Forensic engineering is a discipline that contributes to legal judgments by scientifically analyzing the causes of accidents and incidents. How can it be used to prevent safety incidents and strengthen the social safety net?
The term “forensic engineering” may be unfamiliar to many people. Some may even feel uncomfortable that two seemingly unrelated words, law and engineering, have been combined. Forensic engineering is a branch of forensic science, like forensics, and is a discipline that contributes to legal proceedings by identifying the causes of accidents and incidents through engineering interpretation. To explain the somewhat vague definition in detail, it is as follows. If an engineer’s job is to investigate the cause of an accident when it happens, and a lawyer’s job is to listen to testimony in court and provide advice and hold someone legally accountable, then a forensic engineer’s job is to investigate the cause of an accident and provide legal advice. If engineering is about analyzing a given task in depth, predicting damage through the behavior of materials, and designing for reliability, forensic engineering is about finding the cause of damage from an incident that has already occurred, analyzing it in depth, and using it as important evidence in court.
The history and evolution of forensic engineering is very interesting. Forensic engineering is a discipline that began at the end of the 19th century and was born out of the convergence of engineering technology and law, which developed rapidly with the Industrial Revolution. In the early days, it focused mainly on investigating industrial accidents, but its scope has gradually expanded and it is now used in various fields. Modern forensic engineering plays an important role in solving complex cases by combining expertise in various engineering fields such as architecture, machinery, electricity, and chemistry.
The main functions of forensic engineering can be divided into three categories. First, because forensic engineering can apply the state’s right to punish, it can impose punishment on the person responsible through scientific investigation. For example, on February 17, 2014, the roof of the gymnasium at Mauna Ocean Resort in Gyeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea, collapsed during a welcome party for new students at Busan University of Foreign Studies. According to the building code, buildings in Gyeongju City must be constructed to withstand a snow load of 50 kg/m², but the building at the time was subjected to a snow load of 114 kg/m². However, the investigation revealed that the roof and columns of the gym were made of low-strength materials and that there were illegal construction practices, such as arbitrary changes to the drawings without the review of an architectural engineer. As a result, an arrest warrant was issued for six people, including the resort manager and those responsible for the poor construction.
Another important role of legal engineering is to train professionals through education and training. Because legal engineers must have legal knowledge in addition to technical knowledge, programs to train them are very important. These educational programs are not only degree programs offered by universities, but also ongoing courses for professionals working in the field. Through these courses, legal engineers continuously learn about the latest technologies and legal changes and develop the ability to apply them to real cases.
In addition, by identifying the causes of accidents and compiling statistics, future accidents can be prevented. After the Mauna Ocean Resort gymnasium collapse, the national standard for snow loads on buildings was strengthened, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transportation announced that it would review building standards for extreme weather events and improve the system. Strengthening building standards will help prevent safety accidents such as building collapses in the future.
Forensic engineering also plays an important role in fulfilling social responsibility. Forensic engineers contribute to maintaining safety and order in society by identifying the causes of various incidents and taking legal action based on the results. This not only identifies the causes of accidents, but also plays an important role in increasing the safety level of society as a whole.
Finally, forensic engineering can assist in civil litigation and contribute to insurance coverage for losses caused by disasters. In litigation, you need to present your own arguments based on objective data and counter the arguments of your opponent. In this case, forensic engineering can help you win the case by providing objective and important scientific evidence.
Some may question the need to create a discipline called “forensic engineering” by combining law and engineering. However, different engineers may have different interpretations of the same scientific evidence, so the outcome of a lawsuit may vary depending on which evidence is used and how it is presented. Therefore, a discipline called forensic engineering, which combines the two disciplines, is needed to achieve the best results in litigation.
There is a saying that forensic engineering is about learning from destruction to create new production. Of course, it is best not to have accidents, but the greatest significance of forensic engineering is to accurately identify the cause of the accident, punish the perpetrator, raise awareness, and strengthen safety standards to prevent further damage. It is said that Korea has the highest proportion of safety accidents among all causes of death among OECD countries. Recently, there have been many major safety accidents, such as the Mauna Loa Resort gym collapse and the Sewol ferry disaster. It is time to move away from a state of safety complacency and to always be concerned about safety and accident prevention, and it is expected that we will be able to develop more systematically through forensic engineering.
The future of forensic engineering is even brighter. Along with the development of advanced technology, new research and technology are constantly being developed in the field of forensic engineering. Predicting the cause of accidents through artificial intelligence (AI) and big data analysis, as well as on-site investigations using the latest equipment such as drones, are greatly improving the efficiency and accuracy of forensic engineering. These technological advances will help forensic experts analyze incidents and accidents more quickly and accurately, and take better legal action. In addition, international collaboration will allow forensic experts from different countries to share knowledge and work together to improve safety on a global scale.
