Abstract
KEYWORDS:
accident reconstruction, rollover, rigid body mechanics, 2D model, reverse kinematics
ABSTRACT:
The accident reconstruction tries to find the circumstances that generated the driving accident. The most used method to estimate these conditions appeals to the "reverse kinematics", which starts the study with the final positions of the vehicles and go in time, step by step, toward the initial situation. The analysis bases on the knowledge and the experience of the expert and consists in making suppositions about the way the things happened. The computations results conjugate with elements found on the accident place can confirm or infirm the assumptions made.
The accident studied in this article consists in a road living followed by a "flight" and some rollovers. Because the sad fact occurs in wintertime, the snow existing on the place retained the marks where the front and rear ends of the car hit the ground. Using these elements and the laws of rigid body movement (ballistics and momentum conservation), the reconstruction was possible with high level of certitude.
This way of judgement can be useful in other analyses that imply vehicle rollover, including short displacements thru the air.