How two Windham police officers became the best accident reconstructionists in southern Maine

Detective Gene Gallant, a member of the Windham Police Department’s Accident Reconstruction and Forensic Mapping Unit, in his office on September 10. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

WINDHAM — Detective Gene Gallant’s office resembles a seventh-grade science classroom. Family photos and fingerprint sheets line his desk. Microscopes, tools and a stainless steel fume hood sit on pale blue cabinets against white walls.

When Gallant was in school, he hated math and science. Now he spends hours each week solving real-world physics problems, rushing to accident scenes, and analyzing data on his computer.

He and Captain Jason Burke are credited with developing the Windham Police Department’s accident reconstruction team and making it one of the best in the state. The small but powerful team is still growing, with one person currently in training.

The department was the first municipal police agency in the state to get drones and one of the few to have a full reconstruction kit to capture crash data from vehicles. With all this technology, it is often called to help other agencies in southern Maine.

Windham Police Detective Gene Gallant (left) and Captain Jason Burke pose for a portrait in front of the garage where they store their equipment and house some of the crash vehicles they work on. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

This year, as of September 10, the team had fully reconstructed 15 accidents – nine in Windham and six for other departments.

Windham covers about 50 square miles, and the area is heavily traveled, with U.S. Routes 202 and 302, State Route 115 and River Road bringing heavy traffic, so the department’s 31 officers handle more than their “fair share” of accidents, Police Chief Kevin Schofield said.

A majority of the accidents they reconstructed resulted in serious injury or death, Schofield said. Knowing exactly what happened and who might be at fault can help in a potential prosecution.

But not all accidents need to be considered crime scenes. Evidence can also be turned over to the Maine Department of Transportation for traffic safety analysis, insurance companies or civil attorneys, Gallant said.

“It’s like putting together a puzzle”

When Windham’s team is called to the crime scene, Burke and Gallant first photograph each piece of evidence. Then they mark the streets with markers, map the crime scene with a drone and seize the vehicles involved.

Although the officers have other police duties, Burke sticks with the reconstruction because he enjoys problem-solving. When they get stuck, the officers pull out their toy cars to visualize what might have happened.

“I really enjoy working on the scenes,” Gallant said. “It’s like putting a puzzle together.”

Windham Detective Gene Gallant shows a detail on a car they are currently performing an autopsy on. The car was involved in an accident with a semi-truck, but the driver of the vehicle escaped with only minor injuries. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

When Gallant started with the department in 2005, he said accident reconstructionists arrived at the scene armed with tape measures. Since then, technological improvements have made the work faster and more precise, allowing roads to be reopened sooner, Schofield said.

The department now owns five drones: two that produce thermal imaging, two that fly well at night and one that flies indoors. Before the drone program began in June 2018 (six months after the state police), surveying and recording an accident scene took one to two hours, Gallant said; now it takes about 15 minutes.

“We’re getting a real picture of the crash site, not just dots on a piece of paper,” Gallant said.

The drones could also be used in search and rescue operations and to search for fugitives, he said. According to a report from the Maine Criminal Justice Academy, Windham flew his drones three times in criminal cases and 22 times in non-criminal cases last year.

Captain Jason Burke assembles one of the drones he uses for crash reconstructions. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

Burke and Gallant participate in annual science and math events at Gorham Middle School and Windham High School. They demonstrate their drones to the middle school students and stage a crash that the high school students can recreate. The officers visited the high school math classes four times last winter.

“I’m sure some students have developed some interest over the years,” Schofield said. “Whether it’s getting involved in accident reconstruction or at least understanding how they can apply what they learn in math, science and physics to their future careers and interests.”

“A force multiplier”

Besides the Maine State Police, Windham is also the only police department in the state that has a complete accident data analysis kit, Burke said.

The vehicles are equipped with a small metal box called an airbag control module that stores data such as speed, seatbelt use and brake and accelerator pedal inputs. Other agencies have simpler kits that don’t work with every car, Burke said.

Detective Gene Gallant holds an airbag module, also called an accident data recorder, that he pulled from a car. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

After an accident, the police can connect a kit to retrieve and analyze the data. The kit is housed in a large black box with various cables and a green rectangle about 30 cm long that connects to a computer and uploads a clear PDF file with the accident data.

The cables that connect to the airbag control modules are packaged in individually labeled Ziploc bags because each one fits a different make of vehicle. Windham has the equipment to do this for most types of cars, but because companies didn’t adopt this technology until after the 1990s, it doesn’t work on older vehicles, Gallant said.

Although they can get exact numbers after uploading the data to their computers, officers still do calculations and measurements at the crash scene first. Their estimates of the car’s speed are fairly accurate and are often within a few miles per hour of the actual speed, Gallant said.

Once they’re back at their desks, Burke and Gallant will need between 10 and 180 hours to fully reconstruct the scene, depending on the complexity of the accident, Burke said. The process is based on the laws of physics – measuring angles, calculating height and weight differences and changes in speed.

Data from a vehicle on Detective Gene Gallant’s computer. The Windham Police Department is one of the state’s leading accident reconstruction units and one of the first city departments to use a drone program. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

To remain licensed in Maine, they must submit accident reports within two months, but the process can be delayed while waiting for lab results and information from the state medical examiner.

The department has a good reputation in the field of accident reconstruction, Schofield said, and other agencies call them “quite often.”

Although they have completed six complete reconstructions for other organizations, sometimes they only help with their drones and technology.

“Many departments simply lack the resources,” Schofield said.

Given these demands, he is keeping an eye on the team for burnout and is limiting assistance to Cumberland County and some areas of York County.

Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce said his office had all the equipment about 10 years ago, but since people retired, the agency’s reconstruction technology has become “outdated.”

The sheriff’s office has its own accident reconstructionists, but Windham has the state’s “subject matter experts.”

“The fact that I knew Windham could come to our aid any time we needed it gave us even more strength,” Joyce said.

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