Cell: (561) 339-6103
Kelly@focusforensics.com
2656 Greenway Drive
Jupiter, FL 33458
—Forensic Engineer
Dr. Kelly Palframan has dedicated her professional career to the study and understanding of transportation safety incidents, with insight into the human, vehicular, and roadway factors that combine to result in collisions and crashes. After completing a Bachelor’s of Science in Civil Engineering at Florida State, she earned both Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering with a focus on Transportation Safety from Virginia Tech. In addition to her academic degrees, she has received training from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) National Highway Institute. She has over 11 years of experience as a professional safety researcher and engineer into a wide breadth of engineering design and collision factors, including projects related to crash reconstruction, vehicle dynamics, roadway design, roadside safety design, temporary traffic control, infrastructure-based safety programs, and injury biomechanics.
Dr. Palframan’s works have been widely published in leading journals, including the Transportation Research Record, Transportation Research, the International Association of Traffic and Safety Sciences, Society of Automotive Engineers, the Annals of Advances in Automotive Medicine. She has notably been an author on a number of manuals and guidelines for practitioners that have been adopted and published by leading national standard-setting organizations such as the Federal Highway Administration Office of Safety, Federal Highway Administration Office of Operations, and the American Traffic Safety Services Association. Publication topics include temporary traffic control, maintenance of traffic, transportation engineering design, intelligent transportation systems.
Dr. Palframan has also brought her academic studies and research into focus on several specific collision types involving heavy commercial vehicles and special use vehicles such as emergency vehicles and school buses. Her Master’s Thesis evaluated the effectiveness of electronic stability systems in reducing heavy truck rollovers, and her Doctoral Dissertation addressed issues of School Bus Safety and School Bus Stop Safety using intelligent transportation systems. Supplemental projects included research on emergency vehicle crashes and roadside crash patterns.
As a Transportation Engineer at Focus Forensics LLC, Dr. Palframan brings her wide and deep knowledge of human, vehicular, and roadway issues to the Forensic Engineering analysis of collision events and transportation systems. Her engineering consulting practice deals with the investigation and evaluation of incidents involving passenger vehicles, motorcycles, pedestrians, commercial vehicles, buses, emergency vehicles, and other modes of travel. She evaluates roadway geometry, operations, maintenance, construction, signalization, signs and markings, and temporary traffic controls. She analyzes driver and pedestrian performance and response, occupant kinematics, and related human aspects. By bringing a comprehensive approach to each assignment, Dr. Palframan is able to help clients understand the full range of contributing factors and potential countermeasures for a given incident or transportation pattern. Dr. Palframan remains actively involved in safety research, publications, and lecturing at higher education institutions. She has testified at deposition as an expert in her field.
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Ph.D. in Civil Engineering
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech)
Blacksburg, Virginia
Master of Science in Civil Engineering
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech)
Blacksburg, Virginia
Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering
Florida State University
Tallahassee, Florida
Focus Forensics, LLC
Engineer: 2017-Present
Consultant: 2016-2017
Leidos (formerly SAIC)
Transportation Consultant and Researcher: 2010-2016
Virginia Tech Center for Infrastructure-Based
Safety Systems Graduate Researcher: 2014-2015
Virginia Tech Center for Injury Biomechanics
Graduate Researcher: 2011-2013
Virginia Tech College of Engineering
Instructor: 2013
Virginia Tech Center for Sustainable
Transportation Systems Graduate Researcher: 2009-2010
FSU-FAMU Crashworthiness & Impact Analysis Lab
Undergraduate Researcher: 2008-2009
Avcon, Inc.
