Death Investigation Academy

This course is approved for 4-hours of continuing education credits by Missouri POST and the  American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators (ABMDI)

Who Should Take This Course

• Law Enforcement Patrol Officers/ Supervisors
• Detectives and Investigators
• Medicolegal Death Investigators
• Coroners
• Interested Students 

Nearly 40,000 people are killed in car crashes each year. In each of these crashes, there is evidence on the body in the form of injuries.  It is important for investigators to understand vehicle crash dynamics and how impact and movement cause injury to a human body. Knowledge of the dynamics of these injuries and how they are inflicted will help the investigator come to some conclusions as to injury cause, seating position, and the crash type. 

This course will walk the student through understanding the basic physics that apply to vehicle crashes and describes the five-vehicle crash classifications. The instructor then walks the student through various types of injuries on the body and how specific crash types can cause those injuries.  

This course uses videos and photographs from actual crash investigations to demonstrate the classifications and injury types.

After completing this course, the student will be better equipped to

• Explain the basic rule of physics that apply to vehicle crashes
• Describe and list the various types of injuries occupants sustain during crashes
• Explain how injuries on a body relate to the impact and motion resulting from a crash
• List the area inside a vehicle that needs to be inspected for body contact evidence
• List the standard crash types

This is an online video training and is designed to be interactive with students by random quizzes and a final exam. Student login and time are tracked per student to verify the time spent in the course if needed.   Testing cannot be done until the videos are watched.  Many of the videos have a unique symbol or picture that will appear prominently in the video and is part of the test questions, this will ensure the video has been watched. Certificates will only be available for print after the successful completion of the course material. 

Each certificate will indicate that it was an online training and will note the approval control number and the CLEE hours given.