The Traffic Accident Reconstruction Origin -Contents-

Contents July, 1999

• TARO Feature Articles
  • Three Point Airborne Trajectory Analysis When all the information is available airborne equations are capable of returning speed estimates of a fine tolerance. Unfortunately an investigator is usually not able to collect all the information necessary for these calculations. As a result he is forced to use an airborne equation to range estimates, or seek a minimum estimate. Andrew Rich offers an approach to make fine tolerance speed estimates from an otherwise incompatible situation.

  • An Introduction to Train Brakes Ponder the amount of energy that an ordinary freight trains possesses as it rolls down the tracks at 70 M/H. Trains carry enormous amounts of cargo at great speed on a daily basis. The brake systems of a freight train is examined in this introductory article by John Bentley

  • Automotive Black Box Data Recovery Systems Black Boxes are commonly used to aid the investigators of air crashes. Do automobiles have the equivalent of a black box? Is the data accessible to a collision investigator? Don Gillman explains one such system, its capabilities and limitations.

  • An Internet Experiment- Insights into Human Performance Data It is likely that a college level introductory psychology class would include a simple Perception Reaction Time (PRT) test. This is just such an experiment. The reader is invited to download the test, participate in the experiment, and return the results. Future articles will explore the development of this experiment and analyze the results. The intent is to assist the participant's understanding PRT. George Bonnett.

    Editors note: Results from this online test continue to accumulate. However, there is nothing like a large sample. Take the time to complete this test. Participants might just learn a little about themselves.

• Traffic Accident Reconstruction Related WWW Sites These are off-site resources
  • Renfroe Engineering Technical Papers David A. Renfroe and his firm, Renfroe Engineering, is a significant source of vehicle dynamics, off road vehicle, and occupant restraint research and publishing. The Renfroe website offers several related techinical papers.
    • An Overview of Emergency Locking Retractor Performances of Shoulder Harness Safety Belt Systems in American Made Vehicles
    • Modeling of Vehicle Rollover and Evaluation of Occupant Injury Potential Using MADYMO
    • Simulation of a 3-Wheeled All Terrain Vehicle (ATV)Transient and Steady-State Handling Characteristics

  • AutoWare AutoWare is a small software development company that produces racecar applications. Their web site contains some simple and short articles that should be of interest to the reconstuctionists. Among them are the following topics:
    • Slip Angles and Handling
    • Handling Troubleshooting Guide(tape method)
    • Toe-out and Handling
    • Ackerman and Racing

  • Human Error in Road Accidents: An Information Processing Analysis This article provides a brief overview of human information processing limitations and explains how they can contribute to road accidents. This is a "first-principles" approach to accident investigation because it draws on knowledge of basic human psychological processes. Instead of looking at the driver from the outside, we try to understand his/her mental processing and how it interacts with the environment. Marc Green, Ph.D. John W. Senders, Ph. D

• Do you have an opinion you would like to express? This space is available for guest editorials.

• What's New?

• There is a new Approach Angles Problem. This problem involves a collision between a car and bus.

• There is still no announced solution to the Approach Angle Problem Two Green Lights.

• The contents of previous issues of TARO have been passed to Reference Library

• Past Editorials

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The Traffic Accident Reconstruction Origin is actively seeking articles for publication. Any non copyrighted article, previously published or not, is welcomed. The article must be submitted by the original author(s). All text should be spell checked, proofed and submitted by E-mail or on a 3.5 inch disk. Illustrations should be of original quality and at least 3.5 x 5 inches in size.

Submissions should fit in one of the following categories.

• Articles that detail new research, tests, or ideas that relate to traffic accident reconstruction .
• Articles that detail accepted traffic accident reconstruction topics or techniques.
• Articles that have historic value.
• Articles that offer a new, or different perspective on a traffic accident reconstruction topic.

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