Can this accident be reconstructed?

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JoMar
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Can this accident be reconstructed?

Post by JoMar »

I would like to know if the velocity of the vehicle could be determined - here are the details, happened in USA:

Vehicle - 1998 Plymouth Voyager Mini Van, model is unknown, weight approx. 3500lbs., do not know how many people were in the vehicle.
Pedestrian hit - 5'1" 79 year old woman 125lbs.

The pedestrian was struck, slid up hood of van, impacted head on windshield (drivers side) -Left side of head, right side of body was struck. She suffered severe body trauma and head trauma. Pedestrian was found about 12 feet in front of van. The windshield was "spider webbed" according to witnesses.

5 days after, there were no skid marks, however I do not know if there were any tire marks originally left.

The pedestrian is my Mother and the police report does not make sense.

Thank you

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Bob Anderson
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Re: Can this accident be reconstructed?

Post by Bob Anderson »

I am very sorry for your loss.


What about the police report does not make sense?

With pedestrian collisions sometimes you can solve for the vehicle speed, and sometimes you can't.

There are times when you can get electronic evidence from the vehicle, such as from the Airbag Control Module, but the 1998 Voyager is too old to have recorded data.

Sometimes, electronic evidence of speed comes in the form of GPS navigation units or from cell phones or even traffic or surveillance cameras in the area or dash cams.

As you apparently knew intuitively, if the Voyager skid to stop, it would be a trivial calculation to arrive at its pre-skid speed. Unfortunately, most vehicles are equipped with ABS which makes it difficult to determine if there was any hard braking or not.

Absent skid marks, if there is information about the location on the roadway where the Voyager began braking and where it came to rest, then assuming the braking effort, the pre-braking speed can be estimated or perhaps excessive speed can be excluded.

The most straight forward method for estimating the Voyager's speed is to use pedestrian formulas, such as Searle's. However, you must know the distance from the point of impact to the pedestrian's point of rest.
Bob Anderson
Tempe, Arizona

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JoMar
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Re: Can this accident be reconstructed?

Post by JoMar »

Thank you Bob, she is still with us but severely injured.

They have the directions confused - it starts off saying she went west to east then says she went east to west. The detective spoke to the witnesses - the driver and the passengers who were in the car in the next lane. The road is a busy rd with a shopping center on the east side - North/South rd, 2 lanes in each direction with a turn lane in the middle, no physical median, just the street paint, the shoulder on the north bound side is narrow, the south bound side is wide for on street parking.

She is 79 years old , this is the report: " Upon investigation it appears pedestrian unit 2 was crossing ************* rd. from west to east as motor vehicle traffic was moving as normal. As per witnesses the pedestrian was trying to run across the road and was almost struck by North bound vehicles. As the pedestrian entered the south bound lanes operator of MV1 observed this, braked and swerved in an attempt to avoid the pedestrian. As the pedestrian entered the western south bound land operator of MV1 struck the pedestrian. Pedestrian did suffer severe physical injury upon impact and was transported to ****hospital. Second Squad, Homicide and crime scene all notified and responded. Highway notified and responded to administer a PBT which came back with neg results, as well as conduct a brake check on the MV involved which the MV passed."

I spoke with the detective and he said there was no criminality involved and its just a horrible accident. I find it hard to believe that she "ran" across 5 lanes while almost being struck and was struck at the end of her "run". The speed limit on the road is 40mph, the detective told me according to the witnesses they weren't speeding. At 40mph, they are traveling about 58feet per second. If she ran - carrying her purse, with the aches and pains of a 79 year old who had knee surgery last year and was going for physical therapy for her arm and whatever else, and it took her 10 seconds to cross 5 lanes that means they saw her 580 feet before impact, maybe ever 250 feet, which would give ample time to stop, about 120 feet to come to a stop with 130 feet to spare.

I am not a specialist on velocity or cars by any stretch of the imagination, I just want evidence to explain what happened. The detective was so stuck on it making sense to him he wasn't about to admit he may have overlooked anything. Also the diagram of the accident has the vehicle that struck her in the left lane then went in the right lane and struck her while she was entering the shoulder of the road.

I don't know the model of the Voyager, there were 2 that year, one with ABS, one with out.

She suffered multiple fractures and head trauma. As I mentioned in my first post, the windshield was "spider webbed".

Thank you for your time.

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Bob Anderson
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Re: Can this accident be reconstructed?

Post by Bob Anderson »

The question that you are really posing is: at what point in time or distance would it have been reasonable for the Plymouth driver to recognize the situation as one that would require an evasive maneuver.

It is really fair to say that a reasonable driver would be begin to brake when a pedestrian enters the oncoming side of the road?

From the driver's perspective, would it be fair to assume that such a pedestrian intends to clear traffic on one side of the road, pause in the median area, and the proceed across the other side of the road when traffic allows?

At what point in time/distance does it really become clear to an ordinarily attentive and reasonable driver that a pedestrian intends to cross all the lanes in one shot?

These can be tough questions to be objective about, particularly when you are emotionally involved. In my experience, it is common for Law Enforcement to proceed as you have described. From their point of view, the pedestrian presumably violated the jay-walking statute and but for that violation, there would not have been a pedestrian crash. Was there a speed issue on the part of the automobile, maybe, but there may not be sufficient physical or electronic evidence or witness testimony to establish that.
Bob Anderson
Tempe, Arizona

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