Each of our experts have great credentials and many years of experience in automotive safety or related fields. Please contact us if you would like more information on any of our experts.

Donald Friedman
Mr. Friedman has been active in creative and innovative vehicle design for more than fifty years.  He has been responsible for the design, development and testing of six original vehicles, as well as alternative occupant protection and crashworthiness modifications for 13 production cars. He is proudest of his work on the Sidewinder missile, the Lunar Rover, the Minicars Research Safety Vehicle, air bags, offset frontal impact and rollover occupant safety, and his most recent efforts in human safety research.  He has authored more than 80 technical papers on these subjects and the government has published more than fifty of his research contract reports.  In the last 17 years he has consulted and testified in over five hundred product liability litigation cases integrating accident reconstruction, occupant kinematics, injury mechanisms, vehicle and restraint design, as well as computer analysis, simulation and validation of alternate injury mitigation means.

Carl E. Nash, Ph.D.
Dr. Nash has worked in the field of automotive safety for more than thirty years.  After earning his doctorate, he became a public interest auto safety advocate.  As a Senior Executive with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for 16 years, he directed programs in safety standards engineering, crash investigation, and evaluation.  He also conducted research and published in the field, and taught graduate courses in motor vehicle safety.  Dr. Nash has substantial experience in crash investigation and analysis from (1) his government experience where he directed the development of training and quality programs for the National Accident Sampling System, (2) teaching courses in crash investigation, modeling and data analysis at the George Washington University, and (3) the detailed reconstruction of dozens of crashes.  He has written extensively on how injuries occur in rollover crashes and has worked on issues of vehicle handling, structural performance, restraints, energy absorption, and the economics of motor vehicle safety, regulation, and has conducted statistical analysis of motor vehicle crash data.

George Rechnitzer, Ph.D.
Dr. Rechnitzer is a Professional Engineer with more than 35 year experience, specializing in workplace, transport and automotive safety for the past 15 years. As Senior Research Fellow at the Monash University Accident Research Centre from July 1990 to January 2003, he worked on many projects including testing and analysis of vehicle handling and stability characteristics, development of performance criteria for police vehicles, an investigation of passenger vehicle rollover crashes, and an investigation of the correlation between vehicle design factors and the nature and severity of occupant injuries.  He has also conducted major safety related projects in the area of vehicle crashworthiness, heavy vehicle safety, tractor and forklift safety, and rail and construction industry safety. He has carried out a number of in-depth investigations for Coronial Inquests. Dr Rechnitzer’s work has been published extensively with over 55 publications including contributing chapters in books relating to traffic accidents, accident investigation and reconstruction and safety.  He has made presentations at over 50 conferences and seminars, including international forums. Dr. Rechnitzer has testified in many cases in Australia as well as in the United States.

Terence Honikman, Ph.D.
Dr. Honikman has been providing expert forensic engineering consultant services since 1986.  He has analyzed more than four thousand automobile accidents and testified in over 350 trials as an accident reconstruction and biomechanical expert.  He has designed and performed crash tests in which live humans as well as crash test dummies were subjected to crash forces and accelerations.  He also served as an instructor of forensic engineering at the University of California at Santa Barbara.  Dr. Honikman’s litigation experience covers the reconstruction of vehicular accidents, the biomechanics of impact trauma and human impact tolerance, low speed automobile impact dynamics analysis, the “seat belt defense,” and automobile product defect cases.  His clients have successfully employed his broad expertise across a broad spectrum of cases including pedestrian impacts and complex collisions involving all manner of vehicles from tricycles and sport utility vehicles to buses and heavy earth moving equipment.

Raphael Grzebieta Ph. D.
Raphael Grzebieta graduated in 1979 with BE (Hons) and MEngSci degrees from Krakow Technical University, Poland and a PhD in1990 from Monash University, Australia. He has carried out over 100 in-depth crash investigations and accident reconstruction analyses and has acted as an expert for various insurance companies, legal firms and for Coroner’s. He has provided expert evidence, both in and out of court, in vehicle-related litigation, criminal prosecutions and Coronial Inquests. He has also been involved in major projects for the Australian Defense Department, VicRoads, Telstra, as well as a number of private Engineering firms. Projects have included vehicle rollover, vehicle safety, roadside safety (barriers), industry and construction safety. As an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at Monash University, he ran the Civil Engineering’s road-safety, crashworthiness and rapid loading research team and supervised PhD students. He has over 150 publications in structural crashworthiness research, accident investigation, road safety, road and infrastructure design, injury causation and biomechanics, failure analysis, numerical modeling and experimental testing of a variety of structures subjected to impact and large deformation loads. The university-based research team he lead carried out over 30 crash tests and numerous computer modeling and theoretical studies

Shane Richardson M.E.
Mr. Richardson is a Mechanical Engineer with 17 years experience in applying systems engineering methods to the procurement, specifications development, and design of automotive, military and mechanical systems for the Australian Army.  Shane was posted to the Royal Military College during 1991 and completed a Master of Science degree. From 1995 to 1998 Shane led the Land Engineering project team which investigated, analyzed, developed, tested and specified safety systems for the Australian Army’s fleet of General Service vehicles. Shane has conducted well in excess of 150 collision/incident investigations. He has provided expert evidence in the Supreme, County and Magistrate Courts related to collision/incident investigations for rollover collisions, heavy equipment, tram collisions, boat collisions, vehicle dynamics, collision damage, crashworthiness, lines of sight, motorcycle collisions, bicycle collisions, pedestrian collisions, human impact, ballistics and vehicle data recorders. He has published national and international technical papers, and is currently enrolled as a PhD candidate within the Civil Engineering Department, Monash University. The focus of Shane's research thesis is Roll Over Protection Systems for 4x4 vehicles.

