Incomplete decapitation with exenteration of the brain in a motorcyclist run over by a semitrailer.

Although decapitation is a well-known traumatic mechanism in road traffic deaths, incomplete decapitation of a motorcyclist with exenteration of the brain has not yet been reported in the forensic literature in a victim run over by a vehicle. This paper deals with an autopsy case of a 69-year-old motorcyclist, who had been run over by a semitrailer, as a result of which flattening of the head with extrusion of the brain and incomplete decapitation occurred at the level of the fourth cervical vertebra. This constellation allows to define a special mechanism of accident-related decapitation. Moreover, the case underlines the importance of a multidisciplinary approach for the reconstruction of the accident as well as for the assessment of its judicial consequences. On the suspicion of a hit-and-run accident, simulation tests were performed by technical experts. These tests revealed that the motorcycle may not have been conspicuous for the truck driver prior to and during the accident. Consequently, the charge of manslaughter and failure to render assistance against the truck driver was dropped.

A moving human body causes fatal blunt trauma: an unusual traffic accident.

In urban traffic accidents, mainly pedestrians and cyclists are at risk of being injured and killed. Lethal injuries are usually caused by the immediate impact of a car or a tram. This paper presents a fatal accident without any direct contact with a motor vehicle. A 63-year-old woman sitting on a chair in a pavement cafe was killed by the impact of a 60-year-old male cyclist, who was flung in her direction after colliding with a car. Autopsy yielded intracutaneous haemorrhages on the impact sites of the female victim (left cheek, left shoulder and left upper arm). The woman sustained a ring fracture of the skull base encircling the foramen magnum with subtotal severance of the brain stem and massive chest trauma. All the injuries were caused by the blunt impact of the moving human body. The head was forcibly bent towards the contralateral shoulder resulting in a depression fracture of the skull. Reconstruction of the accident at the scene was challenging, as the fatally injured victim remained sitting on the chair and did not show any striking external signs of traumatisation. According to the assessment of the technical expert, the collision velocity of the moving body amounted to 6-8 m/s.