RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Raleigh police say new technology is helping them investigate serious and deadly crashes.
“We may be knocking on the door at two in the morning to deliver to a family some of the worst news they’re ever going to receive,” said Raleigh Police Department Officer Lee Granger.
Granger said he’s been with the police department for 16 years and has spent the last four years with the Crash Reconstruction Unit (CRU).
“We investigate all of the fatal and near fatal, very serious injury crashes that happen in Raleigh,” he said.
So far this year, Raleigh police said the unit has investigated 54 crashes. Granger said each scene can take hours to fully process and often involves shutting down traffic.
“The goal of the unit is that when we arrive on scene, we’re going to gather all of the evidence from the roadway, from the driver, and from the vehicle to go back and look back at exactly what happened in the crash,” said Granger. “Sometimes we have all the lanes shut down where we’re out in the roadway with a spray paint, fiberglass tape measures, and we’re getting all of the data so that we can go back later in a courtroom in criminal or civil court and show what happened to the judge and to the jury.”
Raleigh police said new cutting-edge technology — a Trimble X9 3D Laser Scanner — allows them to scan the full scene, gather high-quality data quickly, and process large roadway incidents in a shorter time.
“If we had a major rollover crash on I-40 where evidence was strewn over hundreds, over maybe 1,000 feet — something that would take us three hours to gather all that data can be an hour or less and we can get the roadway open,” said Granger.
Raleigh police said it’s similar equipment also used by the North Carolina State Highway Patrol.
The advancement comes months after Raleigh police launched its Civilian Traffic Investigator Unit. It consists of three full-time and three part-time employees who respond to many other traffic calls and minor accidents.
In the month of May, Raleigh police responded to more than 1,800 calls involving crashes and about 1,700 in June. It’s an average of about 55 crashes a day.
“People want a response — they want someone to come to the scene and document what happened. It’s very helpful that the Civilian crash investigators are there because they get the line officers, the beat officers, back taking the 911 calls — especially the priority calls,” explained Granger.
He said it’s something that’s become vital as the city continues to grow.
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The new equipment in addition to training cost about $75,000 which was made possible through the Raleigh Police Department Foundation.
Granger said their goal is to help make roads safer and ensure the evidence at every scene is accurate.
“I want to be able to give them answers to what happened to their family members. Later in the courtroom, I want to be able to tell the judge and tell the jury that we considered all the evidence, that we gathered all the data, especially if we’re going to be sending someone to prison for years because of what they did that night.”