Citation

Tsai WT, Hu CI, Chang CY. J. Forensic Sci. 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Graduate Institute of Interdisciplinary Legal Studies, National Taiwan University, No. 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei, 10617, Taiwan.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, American Society for Testing and Materials, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/1556-4029.14169

PMID

31411743

Abstract

The horizontal displacement of the human body resulting from fatal fall from a height is an important variable commonly used to inversely determine the cause or identify other forensic aspects of the fall. When examining the horizontal displacement, the wind effect is generally ignored. This technical note reports analytical modeling of the falling process, utilizing previous measurements of wind force acting on the human body, for determining the functional relationship between the wind speed and the horizontal displacement in the falling process. The result reveals that it does not take extremely rare wind conditions to cause a considerable shift of the human body, highlighting the importance to consider wind as a factor in investigations of fatal falls.

© 2019 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

Language: en

Keywords

analytical mechanics; crosswind effect; fatal fall from a height; forensic science; mathematical modeling; wind drag