The Traffic Accident Reconstruction Origin -ARnews-

Re: Train Stopping Distances

Ed Livesay (elivesay@alltel.net)
Sun, 2 Nov 1997 11:06:52 -0500 (EST)

James:

In about 1994, the North Carolina authorities (Highway Patrol, Operation Lifesaver,
etc.) staged a train-car collision in Glendon, NC. A typical diesel locomotive
and four EMPTY boxcars collided into a donated car in order to make commercials,
public safety messages, and such. In the pre-collision practice runs, the train
was traveling at 25 mph (fairly precisely measured by its hall-effect speedometer).
The technical community which had gathered for the event was allowed to make
measurements of post-impact travel, etc. All unanimously calculated .04 as the
deceleration of the train. The full, "emergency" brakes were being applied
during these practice runs.

Some argument ensued over whether loading the cars and adding a greater number of
cars would dramatically change the deceleration value. It seems that it might some
argued, but others said that since each car had its own braking system that the
issue would be moot (as long as the brakes were efficient). I feel that its a
good question... What do ya think guys?
Ed Livesay
elivesay@alltel.net

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