The Hinton Rail Collision Case Study

The Hinton Rail collision of 1986 is one of Canada’s worst rail disasters, occurring just on the outskirts of the Rocky Mountains in Alberta. This mass disaster was the result of a head-on high speed collision of a VIA rail Super Continental passenger train and a Canadian National freight train, leaving behind the remanence of torn apart passenger cars, shattered glass, burning chemical fumes and piles of scattered debris (Ferllini, 2012, p.170). Such a scene required the assistance of forensic anthropologists from the University of Alberta, alongside medical examiners and forensic ondontologists (Ferllini, 2012, p.171). The role of forensic anthropologists was imperative in the Hilton Rail collision case, as a multidisciplinary approach which

For example, one can note how the introduction of the Daubert criteria in the courtroom has played an important role within forensic anthropology. The Daubert efforts allow for the connection between data and methods to be used as admissibility of the conclusions, rather than on the credentials of the experts (Dirkmaat, 2008, p. 36). This copernican shift of the legal system regarding the treatment of scientific evidence as it is presented in court, distinguishes the primary role of forensic anthropologists in mass disaster scenarios and the enhanced role for quantitative methods in human skeletal analysis (Dirkmaat, 2008, p.

One of the central frameworks involved in dental identification is comparing post-mortem remains with antemortem dental records, by which further analysis can provide a confirmed identity (Pretty 2001, p. 360). There are a wide range of conclusions that can be reached when reporting dental identifications. The American Board of Forensic Ondontology recommends the following four guidelines for conclusions, including: positive identification, possible identification, insufficient evidence and exclusion (Pretty 2001, p. 362). Since there is no minimum number of concordant points which are required to make a positive identification, discretion of identification lies within the expertise of the ondontologists (Pretty 2001, p.