(Atlantic) Drones are becoming a valuable tool for the Cass County Sheriff’s Office and Atlantic Police Department. Cass County Sheriff’s Deputy Ben Bartholomew is currently running the drone at accident scenes to see how it would benefit the department regarding accuracy, workforce, and investigative and road closure time.
KSOM/KS95 News recently caught up with Deputy Bartholomew at an accident scene involving two vehicles on the south edge of the City of Atlantic. “If we were to run measurements today, it would’ve taken close to 15-20 minutes to run measurements on an accident scene like this,” stated Bartholomew. “The fly time today for the drone to record the scene was one minute and four seconds.”
Bartholomew admitted this was only the second accident scene where he implemented the drone. “There is going to be a learning curve as far as ease and speed of deployment and the fastest way of mapping and flying a scene,” said Bartholomew. “In the end, it will definitely save time and effort on how to deploy it most efficiently. But at its infancy now, it’s already saving a considerable amount of time.”
Bartholomew says the data from the drone is installed into a software program, and the individual photos are downloaded, showing the details of the accident. He says a grid using google maps is formed over the accident scene, and the drone will fly itself. The six corners of the accident are set, the height of the flight. The flight covers the route, takes pictures covering every spot of the ground, an exact map, measures skid marks, etc.
Deputy Bartholomew says the Iowa State Patrol will continue to use Traffic Investigators to cover fatality accidents.
