14 Fleet Maintenance | JULY 2017
amount of time and labor. Ask any police
detective if they can get an autopsy or DNA
test “fast tracked” and the results returned
within a one-hour CSI television program.
Aft er they stop laughing, they will emphatically
tell you: “No way.”
Be that as it may, for vehicle maintenance
personnel, there are lessons to be learned
from the methods used within those CSI
television shows, movies and novels. When
a technician needs to get to the bottom of
a vehicle malfunction, he must be a skilled
investigator. Sometimes this includes recreating
and examining the events leading up
to a fault or malfunction. Much like a crime
scene investigator, a maintenance professional’s
work is all about fi nding clues, connecting
the dots and providing clear documentation
of their methodology.
Responsibilities
Consider the occupation of crime scene
investigator. Th ey spend a great deal of their
time in the fi eld, working to methodically
collect evidence from the scene of the crime.
Among other duties and responsibilities, their
job involves:
Securing the crime scene.
Once the scene is secure, taking
measurements.
Sketching and diagramming the scene in
detail.
Photographing the entire crime scene.
Documenting the evidence collected from
the scene (location, nature, etc.).
Labeling all evidence and packaging it properly
for preservation.
Attending autopsies, taking photographs and
taking notes.
Writing detailed reports on evidence collection
procedures and conclusions based on
evidence.
Communicating with prosecutors and testifying
in court when an arrest is made.
Objectives
Th ere are a number of key objectives to a thorough
crime scene investigation that can also
pertain to vehicle maintenance. Th ese include:
Reconstructing the crime.
Determining the sequence of the events that
led up to the crime.
Establishing the mode of operation of the
perpetrator(s) of the crime.
Uncovering the motive for the crime.
Determining everything the perpetrator(s)
may have done at the crime scene.
Recovering and processing all physical
evidence at the scene.
Properly processing a crime scenes involves
an organized approach using a sequence of
established and accepted duties and protocols.
Th ere are three fundamental stages to successful
crime scene processing:
Scene recognition.
Scene documentation.
Evidence collection.
All of the duties and responsibilities of a
crime scene investigator can be adapted by
vehicle maintenance personnel to help to
identify the reason – a condition or a chain of
events – that resulted in a component failure
or a vehicle breakdown.
Page 16
What Does The Driver Have
To Say About The Incident?
An integral part of any “crime scene” investigation
of a vehicle malfunction or breakdown is the vehicle’s
driver.
Besides looking at driver
vehicle inspection
reports and preventive
maintenance and
vehicle service records,
thoroughly interview
the driver of the vehicle.
This should take place as
soon as possible while
the incident is still fresh
in the driver’s mind.
Get him/her to describe
in detail what happened
before, during and
immediately following
the component failure or
vehicle breakdown. This
will be helpful in determining
the sequence of
events leading up to the
problem.
Asking pointed, rather
than general, type
questions will elicit more
important information.
Inquire about such
things as:
• What operation was
being performed at the
time the issue occurred
(driving, idling, starting
the engine, shutting
down the engine, etc.)?
• Were there any alarms,
indicators, warnings,
unusual temperature or
pressure readings, etc.?
• Were any physical conditions
– such as smoke,
noise, smell, sounds,
etc. – noted at the time
of the incident?
• What actions, if any,
were taken in response
to the failure?
» Insight into what caused a problem can be found by analyzing driver vehicle
inspection reports, preventive maintenance and vehicle service and repair
records, and probing the information from a vehicle’s telematics systems.
Photo courtesy of Kenworth
VehicleServicePros.com/11669575