Christian Hoyos, PhD

Associate Director

Dr. Hoyos has expertise in human behavior and performance, visual perception, child development, and information processing. He applies this multidisciplinary background across a wide range of contexts, including premises and product liability litigation, transportation accident analysis, and the evaluation of safety communications such as warnings and user manuals.

Dr. Hoyos has investigated incidents involving truck and heavy equipment operators, motorcyclists, bicyclists, and pedestrians in both routine and high-risk scenarios where he has evaluated driver and pedestrian behavior, conspicuity, distraction and inattention, visibility, lighting conditions, gait behavior, motor control, decision-making, and impairment due to alcohol or drugs. Dr. Hoyos has conducted research related to driver behavior, including assessments of perception-response time (PRT) and the impact of in-vehicle technologies as well as safety information and warnings. He has provided expert testimony in cases involving slips, trips, falls, (e.g., at workplaces, parking garages, stairwells, train platforms) transportation incidents, and incidents involving product use, such as gearshift errors.

Dr. Hoyos has worked on incidents involving the evaluation of warning labels and user manuals for a wide array of consumer and children’s products—including playground equipment, recreational equipment, electronic appliances, exercise machines, and household chemicals. Leveraging his deep knowledge of child development, Dr. Hoyos has contributed to matters involving juvenile sleep products, toys with small parts, coin-cell battery hazards, child-resistant packaging, and playground equipment. He regularly reviews and applies voluntary and federal safety standards and regulations (e.g., ASTM, ANSI, CPSC), and provides analysis related to parental supervision and children’s developmental capabilities and limitations. He brings extensive experience in human subjects testing with both children and adults, and has helped design and execute user research studies, surveys, and structured interviews to assess product safety and usability.

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