The latest use of drones may be in reconstructing automobile accidents to determine what happened. The U.S. Justice Department via the National Criminal Justice Research Test and Evaluation Center is looking for police departments to begin using drones to reconstruct accident scenes once a car accident happens. Currently, a car accident attorney and an investigation team will reconstruct the scene of an accident after it happens to help determine important crash issues like speed, kind of impact, and exact timing. Reconstructing the scene of the accident may be used to demonstrate fault and to assist with personal injury claims.

The pilot project is expected to begin in 2017 and to continue until there has been significant data drawn from the study to determine whether or not drones should be used as a standard measure for reconstructing accident scenes. Some of the local agencies that have been tapped to use these drones include Texas, Kansas, and Florida. Safety and privacy concerns for individuals in the areas where drones may be capturing information, and a security researcher this past March identified that is relatively easy to access a high-end drone by hacking when that drone was believed to have been used by a police department.

Weak Wi-Fi encryption and insecure radio connections are some of the leading problems associated with using drones. Reconstructing the scene of the accident could help to illustrate what happens when cars slam into one another, which could be important for proving fault in personal injury lawsuits. Car accidents can leave victims with severe injuries that last for years.