Paul Kayfetz makes movies recreating people's last moments. He is considered the Steven Spielberg of crash reconstruction. Consider the case in question, one which Dr. Blythe regards with satisfaction, since "it is seldom one gets carte blanche where money is concerned."

When Queen Elizabeth II visited the Yosemite Valley in March 1983, Sinclair, a deputy sheriff in central California's County of Mariposa, was appointed to "clear the way." He was driving his 1978 Chevrolet Impala west on State Route 132, a two-lane country road winding through open grasslands in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Familiar with the road, Sinclair drove quickly. He may have thought no one else was using it. He was wrong.

Coming the other way, in the van of the royal party, was a convoy of three rented cars driven by Secret Service men. Stuck behind this convoy was a lady truck driver, Mona Crocker, going home. The day was overcast, the road damp.

Ranger Dwayne Bartlow had stopped his pickup truck near the junction of Jalapa and State Route 132 to watch the queen go by. He saw Sinclair's Impala pass and disappear over a crest. When he glanced back a moment later, he saw dust and smoke rising. Alarmed, he jumped into his pickup truck and raced toward the curve. He came over the crest of the hill to see Sinclair's Impala badly damaged and facing back. Resting against it was a brown Dodge St. Regis. A few feet from the edge of the roadway lay the demolished, twisted remains of a blue Dodge Aries. Ranger Bartlow ran to it and immediately saw the front seat occupants were beyond help. Nearby, a third man lay on the ground. Another man was desperately trying to revive him. Bartlow hurried to them, knelt, and administered CPR. Bartlow was heard to say, " . . . the pulse, where is the pulse?" Dazed and injured, Sinclair kept asking, "Where did they come from? Why were they in my lane?"