Citation

Craig V. Accid. Reconstr. J. 2011; 21(1): 19-24.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Accident Reconstruction Journal)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article describes crash tests that studied accidents in which light-duty vehicles impact the sides or rears of stationary or slowly-moving, heavy duty trucks. The author reports on a series of four car into stationary semi-tractor trailer crash tests that were conducted at the 2010 Combined Annual Conference in Ocean City, Maryland in October 2010. In Tests 1 and 3, automobiles underrode the side of the semi-trailer. In Test 2, an automobile impacted the side of the trailer's tandem wheels. In Test 4, an automobile impacted the rear of the trailer, which had its tandem wheels set in the rearmost position. Striking vehicles were towed up to desired speed and the tow cables released just prior to impact. The tests were conducted to evaluate energy-based methods for calculation of vehicle-into-heavy-truck impact speeds. The author focuses on the results of Tests #2 and #4, with the goal of assisting readers who may be involved in the reconstruction of such accidents. The author concludes that, in both situations, estimating the cars' impact speeds using only the car's frontal crush energy badly underestimated impact speeds. However, if the energy absorbed by the truck was assumed to equal the energy absorbed by the crush of the car, calculated impact speeds were with 2 mph of the true impact speeds for both tests. The author notes that this methodology holds promise as an accurate method of calculating impact speeds of vehicles colliding with the wheels of heavy duty trucks.