Fred Carlin, Ph.D.
Dr. Carlin has worked in the field of human safety in the vehicular environment for the last 8 years.  Dr. Carlin has been actively concerned with human safety including environmental safety, radiation safety, medical instrumentation as well as occupant safety for the past thirty years.  He has published many papers on his various studies on safety, and continues to apply his multi-disciplinary experience in the study of vehicular safety. Dr. Carlin worked with Tony Sanses at Biomechanics Institute as a research scientist in the Biomedical Engineering and Biomechanical Engineering studies and evaluation of injury mechanics and mechanisms. He conducted research and studies in the physiology and mechanics of human impact injury. His primary studies concerned brain and spinal cord injury and secondary studies included blunt injury to thorax (heart and great vessels), abdomen (hepatic and splenic injury) and crushing injury to extremities.

Ken Ethier - Vehicle Data Specialist
An automotive professional with over 25 years of vehicle systems control experience on domestic and import automobiles, heavy duty trucks and military vehicles. Background includes a solid understanding of electronic control systems, data bus architecture, communications protocols, interface technology, diagnostic tools and event data recorder technology. During his 20 years at General Motors, Mr. Ethier was the Engine Controls Developer, Service Engineer for General Motors Sales and Integrated Product Development Team Leader, Project Engineer for General Motors Delco defense systems. He then worked for Vetronix Corp as a Vehicle Systems Engineer and Applications Engineer and developed the1st and 2nd level software specifications used in the development of Ford diagnostic software residing on Vetronix scan tool products. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), International Automotive Technicians Network (IATN), Accident Reconstruction Network (ARC/CSI).
Mr. Ethier holds the following certifications:
Crash Data Retrieval Technician Certification – Collision Safety Institute – Whittier CA
Crash Data Retrieval Data Analysis Certification – Collision Safety Institute – Whittier CA
PhotoModeler Collision Investigation Certification – EOS Systems – Houston TX

Jack Bish, Ph.D.
Dr. Bish has consulted in the field of automotive safety for 5 years.  After earning his doctorate in mechanical engineering with a focus on the design of composite structures, he began working for Friedman Research Corporation, consulting on all aspects of automobile safety.  During his tenure at FRC, he also taught a graduate level engineering course at the University of California, Santa Barbara on plate and shell structures.  After a brief hiatus as a research and development engineer at a manufacturing company, he returned to automotive safety with Xprts, LLC where he focuses on rollover accidents and the safety issues involved with these accidents.  He has designed and conducted numerous tests of vehicle performance and has published extensively on automobile safety issues.

Clarence Ditlow
Mr. Ditlow is the Executive Director of the Center for Auto Safety, a consumer group founded by Consumers Union and Ralph Nader.  He holds a degree in chemical engineering and two law degrees.  He directs the Center to improve auto safety, reliability and efficiency and played a major role in initiating numerous recalls including record 6.7 million Chevrolets for defective engine mounts, 15 million Firestone 500  tires, 1.5 million Ford Pintos for exploding gas tanks and 3 million Evenflo child seats for defective latches.  He led consumer efforts to get "lemon laws" passed in all 50 states.  Mr. Ditlow has testified over 25 times before Congressional Committees on auto safety and warranties, air pollution, consumer protection, fuel economy, energy conservation, patents and inventions.  Leading consumer advocate in passage of Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act and fuel economy provisions of Energy Policy and Conservation Act.  Author of numerous publications on consumers, auto safety, air pollution and transportation including "The Lemon Book," "Lemon Law Litigation Manual," and "Little Secrets of the Auto Industry."  He edits "Automobile Design Liability," a 4-volume work published annually by West Publishing.

Acen Jordan
Mr. Jordan’s design and engineering career spans nearly fifty years, during which time he has been active in the automotive and aerospace industries, as well as academia. 
Most recently focusing on automobile safety, Mr. Jordan has designed and built the Jordan Rollover System – a repeatable dynamic rollover test fixture that allows for the controlled study of vehicle and occupant dynamics during vehicle rollover collisions.  A renowned vehicle test engineer, Mr. Jordan’s impact test sleds have been purchased by and installed in the test facilities of Ford Motor Company, General Motors Corporation, Chrysler Corporation and the University of Virginia.  He has worked with Ferrari S.p.A. and Lotus Cars Ltd. to provide design, development, evaluation and certification of modifications for compliance with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards for a number of models.  His automotive test facility support systems for photo data acquisition have been purchased by Autoliv, Inc., Breed Technologies, Inc., Johnson Controls, Inc., and General Motors Corporation do Brazil.

As a Project Leader and Investigator at MCR Technologies, Mr. Jordan conducted various research projects under contract to the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, including:
Passive 50 mph inflatable restraints for full size cars
Passive 30 mph inflatable restraints for compact and subcompact cars
Passive restraint system effectiveness with out-of-position driver and passenger
Structural configuration of the Research Safety Vehicle Phase 1 for front, side and rear impact

Mr. Jordan has lectured on the topics of design and automotive safety at California College of Arts and Crafts, Stanford University and the University of California Santa Barbara.  He holds a bachelors degree in Product Design from California College of Arts and Crafts and a masters degree in Product Design from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University.