Unusual accidental decapitation in a road traffic incident

Decapitation is an occurrence only rarely encountered in forensic medical practice. This fatality is generally most often described in pedestrians who have been run over by trains accidently or in cases of suicide, or alternatively in occupants of cars involved in high speed vehicle collisions. We report, for the first time, a case of a complete decapitation of a pedestrian as a consequence of a traffic accident. Due to a thorough medico-legal investigation of the body and the involved vehicle, we were able to reconstruct the unique dynamics of the accident and the mechanism of injury.