LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Nevada Highway Patrol is putting eyes in the sky to hold wrong-way and DUI drivers accountable.
Only FOX5 learned how NHP’s Traffic Homicide Unit is using drones to help investigate fatal collisions in Southern Nevada.
NHP Trooper Roy Erickson says, it’s one thing to look at the scene of a crash from eye-level, but it’s another to be able to see it from a bird’s eye view.
“I’m 6 feet tall. I can only reach my arms up so high,” Erickson says. “This drone footage is able to show you the sheer magnitude of how sometimes how fast these vehicles are traveling, how far they travel after impact, and then how large the scene is as well.”
Erickson explains how drone photography helped paint the full picture of a wrong way crash on northbound US 95 that seriously injured a prison officer in May.
He says seeing where a vehicle ends up after a crash from up in the sky helps NHP’s Traffic Homicide Unit figure out how fast each vehicle was traveling.
“You have vehicles traveling at a high rate of speed, even after they collide, they’re still traveling that much further to come to rest,” he says.
NHP says they use drones for fatal collisions if weather permits.
In September, NHP Sergeant Tyler Mleczko says the unit used them to protect investigators from toxic fumes following a lithium battery fire on the US95.
“We’d rather put a drone in danger versus putting boots on the ground,” Mleczko says.
Mleczko says they were asked to assess how bad the damage was to the interstate, so the Nevada Department of Transportation knew how many and which resources to send.
The photos, taken from a quarter of a mile away, show how far the debris field expanded. The originals, taken from the ground, only show a piece of the scene.
It’s who the photos are shown to that matters the most. NHP Trooper, Scott Williams, says drone photography has helped them get convictions for wrong way and DUI drivers in recent cases.
“We’re able to present more detail to the jury, to the judge, to get better convictions,” Williams says. “When you just tell the story verbally, it’s hard to follow. If you have a good photograph to go along with it, people can relate and understand what you’re talking about.”
All seven members of NHP’s Traffic Homicide Unit can fly the drones. Their training is learned on the job, once they join the unit.
Mleczko says the unit started using drones in 2019. Before that, they took photos from the ground using digital cameras.
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