--Jay Smith - P.E.

My name is Jay Smith. I have lived in Alaska since 1989. I came to Alaska to open the offices of Talbott Associates, Inc. from Portland Oregon and was given the opportunity to purchase the assets of this office in 1992. I opened the doors of Northern Mechanical Engineering, Inc and have been specializing in The Mechanical Engineering side of Automotive Accident Reconstruction, Fire investigation and Failure analysis. This has opened the doors to Safety Analysis and Safety training to help prevent accidents in the first place.

Automotive accident analysis includes Energy and Momentum analysis for speed at impact and ultimately speed change (delta-v) of the occupants of the vehicle. When this information is added to the Principal Direction Of Force (PDOF) the accident can be related to other accidents by severity of impact. My background in automotive engineering and failure analysis allows me to identify the cause of component failure and helps identify if an automotive part failed before or during an impact.

Cause and Origin studies in fire investigation are completed using similar steps of investigation. Using the characteristics of heating, melting, burning and smoke patterns and how they affect different materials we can often identify the origins of a fire.

 (Jay is an expert witness recognized by the courts in Alaska - David LeNorman - Alaska Adjusters)