarge was a 14-year veteran of
00:02:04
the secret service
00:02:06
from dayton ohio he had been for many
00:02:08
years assigned to the protection detail
00:02:11
of the vice presidents
00:02:13
as the three agents made their way
00:02:15
eastward toward yosemite
00:02:17
deputy sheriff rod sinclair of the
00:02:19
mariposa county sheriff's office was
00:02:22
preparing to check the road closings for
00:02:24
the queen's visit
00:02:26
rod was a
00:02:27
a big man heavy and
00:02:29
was quite macho and authoritative we had
00:02:32
heard but we never
00:02:34
induced any uh hard evidence of this
00:02:37
fact that
00:02:38
sinclair was something of a loose cannon
00:02:41
sinclair and another deputy climbed into
00:02:44
a chevy impala patrol car similar to
00:02:46
this one and sped west on highway 132 to
00:02:50
check on the road closings
00:02:53
at the same moment the secret service
00:02:55
agents continued eastward in a small
00:02:57
rental car
00:02:59
none of the agents was wearing a seat
00:03:00
belt the road was wet from a light rain
00:03:05
both sinclair and the convoy of secret
00:03:08
service agents believed the road had
00:03:09
been cleared of traffic
00:03:12
the sheriff's car was coming from our
00:03:13
right
00:03:14
around this curve
00:03:16
the secret service cars were coming from
00:03:18
our left
00:03:19
the road curved around a small hill that
00:03:22
blocked the driver's view of approaching
00:03:24
cars
00:03:25
that location had been the scene of
00:03:28
seven accidents in the previous three
00:03:30
years
00:03:31
at 10 31 a.m
00:03:33
on march 5th
00:03:35
it happened again
00:03:36
the two cars entered the curve at the
00:03:39
exact same moment
00:03:43
the three agents were killed instantly
00:03:46
protected by seat belts the two deputies
00:03:49
suffered only minor injuries
00:03:52
it appeared to be a terrible but
00:03:54
unavoidable tragedy
00:03:57
but was it
00:03:58
the answer lay in the scarred surface of
00:04:01
the roadway and the twisted metal of the
00:04:04
wrecked cars
00:04:06
[Music]
00:04:09
a car with three secret service agents
00:04:12
and a sheriff's patrol car with two
00:04:14
deputies collided along a back road near
00:04:17
yosemite national park
00:04:20
the collision demolished both cars and
00:04:23
claimed the lives of three secret
00:04:24
service agents
00:04:26
the question facing investigators was
00:04:29
why
00:04:31
within two hours a special unit of the
00:04:34
fresno california highway patrol called
00:04:37
the multi-disciplinary accident
00:04:39
investigation team or mate arrived at
00:04:42
the scene
00:04:45
their job is to take a look at
00:04:47
everything that's there
00:04:49
document it classify it photograph it
00:04:52
and then
00:04:53
use it later in the reconstruction
00:04:55
process to develop a model as to how the
00:04:58
vehicles
00:04:59
were moving you want to know what the
00:05:01
damage patterns are where's the contact
00:05:03
damage where is the induced damage what
00:05:05
is the nature of the damage how does
00:05:07
that relate to objects or other vehicles
00:05:10
or
00:05:11
other people or
00:05:13
anything else the vehicle may have come
00:05:15
in contact with
00:05:16
the investigators found the point of
00:05:18
impact marked by scattered debris a pool
00:05:21
of brake fluid and more than a dozen
00:05:24
gouge and scrape marks
00:05:26
they also found a set of skid marks 64
00:05:30
feet long
00:05:32
they began in sergeant sinclair's lane
00:05:35
crossed the yellow center line and ended
00:05:38
in the oncoming lane traveled by the
00:05:41
secret service
00:05:43
it was clear the skid marks would be a
00:05:46
critical clue
00:05:48
they photographed
00:05:49
the roadway in detail that was their
00:05:52
first
00:05:53
job and they needed to do that before it
00:05:54
was lost before the roadway could be
00:05:56
open
00:05:57
