Safety Engineering & Forensic Analysis

At Safety Engineering & Forensic Analysis, Inc. (SEFA), we have been dedicated to providing expert services to the legal community for over two decades. Our founder, Stephen Arndt, has an extensive background in aerospace engineering and has been a vital part of the aviation and automotive crash safety industry since 1984. His wealth of knowledge and experience has allowed him to become a prominent expert witness in the field.

Our Expertise

Our areas of expertise include the investigation of automotive collisions, accident reconstruction, vehicle dynamics, stability, and control, tire failure, rollover propensity, vehicle crashworthiness, vehicle testing and research, helicopter crash safety, helicopter crash-resistant fuel systems, and post-crash fire analysis. We are committed to providing comprehensive services to our clients and ensuring that they receive the best possible results.

Meet Steve

Steve Arndt, the founder of SEFA, received his Bachelors of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Arizona in 1984. Steve's professional career began as a Research Engineer at Simula, Inc., where he worked in the field of Aviation Crash Safety and Aircrew Protection for eight years. In 1992, Steve began working at Arndt & Associates, Ltd., providing consulting and expert testimony to the legal community on aviation and automotive crash safety. He then formed Safety Engineering & Forensic Analysis, Inc. in 1998.

Steve has conducted extensive full-scale vehicle handling tests to evaluate stability and control issues, specializing in vehicle dynamics and accident reconstruction. His research has led to numerous peer-reviewed technical papers, and he has been invited as a lecturer on his research topics. Steve is a member of several professional organizations, including The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), The Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM), The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), The National Association of Professional Accident Reconstruction Specialists (NAPARS), Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), and the Vertical Flight Society (VFS), originally known as the American Helicopter Society (AHS).

Our Services

SEFA offers a variety of services, including accident reconstruction, vehicle dynamics, stability, and control, vehicle testing and research, and aviation safety and aircrew protection. We provide consulting services on automotive and aviation crash safety issues throughout North America. Our services include:

• Accident Reconstruction: Single vehicle rollover accidents, single and multi-vehicle collisions, restraint usage and effectiveness, accident vehicle inspection and documentation, crash site inspection and 3D roadway mapping, evidence preservation, drone aerial photography of crash scenes and accident vehicles, photogrammetric reconstruction of crash scene evidence and vehicle crush, and Bosch Crash Data Retrieval (CDR) of Event Data Recorders (EDR).

• Vehicle Dynamics, Stability, and Control: Tread separations, electronic stability and control (ESC) effectiveness during a tire failure, scrub radius effects on front tire failures, rollover propensity, vehicle testing and research, and SEFA offers vehicle handling testing in the areas of tread separation event tests, roll propensity tests, steering robot available for testing where high precision steering is required, yaw stability, list of vehicles tested, and vehicle handling test videos.

• Aviation Safety & Aircrew Protection: Evaluate the crash resistance of existing fuel system designs, analyze areas for improvement that will enhance the likelihood of fuel containment in the event of a survivable crash, and evaluate the effectiveness of a crash-resistant fuel system design under case-specific crash conditions.

At SEFA, we are dedicated to providing our clients with the best possible service and ensuring that they receive the results they need. Our team of experts is always ready to help with any automotive or aviation crash safety issues you may have.