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The most general and comprehensive solution will be to use one of the widely-accepted accident reconstruction simulation programs – PC-Crash, HVE (the EDSMAC4 or SIMON modules), or Virtual CRASH. These software packages incorporate equations for calculating the velocity changes that occur when the vehicles collide and equations for calculating the post-impact motion of the vehicles.

This paper presents a reconstruction technique in which nonlinear optimization is used in combination with an impact model to quickly and efficiently find a solution to a given set of parameters and conditions to reconstruct a collision. These parameters and conditions correspond to known or prescribed collision information (generally from the physical evidence) and can be incorporated into the optimized collision reconstruction technique in a variety of ways including as a prescribed value, through the use of a constraint, as part of a quality function, or possibly as a combination of these means. This reconstruction technique provides a proper, effective, and efficient means to incorporate data collected by Event Data Recorders (EDR) into a crash reconstruction. The technique is presented in this paper using the Planar Impact Mechanics (PIM) collision model in combination with the Solver utility in Microsoft Excel.

The last ten years have seen explosive growth in the technology available to the collision analyst, changing the way reconstruction is practiced in fundamental ways. The greatest technological advances for the crash reconstruction community have come in the realms of photogrammetry and digital media analysis. The widespread use of scanning technology has facilitated the implementation of powerful new tools to digitize forensic data, create 3D models and visualize and analyze crash vehicles and environments. The introduction of unmanned aerial systems and standardization of crash data recorders to the crash reconstruction community have enhanced the ability of a crash analyst to visualize and model the components of a crash reconstruction. Because of the technological changes occurring in the industry, many SAE papers have been written to address the validation and use of new tools for collision reconstruction.

Accident reconstructionists rarely have complete data with which to determine vehicle speed, and so the true value must be bracketed within a range. Previous work has shown the effect of friction uncertainty in determining speed from tire marks left by a vehicle in yaw. The goal of the current study was to assess improvements in the accuracy of vehicle speed estimated from yaw marks using progressively more scene and vehicle information. Data for this analysis came from staged S-turn maneuvers that in some cases led to rollover of sport utility vehicles. Initial speeds were first calculated using the critical curve speed (CCS) formula on the yaw marks from the first portion of the S-maneuver. Then computer simulations were performed with progressively more input data: i) the complete tire marks from the whole S-maneuver, ii) measured vehicle mass, iii) measured suspension stiffness and damping, and iv) measured steering history.

Prevention of passenger ejection from motor coach seats in the case of rollover and frontal crashes is critical for minimizing fatalities and injuries. This paper proposes a novel concept of affordably retrofitting 3-point seatbelts to protect passengers during these significant crash scenarios. Currently, the available options involve replacement of either the entire fleet, which takes time to avoid extremely high costs, or all seats with new seats that have seatbelts which is still expensive. Alternatively, this paper presents the development of an innovative product that can be installed in seat belt-ready bus structures at a fraction of the cost. The efficacy of the design is studied using finite element analysis (FEA) to meet Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) 210 standards for conditions involved in frontal and side impacts.

The last ten years have seen explosive growth in the technology available to the collision analyst, changing the way reconstruction is practiced in fundamental ways. The greatest technological advances for the crash reconstruction community have come in the realms of photogrammetry and digital media analysis. The widespread use of scanning technology has facilitated the implementation of powerful new tools to digitize forensic data, create 3D models and visualize and analyze crash vehicles and environments. The introduction of unmanned aerial systems and standardization of crash data recorders to the crash reconstruction community have enhanced the ability of a crash analyst to visualize and model the components of a crash reconstruction. Because of the technological changes occurring in the industry, many SAE papers have been written to address the validation and use of new tools for collision reconstruction.

The In-Depth Investigations of the Accident Research Unit Hannover (Germany), which have been carried out since 1973 are described in the paper. The importance of the detailed analysis consists in the method, in the statistical approach and the continuous data collection over the years. The government as well as industrial manufacturers use this data. Since 1985 a statistical procedure including a mathematical weighting procedure has been applied. About 1000 cases per year are collected. In the paper, principal aspects in the technique of data collection, definitions of variables and possibilities of data usage are described. The limitations of in-depth investigations are discussed in principle, and demands for a worldwide level are pointed out.

Characterizing or reconstructing incidents ranging from light to heavy crashes is one of the enablers for mobility solutions for fleet management, car-sharing, ride-hailing, insurance etc. While crashes involving airbag deployment are noticeable, light crashes without airbag deployment can be hidden and most drivers do not report these incidents. In this paper, we are using vehicle responses together with a dynamics model to trace back if abnormal forces have been applied to a vehicle so as to detect light crashes. The crash location around the perimeter of the vehicle, the direction of the crash force, and the severity of the crashes are all determined in real-time based on on-board sensor measurements which has further application in accident reconstruction. All of this information will be integrated to a feature called “Incident Report”, which enable reporting of minor accidents to the relevant entities such as insurance agencies, fleet managements, etc.

The last ten years have seen explosive growth in the technology available to the collision analyst, changing the way reconstruction is practiced in fundamental ways. The greatest technological advances for the crash reconstruction community have come in the realms of photogrammetry and digital media analysis. The widespread use of scanning technology has facilitated the implementation of powerful new tools to digitize forensic data, create 3D models and visualize and analyze crash vehicles and environments. The introduction of unmanned aerial systems and standardization of crash data recorders to the crash reconstruction community have enhanced the ability of a crash analyst to visualize and model the components of a crash reconstruction. Because of the technological changes occurring in the industry, many SAE papers have been written to address the validation and use of new tools for collision reconstruction.

The last ten years have seen explosive growth in the technology available to the collision analyst, changing the way reconstruction is practiced in fundamental ways. The greatest technological advances for the crash reconstruction community have come in the realms of photogrammetry and digital media analysis. The widespread use of scanning technology has facilitated the implementation of powerful new tools to digitize forensic data, create 3D models and visualize and analyze crash vehicles and environments. The introduction of unmanned aerial systems and standardization of crash data recorders to the crash reconstruction community have enhanced the ability of a crash analyst to visualize and model the components of a crash reconstruction. Because of the technological changes occurring in the industry, many SAE papers have been written to address the validation and use of new tools for collision reconstruction.

The last ten years have seen explosive growth in the technology available to the collision analyst, changing the way reconstruction is practiced in fundamental ways. The greatest technological advances for the crash reconstruction community have come in the realms of photogrammetry and digital media analysis. The widespread use of scanning technology has facilitated the implementation of powerful new tools to digitize forensic data, create 3D models and visualize and analyze crash vehicles and environments. The introduction of unmanned aerial systems and standardization of crash data recorders to the crash reconstruction community have enhanced the ability of a crash analyst to visualize and model the components of a crash reconstruction. Because of the technological changes occurring in the industry, many SAE papers have been written to address the validation and use of new tools for collision reconstruction.