The Traffic Accident Reconstruction Origin -ARnews-

Need help on rear-end collision with articulated vehicle.

Doug Jordan (jjordan@pacinfo.com)
Thu, 20 Nov 1997 17:04:47 -0500 (EST)

Have a crash where a Ford f-250 p/u pulling a 16 ft. flatbed trailer (built like a tank) with a large riding lawn mower on it gets rear-ended as it begins its left hand turn. The total weight on the combination of vehicles is about 9750 lbs. The trailer is hit left of center and shows only a small dent. It was hit by a 3040 lb Nissan p/u. The Nissan's driver said he was doing 65 mph prior to laying down 30 feet of 4-wheel skid. He skidded into the back of the trailer. The roadway is a .71 for the in-line skid. The roadway for the departures is .56. The truck and trailer remained in tact and moved about 60 feet post-impact. The Nissan went about 88 feet. This gave me an impact speed on the Nissan of about 59 mph and about 23 mph on the Nissan. The delta-V was about 7-8 mph on the truck-trailer. The driver of the truck-trailer has undergone two extensive lower back surgeries. The delta-V seems too low for this type of injury, but his injury occurred from this crash. MY QUE
STION IS since the trailer is a very stout steel material, would the normal .1 second time for the "crushing" to occur be diminished? In other words, would the time be more like .05 seconds instead of the normal .1 seconds? Also, would the rotational effect due to the articulated configuration cause a greater chance of injury? This set of circumstances is somewhat puzzling. Please give me your ideas. Thanks.
Doug Jordan
jjordan@pacinfo.com

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