the mate investigators then interviewed
00:05:59
eyewitnesses one of whom was driving
00:06:02
behind the secret service cars
00:06:05
according to her
00:06:06
the agents did nothing wrong
00:06:09
they were relaxed taking their time
00:06:12
driving along at a
00:06:14
reasonable speed for the for the area
00:06:16
and the terrain
00:06:17
after gathering all the evidence the
00:06:20
mate investigators began the hard work
00:06:22
of reconstructing what caused the
00:06:24
accident
00:06:25
what i'm doing here
00:06:27
is called motion analysis
00:06:29
i'm using the
00:06:31
scaled physical evidence and the scaled
00:06:33
vehicles to try to determine how the
00:06:35
vehicles were moving during particular
00:06:38
phases of the collision
00:06:39
the motion analysis provided the data
00:06:42
for a series of critical calculations
00:06:45
the first was the momentum of each car
00:06:48
immediately after the collision
00:06:51
momentum is determined by multiplying
00:06:53
each car's speed by its weight
00:06:56
according to the laws of physics when
00:06:59
objects collide as in this demonstration
00:07:02
their momentum after the impact is equal
00:07:05
to that before
00:07:07
if the investigators could figure out
00:07:09
the speed of the two cars as they
00:07:11
separated immediately after impact
00:07:14
they could calculate how fast they were
00:07:16
going before the crash
00:07:19
the investigators knew the weights of
00:07:22
both cars
00:07:23
by measuring the distance and direction
00:07:26
they had slid their rotation and the
00:07:28
amount of friction they were able to
00:07:30
calculate their post impact speeds
00:07:33
30 miles per hour for the sheriff's car
00:07:36
24 miles per hour for the secret service
00:07:40
next they looked at the angle at which
00:07:42
the two cars had collided the angle of
00:07:45
impact in this particular collision
00:07:47
evaluation was critical to determining
00:07:49
how this collision took place
00:07:52
mate calculated that the two cars
00:07:54
collided at a 10 degree angle almost
00:07:57
directly head-on
00:07:59
they already knew the direction the
00:08:00
sheriff was traveling from the skid
00:08:02
marks so the angle of impact allowed
00:08:04
them to calculate the path of the secret
00:08:07
service car
00:08:09
10 degree
00:08:10
approach angle between these two
00:08:12
vehicles places the
00:08:14
secret service dodge aries within its
00:08:17
lane of travel
00:08:19
and
00:08:19
moving slightly from left to right
00:08:22
as a potential evasive tactic as impact
00:08:25
takes place eyewitness testimony had
00:08:28
already established that the secret
00:08:30
service agents were driving at around 35
00:08:32
miles per hour the critical question was
00:08:36
how fast was deputy sinclair driving
00:08:40
sinclair claimed he was going 55 or 60
00:08:43
miles per hour
00:08:44
applying the laws of conservation of
00:08:47
momentum mate calculated he was actually
00:08:50
doing
00:08:51
76 miles per hour when he came into that
00:08:54
curve his vehicle was was out of
00:08:56
position for the speed that he was
00:08:58
traveling when he saw traffic coming at
00:09:01
him in the eastbound direction he simply
00:09:03
didn't have enough distance or enough
00:09:04
time to safely negotiate the curve he
00:09:07
panicked locked up the brakes on the
00:09:09
patrol car once he did that the patrol
00:09:11
car slides straight across the inside of
00:09:14
the curve into the opposing traffic lane
00:09:16
and struck the second secret service
00:09:18
vehicle
00:09:20
based on its three-week investigation
00:09:22
the california highway patrol believed
00:09:25
that sergeant sinclair was grossly
00:09:28
negligent and recommended that he be
00:09:30
criminally prosecuted
00:09:33
i believe the facts were there
00:09:35
given the circumstances that you could
00:09:37
make a case for misdemeanor manslaughter
