Forensic Science is an unavoidable and interesting science that provides answers in the courtrooms for justice. Hence, movie directors are using the technique of forensic science in solving the crime by the heroes and kindling the interest of the audience. Forensic science is an important tool for crime scene investigation and is used in almost all crime scenes, viz. burglary, homicide, explosion, fire, road accident, hanging, drowning, building collapse and many others (Nataraja, 2020). Forensic investigators are facing challenges whenever stepping onto the crime scenes, particularly in mortality scenes. Often, the crime scene investigators are misled by the offenders through their criminal tactics, as fabricating a homicide scene as a suicide scene and vice versa (Weyermann and Roux, 2021). Another challenging fatal investigation is hit-and-run road accidents, because the offending vehicle is unknown and the victim is found dead on the road. Road traffic accident is the most common mortality happening to road users in our day-to-day life (Vikas Kumar et al.,). The data from the National Crime Records Bureau in India shows an upward trend in road accident cases. The total number of fatalities in accident cases was 1,57,593 in 2018, while in 2022 it was 1,68,491 (NCRB, 2023). The presence of physical evidence at the accident scenes is the only clue to link the offender and the offence (Nataraja, 2024). A road accident is generally caused unexpectedly by a collision involving a vehicle in motion and persons or another vehicle, resulting in injury or death. The cause of accidents is due to a lack of human care, and still pathetic that the offending driver runs away from the accident place, a sort of crime commission, punishable under law (Mohsin, 2022). Importantly, the forensic crime scene investigator must prove that the hit and run was committed by the particular driver forensically before the Magistrate in the courtroom (Nataraja, 2025).

The present case study, investigated by the author, is an example of a hit and run case, wherein a middle-aged man named Thangaraj, pushed his push hand cart on the road in the early morning around 3 am. Suddenly, Thangaraj was hit by an unknown vehicle under rash and negligence, killing him and ran away from the accident place with the vehicle. The dead body and the damaged push hand cart were found on the road. On the same day, a suspected tractor was seized and brought to the police station by the jurisdiction Police Inspector. I was requested to visit the crime scene and the suspected tractor for examination. Accordingly, the former Forensic Crime Scene Expert (Mobile Forensic Scientist), also the corresponding author, examined and identified this tractor as the offending vehicle based on the physical evidence found at the crime scene, the tractor and the pushing hand cart.