The Traffic Accident Reconstruction Origin -ARnews-
|
The Traffic Accident Reconstruction Origin -ARnews-
|
|
If all you have is one short scuff mark that looks like a critical speed scuff,
the vehicle might not be in a yaw. Without at least one more scuff mark to
permit you to plot the vehicle's center of mass path of travel, you can easily
make a mistake in calculating the radius that the center of mass followed. You
should determine the radius of the center of mass in order to calculate the
radius to use. If you are able to plot the CM radius, measuring the
mid-ordinate becomes more sensitive because you are measuring to an imaginary
radius. That requires drawing a large scale diagram of the vehicle's path of
travel prior to impact. IF you feel comfortable with your pre-impact speeds
based on momentum,you probably made an error by either(1)calling it a critical
speed scuff mark or yaw mark when in fact the vehicle is not in a yaw, or (2)
there is a significant difference in radius of the vehicle's center of mass
radius as compared to the yaw mark. Sometimes, you just don't have enough
evidence to make a speed determination from skidmarks. By checking it the way
you did, that might be the case here.
Terry Morris
tjmorris@sj.bigger.net
Use this form to reply to this Thread