The Traffic Accident Reconstruction Origin -ARnews-

Car v. pedestrian

Robert Maynard ([email protected])
Tue, 10 Nov 1998 16:10:29 -0500 (EST)

I'm investigating a car v. ped which involved a 40 yo woman struck by a
Chevrolet Cavalier on an Interstate highway (speed limit 65). It was raining
and at night with no highway illumination. The ped was wearing black clothing.
The vehicle operator never saw the ped prior to impact. He was not at full speed
as he was just entering the highway and was merging from the on-ramp into the
travel lane. After impact the vehicle pulled to the right and stopped. There
were no skid marks. The ped wrapped over the hood and her head hit the upper
third of the windshield, she then went over the roof of the vehicle and came off
over the drivers door. From several articles I know this represents a speed
between 45 and 60. The vehicle was travelling south and all evidence would
obviously move south from the impact point. I have no evidence to nail down a
point of impact. I have heard that ballcaps worn by peds will generally fall
in the area close to the impact after the ped gets knocked out from under it.
The first piece of evidence was a pair of eyeglasses they were about 80 feet
north of the peds final position.

Does anyone know if eyeglasses would act in a similar fashion as a ballcap?
If so please direct me to that resource.
Are there an other suggestions for better estimating an area of impact?
Since there is insufficient evidence to determine a vehicle speed from the
vehicle I will use the pedestrian throw distance (described in TARO article
Pedestrian Accident Reconstruction" by Luis Martinez). To do this I need
to nail down an impact point.

thanks.

Robert Maynard
[email protected]

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