00:09:40
but one man
00:09:41
had lingering doubts about the
00:09:43
investigation
00:09:45
attorney charles brun who represented
00:09:47
rod sinclair believed something vital
00:09:51
might have been missed
00:09:53
rod kept saying over and over again they
00:09:55
were in my lane of travel they were
00:09:57
heading right at me there was nothing i
00:09:59
could do but to hit the brakes
00:10:01
was deputy sinclair telling the truth
00:10:06
brunn hired his own investigators to
00:10:08
find out
00:10:09
and what they would discover would force
00:10:12
the highway patrol
00:10:14
to reopen their investigation
00:10:20
three secret service agents had been
00:10:22
killed in a near head-on collision with
00:10:24
a sheriff's patrol car all the evidence
00:10:27
indicated that deputy sheriff rod
00:10:29
sinclair was solely to blame
00:10:34
but then
00:10:35
a local photographer don schneider was
00:10:37
looking at slides of the accident when
00:10:39
he discovered a clue the highway patrol
00:10:42
had missed
00:10:43
another skid mark it was a surprise to
00:10:47
me to see the mark there because i had
00:10:49
not observed a skid mark at the accident
00:10:51
site
00:10:52
and i asked the question of the group
00:10:55
that was there hey fellas what is this
00:10:57
and pointed to the skid mark that i saw
00:10:59
on the screen
00:11:01
and it was obvious in the matter of
00:11:03
discussion a few moments later that this
00:11:04
had something to do with the secret
00:11:06
service car
00:11:07
attorney charles brunn showed the faint
00:11:10
skidmark to a team of accident
00:11:11
reconstruction experts from the angle of
00:11:14
the mark it appeared that the secret
00:11:17
service car had been over the center
00:11:20
line and was turning back into its own
00:11:22
lane when it was hit
00:11:25
and all of a sudden
00:11:27
i thought to myself
00:11:29
we have cause here for optimism
00:11:33
sergeant sinclair would seem as
00:11:35
vindicated he said they were coming
00:11:37
right at him
00:11:38
the new evidence suggested sinclair had
00:11:40
hit the brakes not because he was going
00:11:43
too fast as the highway patrol contended
00:11:46
but because he saw danger ahead
00:11:50
the california highway patrol
00:11:52
investigators dismissed the new evidence
00:11:54
calling it the phantom skid mark
00:11:57
the chp experts
00:11:59
covered that ground on their hands and
00:12:02
knees literally inch by inch and never
00:12:04
saw that skid mark why they didn't find
00:12:07
it wasn't clear
00:12:09
but the discovery gave new impetus to
00:12:11
bruns team of forensic accident
00:12:13
reconstruction experts
00:12:16
paul kafitz a photographer and engineer
00:12:19
is an expert in something called
00:12:21
photogrammetry
00:12:23
it's a six dollar word for making
00:12:25
measurements from photographs or using
00:12:27
photographs to make measurements
00:12:30
bronze experts needed a map of the
00:12:32
accident scene with the skid marks to
00:12:34
conduct their investigation
00:12:37
kafit's job was to reproduce the mark on
00:12:40
the road in its exact position so that a
00:12:43
surveyor could map its location
00:12:46
he began by making a 35 millimeter
00:12:49
negative of schneider's photograph
00:12:51
showing the skid mark
00:12:53
i put it into a special camera that i
00:12:55
take back to the scene i locate
00:12:58
the exact point from which he took his
00:13:00
photograph
00:13:02
and then looking through my camera i can
00:13:05
remark the position of the skid mark on
00:13:08
the ground and have a surveyor record it
00:13:12
the chalk marks help kfitz verify that
00:13:15
the mark he recreated was exactly as it
00:13:18
appeared in the photo
00:13:20
once the new survey map was created dr
00:13:23
william blyth an expert in applied
00:13:26
mechanics and accident reconstruction
00:13:28
was able to trace the path of the secret
