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Automobile accident reconstruction and vehicle collision analysis techniques generally separate vehicle collisions into three different phases: pre-impact, impact and post-impact. This paper will concern itself exclusively with the modeling of the impact phase, typically defined as the time the vehicles are in contact. Historically, two different modeling techniques have been applied to the impact of vehicles. Both of these techniques employ the impulse-momentum formulation of Newton's Second Law. The first relies exclusively on this principle coupled with friction and restitution to completely model the impact. The second method combines impulse-momentum with a relationship between crush geometry and energy loss to model the impact. Both methods ultimately produce the change in velocity. ΔV, and other pertinent information about a collision.

This paper describes, lists and demonstrates the features of a computer program which permits animation of a plan view of a vehicle's trajectory on a video monitor. Page-flip animation in the Microsoft QuickBasic 4.5 language for MS DOS compatible computers is used. The program accepts and uses a sequential data file, defined by the user, of vehicle positions and orientations over uniform time intervals. Following animation, the program allows selection of an arbitrary sequence of some or all of the vehicle's positions on the monitor for transfer to a hard copy. The computer program is being distributed for public use as a utility program. A short review of the use of computerized animation software in legal environments is presented.