![handle is hein.journals/injlegame125 and id is 1 raw text is: Int J Legal Med (2011) 125:1-10
DOI 10.1007/s00414-009-0371-6
ORI(GNAL ARTICLE
Determining falling patterns by estimation
of horizontal distance and height
Yasuyoshi Yanagida Masato Maeda-
Hideyuki Nushida Migiwa Asano Yasuhiro Ueno
Received: 8 August 2008 /Accepted: 4 August 2009 /Published online: 23 August 2009
C Springer-Verlag 2009
Abstract Whether by accident or foul play virtually
thousands of fall-related fatalities occur each year. While
a number of past studies addressed the relationship between
falls, injury, and death, only a small fraction sought to
establish an objective index geared specifically towards
determining the cause of a particular fall. The primary
objective in the present study was to determine the range of
attainable horizontal distances in various forms of active
and passive falling patterns. The secondary objective
involved the capturing of physical motions at the point of
impact via 3D motion analyses in order to identify the
defining physical characteristics of a particular form of fall.
The introduction of live test subjects to these series of
experiments added the advent of fear and other psycholog-
ical factors to the study which are crucial in simulating real-
life cases. To corroborate this point, five subjects (three
male and two female) expressed their wishes to withdraw
from the study, attributing their decision to feeling an
inherent danger and fear of the physical aspects of the
present study. The ten subjects were made to fall from a
height of 3.65 m under 13 conditions of various natures.
Footage of the subjects falling was captured on two high-
speed video cameras which markedly improved the
Y. Yanagida (W) M. Maeda
Graduate School of Human Development and Environment,
Kobe University,
3-11 Tsurukabuto Nada-ku,
Robe, Hyogo 657-8501, Japan
e-mail: yanagida@kobe-u.ac.jp
H. Nushida M. Asano Y. Ueno
Division of Legal Medicine,
Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine,
7-5-1 Kusunoki-cho Chuo-ku,
Kobe, Hyogo 650-0017, Japan
calculation of 3D coordinates along the subjects' flight
path. After extensive calculations, we were successful in
determining the maximum attainable horizontal distances in
passive falling patterns. Additionally, we found that force
applied to the abdominal area results in shorter horizontal
distances in comparison to falls where force is directly
applied to the posterior side of the body.
Keywords Suicide Homicide Human subjects-
Psychological effects Freefalls
Introduction
Over 9,000 fall-related fatalities occur each year in Japan.
These numbers are alarmingly high and come second only
to traffic accidents within the context of accidental
deaths. Deaths attributed to freefalls occur in many forms:
willful (suicide), being pushed from behind (homicide), or
accidentally falling from an elevated working environment.
Normally, the manner of the fall is clear and roughly one-
third of these fatalities can be attributed to suicide.
However, the manner remains unresolved in a handful of
cases despite exhaustive investigative efforts. Cases such as
these, where the manner (i.e. suicide, homicide, accident)
cannot be determined, often result in legal disputes
necessitating scientific intervention.
Among research that has been conducted in the field of
fall-related deaths, this paper is preceded by works
performed by Snyder [1] and Lewis et al. [2] who
addressed the correlation between body position and
injuries and Atanasijevic et al. [3] who covered the issue
from a height and injury perspective. While such research
pertaining to freefalls and injury have been performed, very
few have come up with an objective index that focuses
'_ Springer](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/injlegame125&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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