The Traffic Accident Reconstruction Origin -ARnews-

Pedestrian Accident Reconstruction

Jim Potts (jameshughpotts@msn.com)
Wed, 12 Nov 1997 18:11:45 -0500 (EST)

I need your help. I have a case where a female pedestrian was killed by a driver. The pedestrian was standing still when she was struck by a 1991 Chevy Cavalier. The speed limit was 45 mph. The driver claims she did not see the pedestrian before she struck her. The pedestrian was struck, went onto the hood of the car, into the windshield, over the car and onto dry, relatively old, asphalt. The pedestrian then slid 52 feet on dry asphalt in the same direction that the car was traveling. (She left a 52 foot blood trail). The driver did not apply her brakes before striking the pedestrian. The pedestrian was a female. Using the pedestrian sliding formula in Fricke's Traffic Accident Reconstruction @ Topic 877, and a drag factor range of .45 to .60, the pedestrian's initial velocity was between 38.82 and 44.82 mph. Of course, according to Fricke, this speed is nearly always less than the speed of the vehicle speed. Was the driver speeding? How do I more accurately determine t
he speed of the car? Do you know of any reference materials where I can go for help?
Thank you for your help?
Jim Potts
jameshughpotts@msn.com

NOTE: You are reading in an archived session of ARnews. It is possible that this topic is still being discussed. To see if this topic is still active, or of there were any more recent posts on this topic, check later archives of ARnews.

If there is no current post, and you would like to add to this topic, link to the Current ARnews Discussion and begin a new thread. Be sure that if you are starting a new post that the thread title does not contain the abbreviation RE: Placing RE: at the beginning of a new post will confuse Hypermail and prevent others from answering your post in the future.

For example, to continue this discussion look for a thread titled

Pedestrian Accident Reconstruction

If this thread does not exist in the current archive, you can begin another one by using that title.