Civil Engineering Intern: 2008
American Traffic Safety Services Association (ATSSA)
Axiom Forensic
Collision Safety Institute / ARC
Federal Highway Administration’s National Highway Institute
Lightpoint Scientific, LLC
Northwestern University Center for Public Safety
Society of Automotive Engineering (SAE)
Virginia Tech
Virtual Crash
World Reconstruction Exposition (WREX)
“Applications of Connected Vehicle Technology for School Buses and School Bus Stops”, Joint Meeting of the Intelligent Transportation Society of Virginia and the Virginia Section Institute of Transportation Engineers, Richmond, VA, 2017
“Maintenance of Traffic and Roadway Design Analysis”, World Reconstruction Exposition, 2016
“Evaluating Driver Responses to In-vehicle “School Bus Stopped Ahead” Messages and Equivalent Roadside Signing” Transportation Research Board 94th Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., 2016
“Evaluation of Fatal School Bus Related Crashes and Associated Crash Characteristics” Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., 2015
‘“School Bus Stop Examination: An Interactive Tool for Improving Student Safety (poster)” Women Transportation Seminar Annual Conference, Chicago, IL 2015
“Evaluation of Fatal School Bus Related Crashes and Associated Crash Characteristics (poster)” Civil and Environmental Engineering Research Symposium, Blacksburg, VA, 2014
“Illuminating the Road Ahead” Virginia Tech TEDx Event, Blacksburg, VA, 2014
“Analysis of Firetruck Crashes and Associated Firefighter Injuries in the United States” Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine, Seattle, WA, 2012
“Safety Benefits of Stability Control Systems for TractorSemitrailers Estimated with Hardware-in-the-loop Simulation” Transportation Research Board 91st Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., 2012
“Analysis of Firetruck Crashes and Associated Firefighters Injuries in the United States (poster)” 11th Annual Graduate Student Research Symposium, Blacksburg, VA, 2012
“Development of Hardware-in-the-loop Testbed for Evaluating Truck Safety Systems” Transportation Research Board 90th Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., 2011
“Low-Risk Deployment Airbag Star Rating System (poster)” 10th Annual Graduate Student Research Symposium, Blacksburg, VA 2011
Melcher, D., Przybyla, J., Palframan, K., Rush, T., “Big Data Analysis – Combining GPS with Traffic Signal Data Logger Records,” Proceedings of the 27th Annual Congress of the European Association for Accident Research and Analysis (EVU), 2018
Przyblya, J., Rush, T., Palframan, K., Melcher, D., “Introduction to Traffic Signal Data Loggers and their Application to Accident Reconstruction.” SAE Technical Paper, 2018-01-0527, 2018
Atkinson, J., Dixon, K., Jones, J., Donoughe-Palframan, K., Colety, M., Pratt, M. “Scale and Scope and Safety Assessment Methods in the Project Development Process” Federal Highway Administration, 2016
Donoughe, K., Alden, B., Mayer, B. “Final Report of Reducing School Bus/ Light-Vehicle Conflicts through Connected Vehicle Communications.” Under Review for Connected Vehicle UTC, 2015
Donoughe, K., Katz, B. “A Survey of Stated Driver Behavior around Stopped School Buses.” Under Review for Transportation Research Part F., 2015
Donoughe, K., Katz, B. “Evaluation of Fatal School Bus Related Crashes and Near-term Crash Mitigation Strategies.” IATSS Research, Volume 38, Issue 2, 2015
Donoughe, K., Balk, S. “Vehicle to Pedestrian Technical Scan Summary Database” Intelligent Transportation System Joint Program Office (ITS JPO) Connected Vehicle Program, 2015
Atkinson, J., Chandler, B., Betkey, V., Weiss, K., Dixon, K., Giragosian, A., Donoughe, K., O’Donnell, C. “Manual for Selecting Safety Improvements of High Risk Rural Roads” Federal Highway Administration, 2014
Atkinson, J., Chandler, B., Rigdon, H., Donoughe, K. “Work Zone Road Safety Audit Guidelines and Prompt Lists” Federal Highway Administration, 2013
Katz, B., O’Donnell, C., Donoughe, K., Atkinson, J., Finley, M., Bouke, K., Kuhn, B., Warren, D. “Guidelines for the use of Variable Speed Limit Systems in Wet Weather.” Federal Highway Administration, 2012
Donoughe, K., Whitestone, J. Gabler, H.C. “Analysis of Firetruck Crashes and Associated Firefighter Injuries in the United States” Annals of Advances in Automotive Medicine, Volume 56, 2012
Park, S., Donoughe, K., Rakha, H. “Safety Benefits of Stability Control Systems for Tractor-Semitrailers Estimated with Hardwarein-the-loop Simulation” Transportation Research Record, 2281, 2012
Donoughe, K. “Guidelines for the Use of Dynamic Lane Merging Strategies” American Traffic Safety Services Association, 2012
Donoughe, K. “Guidance on the Use of Automated Flagger Assistance Devices” American Traffic Safety Services Association, 2012
Katz, B., O’Donnell, C., Donoughe, K., Atkinson, J., Finley, M.D., Balke, K., Kuhn, B., et al. “Variable Speed Limit Systems in Wet Weather” Federal Highway Administration, 2012
Donoughe, K., Rakha, H., Swanson, W., Park, S., Bryson, J. “Development of Hardware-in-the-loop Testbed for Evaluating Truck Safety Systems” Transportation Research Record, 2265, 2011
“Addressing Issues of School Bus and School Bus Stop Safety Using Intelligent Transportation Systems and Connected Vehicle Technology” Ph.D. Dissertation, Virginia Tech
“Evaluating the Effectiveness of Electronic Stability Systems in Reducing Truck Rollovers” Master’s Thesis, Virginia Tech 2010
Dr. Palframan is an experienced transportation engineer and crash reconstructionist, often combining both fields to generate a full understanding of the factors that contribute to any given crash.
facility design and traffic safety, Dr. Palframan has provided engineering design and litigation support evaluating the safety characteristics of transportation facilities, including roadways, intersections, parking lots, driveway transit stations, and pedestrian paths. Her transportation safety practice focuses on:
Given her training and expertise in vehicle investigation and crash reconstruction, Dr. Palframan’s reconstruction practice focuses on:
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