# Errors in virtual simulation of ‘fatal mower crash’ cheating husband is accused of faking are exposed in court – as expert is grilled over 3cm mistake: ‘Rounded down’

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/errors-in-virtual-simulation-of-fatal-mower-crash-cheating-husband-is-accused-of-faking-are-exposed-in-court-as-expert-is-grilled-over-3cm-mistake-rounded-down/
- Published: 2026-11-11T07:46:40+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-11T08:08:42+00:00
- Original publisher: Daily Mail (publisher lean: Right)
- Original article: https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16283637/robert-crawford-frances-mower-crash-murder-simulation-trial.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490
- Topics: World

## Key points

- A court heard a mower crash simulation contained errors.
- The expert said the mower was unlikely to have landed on Frances Crawford.
- Robert Crawford denies murdering his wife.

## Summary

Robert John Crawford is on trial in Brisbane, accused of strangling his wife, Frances, and staging her death as a ride-on mower accident. A biomechanics expert told the jury that computer simulations made it very unlikely the mower would have come to rest on her as Crawford has claimed, though the defence highlighted errors in the simulation.

The expert, Professor David Ackland, accepted that Frances’s height was entered three centimetres too short and that the simulated wall angle differed from his report. Police tests found the mower’s maximum reverse speed on concrete was 1.09 metres per second; the only simulated scenario that placed her body 1.8 metres from the wall required the mower to travel forwards at its maximum speed of 2.4 metres per second, without her head hitting a rock. Crawford denies murder and says his wife died in an accident.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.