Dr. Tartaglia of the Stork Climax Research Services testified as a metallurgy expert witness for the defense in a wrongful death suit involving materials testing. The plaintiff alleged that steel making byproduct and manufacturing slag fell from a passing truck and was the cause of death of his client killed in a car accident. The expert for the plaintiff performed an energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) elemental analysis on debris found in the car and asserted that the debris was from the truck.
Dr. Tartaglia consulted as an expert witness for the defense in the analysis of the disputed material. He advised that the EDS analysis was insufficient and that a molecular analysis should have been performed with an instrument such as a Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectrometer. The case was settled satisfactorily for the defense.