The Sequence of Events Analysis (SEA) method is the missing link judges and lawyers need to enter into technical engineering discussions
The application of the first level of SEA allows judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and others who are not engineers to take an active and critical role in the examination of an accident reconstruction carried out and presented by highly complex technical consultants. It enables engineers called on as consultants – to utilize a three-step method, a precise reconstruction of the accident which takes into account all the evidence gathered at the scene, while ensuring the application of sound scientific methods.
Tracking Responsibility. After the facts have been reconstructed using SEA, the multilevel SEA method explains how to construct the profiles of responsibility found in complex organizations.
Based on the reconstruction of the chain of events that describe the incident (first level of SEA), the lawyer, prosecutor and/or judge can identify where to assign specific criminal liability. Using the Multilevel SEA allows for the full identification of all key events, without allowing one or more key events of the accident favor the linking of events that led to the final outcome.
The Basic Idea. The most common situation that occurs when accidents deteriorate into real disasters is that multiple failures originated at different levels of the organizational system. The reconstruction of linked events, which together describe the incident, is the focal point for the identification of responsibility.
Tracking criminal liability using evidential reasoning in the context of a complex accident is a key step is the identification of the causal link between the damaging event and the specific conduct of a specific subject. This step – which is difficult in itself - presupposes another equally complex step, which is to demonstrate that a particular behavior is causally connected to a certain incident and this incident is a key (or key-event) within an accidental, but precise sequence of events, that lead to the final destructive situation.
Objectives and Benefits. Provide a useful tool for judges, lawyers, consultants, experts and investigative agencies for the reconstruction of highly complex accidents.
The main objective is to give judges the tools to check and validate the reconstructive work presented by experts through the application of a check-list based on rigorous scientific methodology, but not the physics and engineering behind the explanation of the phenomena. The reconstruction of an accident – be it civil air or rail transport or industrial manufacturing facilities, etc. involves complex systems. Recognizing them is the first step in the process of identifying the correct profiles of responsibility. A key step in using evidential reasoning to analyze and identify criminal responsibility is the identification of the causal link that exists between the harmful event and the specific conduct of a specific subject
Forensic SEA 