Abstract

In many litigations, the jury must decide if a prudent accident victim could have been reasonably expected to perceive the danger in time to avoid it. An optics expert witness can be effective if the visual field at the accident site can be quantified. Illuminance and luminance measurements, using a calibrated photometer, can be used to determine contrast of objects at the scene and thus the perceptibility of the danger. Any glare sources also need to be measured and their exact position and effects determined. Then the jury must be educated on how a human observer scans and perceives the measured scene.

© 1989 Optical Society of America