00:13:30
service car the results confirmed
00:13:34
sinclair's statement
00:13:35
that the secret service cars were over
00:13:38
the center line
00:13:40
i think that the amount of the vehicle
00:13:43
over the center line as i recall
00:13:46
was something in the neighborhood of
00:13:48
one-third of one-half of the vehicle it
00:13:50
wasn't fully in the oncoming lane
00:13:53
the highway patrol had determined that
00:13:55
the collision was virtually head-on
00:13:58
lithe showed that the sheriff's car had
00:14:00
struck at an angle as if agent labarge
00:14:03
had been turning to the right to get
00:14:05
back into his own lane
00:14:07
dr blyth determined that the critical
00:14:10
skid mark was made
00:14:12
by one of the front tires on the agent's
00:14:15
car
00:14:16
it did have dark edges to it which is
00:14:20
indicative of a front tire
00:14:22
when you apply your brakes the weight of
00:14:25
the car shifts to the front axle and
00:14:27
when that happens the front tires tend
00:14:29
to cup a little bit and the load is on
00:14:32
the edges of the tires on the side walls
00:14:34
of the tires primarily
00:14:36
the critical question was
00:14:38
which front tire
00:14:41
the highway patrol experts after first
00:14:43
denying the existence of the skidmark
00:14:45
argued it was made by the left
00:14:49
if they were correct it meant the secret
00:14:52
service could not have been over the
00:14:54
center line
00:14:56
using photogrammetry kfit was able to
00:14:59
determine the width of the tire that
00:15:01
made the skid mark and prove that it was
00:15:04
in fact
00:15:05
the right tire
00:15:07
as it happened the right front tire on
00:15:11
the wrecked labarge car
00:15:13
was almost an inch narrower than the
00:15:16
other three tires it had been replaced
00:15:19
probably by a spare tire at some point
00:15:22
and that particular tire mark matched
00:15:25
only that narrower right front tire
00:15:28
proving the skidmark belonged to the
00:15:30
secret service car
00:15:32
was one of two critical issues facing dr
00:15:35
blythe
00:15:36
what was the sheriff reacting to when he
00:15:38
applied his brakes was he reacting to
00:15:42
his
00:15:43
perception that he was going too fast to
00:15:45
make the corner or was he reacting to
00:15:48
some other
00:15:49
danger that he saw
00:15:51
the highway patrol found sinclair was
00:15:54
going too fast
00:15:55
but dr blythe ran his own test using a
00:15:59
patrol car identical to the one sinclair
00:16:02
was driving
00:16:03
the range for the surest vehicle that i
00:16:05
found was between 62 and 66 miles an
00:16:08
hour
00:16:10
at that speed
00:16:11
sergeant sinclair had no reason to hit
00:16:14
his brakes because he could have
00:16:16
comfortably negotiated the curve
00:16:19
that left only one explanation
00:16:22
we felt there was negligence on the part
00:16:24
of the drivers of the first two cars in
00:16:26
that entourage
00:16:29
in that they crossed the center line
00:16:31
okay
00:16:32
let's begin a test run
00:16:34
to help prove these findings brun asked
00:16:37
paul kafitz to conduct a visibility
00:16:40
study like this one recreating what each
00:16:42
driver saw an instant before the
00:16:45
collision
00:16:47
the results would reveal another
00:16:50
surprising piece of evidence
00:16:51
[Music]
00:16:55
a high-speed collision
00:16:57
three secret service agents killed
00:17:00
california highway patrol investigators
00:17:03
determined that sheriff's deputy rod
00:17:05
sinclair was solely responsible
00:17:08
but then
00:17:09
the discovery of a skidmark in this
00:17:11
photograph suggested the secret service
00:17:14
was also at fault
00:17:17
the problem was proving it
00:17:20
to reconstruct the critical moments
00:17:22
before deputy sinclair slammed on his
00:17:24
brakes attorney braun asked paul kafitz
00:17:27
to conduct a visibility study
