Institute of Transportation, MOTC

        When conducting road traffic accident reconstruction, on-site search evidence, evidence identification and other related techniques are often used to restore the on-site situation and clarify the responsibilities. Evidence data can be divided into written, oral, and physical evidence. All types of evidence may have implied errors, so we should be attention to “Admissibility” and “Reliability” of evidences. This study takes video records evidence as the research subject, and the actual case has proved that there are different interpretation results of an identical traffic accident video by the appraisal agency, court, and parties. That is, the evidence of the video is to explain the facts or infer the facts claimed by the referred parties. In the meantime, there is a problem of different correlation strength (i.e., the difference in the strength of evidence). Based on this, it is important to discuss the differences in the interpretation results of the video and the reasons for its occurrence. Constructing the principles or methods of video records so that the inspectors can increase the prior knowledge before watching videos, then fully utilizing the evidences in more effective way. Literature reviews have shown that influencing factors of viewers in obtaining effective information of images include five interference factors such as contrast, object shape clarity, brightness, light source position and night images, etc. Moreover, three factors which could affect viewers, including prior knowledge, physiological conditions, and emotions, etc. This study conducted a questionnaire interview with thirty participants, then constructed the “Evidence Inspection Method” which focusing on the objective observation and concentration. This method can enhance the prior knowledge of viewers and obtain more effective information about on-site reconstruction. According to the “objective inspection results”, after accepting this method, there are twenty-four participants who can obtain more information effectively, six participants who still can support this method effectively, and this outcome consists with “subjective feelings”. Hence, it proved that by accepting the “Evidence Inspection Method” in advance can enhance prior knowledge and obtain information effectively during the process of inspecting video records.