Head of Large Loss
Engineering Doctorate (EngD), Honours Degree (BEng Hons), Chartered Engineer (CEng), Forensic Collision Investigation for Police Part 1- City & Guilds, UCPD - ForensicCollision Investigation / Failure Analysis and Investigation
UK
Dr Richard Ellwood is the Head of the Large Loss Team at GBB (UK) Ltd. He is a Chartered Engineer with a Doctorate and an Honours Degree in Automotive Engineering. He has also successfully completed examinations in forensic collision investigation.
Dr Ellwood has given evidence at Magistrates, Civil, Crown and Coroner’s courts in the UK and the Circuit Court in the Republic of Ireland.
Working as a Forensic Collision Investigator with GBB (UK) Ltd, Dr Ellwood has obtained extensive experience in the investigation and reconstruction of serious collisions involving cars, motorcycles, bicycles, goods vehicles and pedestrians.
The reconstructions undertaken have involved:
Dr Ellwood has examined several hundred vehicles to determine their mechanical condition and to consider damage consistency, collision magnitude and occupant movement. He has considered defects and determined their likely contribution to the collision. He has also examined numerous motorcycle helmets to determine the impact magnitude and direction, why a helmet was ejected during a collision and whether there were any defects.
Dr Ellwood is qualified to download and analyse collision data stored by a vehicle using the Bosch CDR tool.
Dr Ellwood has also conducted numerous failure analysis investigations into failed components and systems on a range of vehicles and agricultural / plant equipment to identify the failure mode, the root cause of the failure and, where relevant, making recommendations to prevent or mitigate future failures.
Dr Ellwood spent five years in the Gwent Police Roads Policing Unit as a qualified Traffic Patrol Officer. He also has experience in the role of a Temporary Sergeant. As a Traffic Officer he was an advanced car driver, an advanced motorcyclist and was an authorised pursuit driver having been trained in Tactical Pursuit and Containment (TPAC).
During this time with the police, he gained an excellent practical understanding of vehicle handling and dynamics to supplement his academic background. He also attended, investigated and reconstructed numerous road traffic collisions ranging from non-injury minor collisions through to those with fatalities.
Whilst working as a Reliability Engineer for Corus Strip Products he was instrumental in the introduction of Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) to the Port Talbot steelworks. He managed and coordinated projects applying RCM in order to optimise plant availability, reduce maintenance costs and identify key areas where capital investment would be most cost-effective with several notable successes.
Whilst working in the research laboratories of British Steel / Corus, Dr Ellwood investigated the automotive applications of steel, evaluating and optimising component design and manufacturing procedures with respect to their welding, fatigue, forming, impact and crush characteristics.
Dr Ellwood’s research led him to publish and present several technical papers on the subjects of simulation testing, modelling and the design of suspension components using high strength steels and advanced manufacturing techniques.
Member IET
