Since our primary client-base consists of heavy commercial transport (trucking) companies, we have started to provide practical training to our member organizations.

Through this training, we are able to empower our clients. Since we cannot be on every single scene, all over South Africa, every time, we wanted to ensure that our clients are able to easily manage their own scenes and 'cover the basics' in our absence.

So, we started to provide them with practical at-scene accident investigation training as an added benefit to membership. Our clients are then able to benefit form our service even if we are unable to attend to the scene of a collision quickly enough.

Any company, group, organization or syndicate of (sister) companies wishing to benefit from our custom training solutions is invited to contact us for further particulars about our training courses - presented anywhere in the world.

By providing our clients with practical training in at-scene accident investigation, we are sure that those companies that are members of our service can optimize the benefits package we offer. Not only are they then sure never to lose vital at-scene evidence, but also because training is based on our own actual internal at-scene investigations model, they are assured that their at-scene investigation efforts will comply with our stringent requirements. This optimizes the post-event Accident Reconstruction efforts.

Thus, when clients provide us with an array of at-scene investigation images, we are sure that all of the images are taken in the exact same manner and sequence as we would have done, had we been present ourselves.

The other benefits of this training include:

Zero loss of vital evidence. If any delegate from any of our member companies are able to respond to- or arrive at the scene of a collision ahead of ourselves, they are immediately able to start the actual investigation process without delay. This enables them to ensure that no evidence is lost and that no contamination occurs.

Zero contamination. If the client is able to arrive at an accident scene first - which is very possible - there is an immediate record of everything that was present. Thus - anything that gets moved or altered later will not happen without a base of reference. This assists enormously with the final reconstruction and it then becomes possible for us to do highly accurate Reconstructionst without any concerns about contamination.

Identification of crimes. Often, any criminal element associated with an accident scene will be clearly visible, such as drivers who have no driver's license, etc. When 'someone' is able to arrive quickly enough and is trained to detect visual vehicle mechanical issues before any manipulation could take place - vital evidence is recorded and retained. Since these elements (crime at accident scenes) are addressed as part of our training, this empowers our clients and protects them against liabilities.

Vital at-scene intelligence. With our clients attending accidents as trained investigators, in stead of lay persons with only an interest in the losses suffered, we are able to gather vital intelligence from the scene, even while we are still en route to the accident scene. This empowers us and enables us to communicate with- and give advice to our clients more effectively. Clients are able to better protect themselves through our guidance, even before we arrive at scenes.

Legal Protection. If staff members are trained, and arrive at an accident scene, they are less likely to be intimidated by other parties, less likely to develop a 'loose jaw' and disclose vital information when they should not, and they tend to be more calm, more controlled and more concise in their management of accident scene. They feel less like they are in unfamiliar territory. This eliminates the tendency for people to say things they should not - especially where 3rd parties are involved.

In short - our training enables our members to protect themselves more effectively, to record more detailed information, to ass sit us with our investigation and reconstruction and to act more professionally at accident scenes. By knowing what is happening, who the role-players are, what their roles and responsibilities are, these members tend to be more 'in charge' at their own accidents scenes, can identify crimes much quicker and can protect themselves against liabilities.

 

 

During 2009, we received numerous requests for further training, additional education, practical examples, personal tuition, internships and even job shadow programs.

We found that - as reasonable as these requests and inquiries are - IBF Investigations is simply not geared to accommodate all needs at present.

Some people want 'just the basics' and would like to have enough knowledge with which to explore the field and establish whether they think there is a future in Forensic for them while others seek training at very advanced levels and would like to make a career out of it.

We explored the option of internships, short courses, correspondence courses and even long courses (three years). But, the shortage of training in our field, the diversity of interests, geographical challenges and fee structures all played a role in conspiring against our best efforts.

Yet, we realized that the one thing that we can do is perpetuate our training, if we were able to find a way to reproduce the same training at many locations, at minimal cost - so we opted to start filming a DVD Training Series in 2010.

Currently named "All the Evidence," the series is designed to present students with a progressive learning experience. The first DVD (DVD 1 - Introduction to Forensic Awareness) will be designed to address the basic information needs so many people have. It will cover at-scene protocols, role-players, evidence identification, documentation and basic photography. This DVD will be distributed for FREE, and students will be allowed to make and distribute as many copies as they see fit - subject to the DVD remaining a total work (no cutting, editing, extraction or commercial duplication allowed).

DVD 1 will be designed to enable any road-user, assessor, transport manager or controller, truck-driver, policeman, traffic officer and even fire- and ambulance-men, to identify evidence at a road traffic collision scene, to protect the evidence, to know what the roles and responsibilities of all services present are, and to photograph the scene properly.

After this, a number of additional general-topic DVD's will be produced, ranging from Incident Management through Vehicle Collision Dynamics, The Laws of Physics, Tactical Scene Approach and Personal Defense, Effective Emergency Communication and Photographic Techniques for night photography.

After this, there will be DVD's produced that will cover specific technical topics, like Airbags and Seatbelts, Brake Systems, Tyres, Lights, Suspension Systems and Electronic Vehicle recording Solutions and Systems.

The 'special' DVD's that will follow will cover specific topics like Truck Crash Investigation, Motorcycle Accident Investigation, Pedestrian and Bicycle Investigation and Hit-and-run Accident Investigation.

Finally, very specific topics will be covered, including Photogrammetry, Drawings using special software (VS Vista Fx) and Specialized Photographic Techniques.

In total, we expect to produce a total of over 20 DVD's, containing as much as 80 hours of training, or more.

Please visit our site regularly to see updates, clips, extracts and 'behind-the-scenes' clips of our efforts.