00:17:30
what we were trying to find out is
00:17:32
did that skid and ultimate loss of
00:17:35
control
00:17:36
uh start because he perceived that the
00:17:40
oncoming lead car was in his lane
00:17:43
kayfits mounted cameras in vehicles
00:17:46
identical to those involved in the
00:17:47
accident positioning them to record each
00:17:50
driver's point of view
00:17:53
then based on the physical evidence and
00:17:56
the calculations of dr blythe he
00:17:59
reconstructed the events that preceded
00:18:01
the fatal collision
00:18:04
from this viewpoint you can actually see
00:18:07
that
00:18:08
the lead car is halfway over the center
00:18:11
line and the labarge car in front of
00:18:14
this car is also a couple of feet over
00:18:17
the center line
00:18:19
now comes the view from the fourth car
00:18:22
driven by a key eyewitness mona crocker
00:18:25
who told mate investigators she had seen
00:18:28
the accident happen
00:18:30
she testified that at no time did she
00:18:33
see
00:18:34
any of the three secret service cars
00:18:36
cross the center line
00:18:38
she also testified that she saw the
00:18:40
accident occur
00:18:42
kafit's reenactment told a different
00:18:44
story
00:18:46
so this is mona crocker's viewpoint
00:18:48
and what's important here
00:18:51
is that although the lead car
00:18:54
ahead of her goes halfway over the
00:18:57
center line
00:18:58
straddles the center line from her
00:19:00
viewpoint that is never visible because
00:19:03
it's around the curve and over the hill
00:19:06
crocker thought she could see the
00:19:08
position of the cars
00:19:11
in fact
00:19:12
she could not
00:19:13
i was actually surprised at
00:19:16
the result about what mona crocker could
00:19:19
or couldn't see i hadn't predicted or
00:19:22
expected that
00:19:23
from the beginning the critical question
00:19:25
in the case was always
00:19:27
why did deputy sinclair jam on his
00:19:30
brakes
00:19:31
kafit's dramatic reenactment answered
00:19:34
the question
00:19:36
now from sinclair's viewpoint we can see
00:19:39
that he sees the lead secret service car
00:19:43
straddling the center line just a bit
00:19:46
more than a second before he begins to
00:19:49
skid in a straight line across the
00:19:51
highway
00:19:55
the last view
00:19:57
is that of agent labarge just before the
00:20:00
fatal crash
00:20:04
[Music]
00:20:06
based on kafit's powerful reenactment
00:20:09
and the work of bruns team of
00:20:10
investigators
00:20:12
a judge ruled that the secret service
00:20:14
agents were partially responsible for
00:20:17
the accident
00:20:19
he also ruled that the united states
00:20:21
should reimburse mariposa county thirty
00:20:24
percent of a four million dollar
00:20:26
settlement that had been paid to the
00:20:28
families of the secret service agents
00:20:30
killed in the accident
00:20:32
i felt
00:20:33
good
00:20:35
that the judge
00:20:36
believed
00:20:37
sergeant sinclair
00:20:40
that the secret service agents had
00:20:42
driven across the center line i felt
00:20:44
very good about that
00:20:47
the verdict was later overturned on a
00:20:49
technicality
00:20:50
but brun and his team of forensic
00:20:52
experts had proven their case
00:20:56
it is phenomenal it is amazing what they
00:20:58
can put together
00:21:01
and how they can reconstruct
00:21:05
an accident and how they can make
00:21:08
those small pieces of evidence
00:21:10
tell a story
00:21:12
there's satisfaction when the pieces
00:21:14
come together in a case like this and
00:21:17
other similar cases
00:21:19
that was a very powerful presentation
00:21:22
and i recall having a lump in my throat
00:21:25
when i watched it it was
00:21:27
as if you were in the driver's seat
00:21:30
watching your life come to an end in
00:21:32
that split second it was a very powerful
00:21:34
videotape
00:21:36
[Music]
00:21:46
ah
00:21:50
[Music]
00:22:05
you
