Bruce Gazdick's "Practical Applications of CDR Technology" Class Taught at MSC

Bruce Gazdick's Power Distribution Center (PDC) tool

William Messerschmidt
Principal Technical Analyst

On June 18th, Messerschmidt Safety Consultants (MSC) hosted "Practical Applications of CDR Technology," at our Pelham, Alabama office. The course was taught by Mr. Bruce Gazdick of L & L Investigations and was attended by the staff of MSC, as well as local law enforcement officers from Hoover and Pelham, AL Police Departments.

It was a great privilege for us at MSC to have Bruce Gazdick teach this fantastic class at our Pelham, AL office. Bruce is a former Jacksonville, Florida Deputy Sheriff who handles products liability investigations nationwide with ESIS and EAA. Bruce also works as an instructor for the Institute of Police Technology and Management, where he teaches "Event Data Recorder Use in Traffic Accident Reconstruction," along with Mr. Richard Ruth and Mr. Bill Wright.

Bruce designed and developed the Power Distribution Center (PDC), which is a tool that facilitates accessing Event Recorder data in heavily damaged passenger vehicles. The eight-hour course, which included lecture, Q&A, and hands-on training focused on using the PDC and preserving diagnostic fault data in airbag modules. 

We'd like to thank all of those who attended--and especially our instructor Bruce Gazdick--for an excellent day of training!

Messerschmidt and Austin to Present at the 2012 ARC-CSI Crash Conference

Kelly Messerschmidt
Technical Communications Manager

Bill Messerschmidt of MSC, and Tim Austin of the Wisconsin State Patrol Academy will give a presentation on “Using ECM Diagnostic Data in Crash Reconstruction” at the 2012 ARC-CSI Crash Conference, which will take place June 4-7, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Messerschmidt and Austin’s presentation explores the presence of important, volatile fault data in heavy vehicle Engine Control Modules (ECMs) that are oftentimes ignored, inadvertently erased, or overwritten during the ECM data imaging process.

They will discuss how and when diagnostic records are written, how they can be useful in collision investigations, as well as how the data can be preserved correctly. Messerschmidt and Austin will describe data imaging methods, such as the use of surrogate vehicles and devices like the “Truck in a Box.”

The ARC-CSI Crash Conference takes place annually and—as they have done for the past 10 years—the ARC-CSI Crash Team will conduct multiple, fully instrumented live crash tests of vehicles in real world crash scenarios. Learn more about the crash tests.

The two days that follow crash test day are comprised of technical presentations given by experts from around the world on topics relevant to investigating and reconstructing vehicle collisions. Learn more about the topics and speakers for the 2012 ARC-CSI Crash Conference.

Register to attend this year’s conference.

Kevin Jones Attends the CDR Data Analyst Certification Course

The main focus of the 2011 CDR Data Analyst Certification course is reading and understanding a Bosch CDR System report and then applying it to a situationally complete accident reconstruction. The course is extensive, and it even includes participants being exposed to data that are not currently available using the Bosch CDR System. For more information on CDR courses, as well as other courses the Collision Safety Institute offers, such as CRUSH, view CSI's course listings online.

Ben Smith Earns ACTAR Accreditation

Ben Smith, who manages MSC of Mississippi and serves as the Principal Technical Analyst, earned his ACTAR (Accreditation Commission for Traffic Accident Reconstruction) in November.

Since his office in downtown Hattiesburg opened in August 2010, Ben has performed work across the US, in areas such as Nevada, Wisconsin, New Mexico, and Kentucky. Email Ben Smith.

Bill Messerschmidt Presents at IAARS Annual Conference

On July 19, 2010, MSC’s Principal Technical Analyst, Bill Messerschmidt, had the opportunity to address the annual conference of the International Association of Accident Reconstruction Specialists (IAARS).

At this year’s conference, Bill provided a presentation on human factors in vehicle collision reconstruction, as well as a session on heavy vehicle Event Data Recorder (EDR) technology. Learn more about heavy vehicle EDRs.

The conference was held at the Mall of America Radisson Hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota, and was attended by civilian and law enforcement crash investigators and engineers from across the US and Canada.

Conference organizer and IAARS president Dan Lofgren said, “It was a very good seminar experience for all in attendance, in large part due to your presentations. We had very good feedback.” Positive feedback can be attributed in large part to the subject matter experts invited by IAARS and the excellent planning and facilities chosen by the organizers.

Other speakers included Dr. Frank Navin, Mr. Peter Murphy, Dr. Don Schmalzbauer, IAARS president Dan Lofgren, and textbook author Myron Lofgren. It was an honor for Bill and MSC to be included “on the ticket” with these people.

The cost of the conference was $75 for members of IAARS, and it provided ACTAR continuing education credits for accredited reconstruction experts. MSC is looking forward to the 2011 IAARS Conference.