ACCIDENT STUDIES

Partha Partim Dey

IIT Bhubaneswar
Introduction
The main objective of traffic engineering is to provide safe traffic movements.

Road accidents cannot be totally prevented, but by suitable traffic engineering and
regulations, the accidents can be decreased considerably.

It is essential to analyse every individual accidents and to maintain zone wise accident
records.
Cause of accident
• The road user
• The vehicle
• The road and its condition
• Traffic conditions, weather etc.

Drivers: excessive speed, rash driving, carelessness, violation of rules and regulations,
fatigue, sleep or alcohol etc.
Pedestrians: violating regulations, carelessness
Passengers: alighting from or getting into moving vehicle
Vehicle defects: Failure of brakes, steering system or lighting system, tyre burst etc.
Road condition: slippery or skidding road surface, pot holes, ruts, damaged road surface
Road design: defective geometric design like inadequate sight distance, width of shoulders,
improper curve design, super elevation etc.
Weather: snow, dust, fog, heavy rainfall etc.
Animals: animals on the road
Other causes: incorrect signal design, gate of level crossing not closed when required,
ribbon development, on street parking etc.
Black Spot: No universally accepted definition is given; this is in general be described as
locations of high risk accidents.
Accident reconstruction

Accident reconstruction deals with representing the accidents

occurred in schematic diagram to determine the pre-collision speed
which helps in regulating or enforcing rules to control or check
movement of vehicles on road at high speed.

The following data are required to get pre-collision speed:

 Mass of the vehicles
 Speed after collision
 Path of each vehicle as it approaches the collision point.
Below in figure (collision diagram) a schematic diagram of collision of two vehicles is shown
that occur during turning movements. Each collision is represented by a set of arrows to show
the direction of before and after movement. The collision diagram provides a powerful visual
record of accident occurrence over a significant period of time. The collision may be of two
types collinear impact or angular collision. Below each of them are described in detail.

Figure 1 Collision diagram of two vehicles

Collinear impact can be again divided into two types:
1) Rear-end collision 2) Head-on collision.
It can be studied by two theories:
1. Poisson Impact Theory
2. Energy Theory.
Collision Diagram and Condition Diagram
 Collision diagram: it is used to display and identify similar accident patterns. It
provides information on the type of accidents occurred over significant period of
time.
 Condition diagram: it is a scale of drawing which provides an accurate picture of
the physical conditions present at the location under study. It may indicate view
obstructions are contributory causes of accidents.
1.Poisson Impact Theory:
 Poisson impact theory, divides the impact in two parts-
compression and restitution.
 The Figure 2 shows two vehicles travelling at an initial speed of
v1 and v2 collide and obtain a uniform speed say u at the
compression stage. And after the compression stage is over the
final speed is u1 and u2. The compression phase is cited by the
deformation of the cars. From the Newton’s law, F = ma,
Figure 2 Compression Phase
From kinematics, F = ma

where, m1 and m2 are the masses of the cars and F is the contact
force. We know that every reaction has equal and opposite action.
So as the rear vehicle pushes the vehicle ahead with force F. The
vehicle ahead will also push the rear vehicle with same magnitude
of force but has different direction. The action force is represented
by F, whereas the reaction force is represented by −F as shown in
Figure 3.
Figure 3 Force applied on each vehicle
 
In the compression phase cars are deformed. The
compression phase terminates when the cars
have equal velocity. Thus the cars obtain equal
velocity which generates the following equation:
 

Where, which is the compression impulse and is

the compression time.
 
Thus the velocity after collision is obtained as:
 
In the restitution phase the elastic part of internal energy is released

Where, which is the restitution impulse and is the restitution time.

According to Poisson’s hypothesis restitution impulse is proportional
to compression impulse as
Restitution impulse e is given by
Coefficient of restitution (e) =
 

The total impulse is, P = Pc + Pr

The post impact velocities are given by:

Where, .
But we are required to determine the pre-collision speed according to
which the safety on the road can be designed. So we will determine v 1

and v2 from the given value of u1 and u2.

Question.
Two vehicles travelling in the same lane have masses 3000 kg and 2500
kg. The velocity of rear vehicles after striking the leader vehicle is 25
kmph and the velocity of leader vehicle is 56 kmph. The coefficient of
restitution of the two vehicle system is assumed to be 0.6. Determine the
pre-collision speed of the two vehicles.
 Solution:
Given that the:
mass of the first vehicle (m1) = 3000 kg
mass of the second vehicle (m2) = 2500 kg
final speed of the rear vehicle (u1) = 25 kmph,
final speed of the leader vehicle (u2) = 56 kmph.
Let initial speed of the rear vehicle be v1, and let initial speed of the leader vehicle be v2.
 
Step 1: from Eq. (9)
 
Step 2: from Eq. (10)

 
Step 3: Solving Eqs. (11) and (12), we get the pre-collision speed of two vehicles

Step 4: Initial speed of the rear vehicle, v1 = 73 kmph, and the initial speed of leader vehicle, v2 = 62
kmph. Thus from the result we can infer that the follower vehicle was travelling at quite high speed which
may have resulted in the collision. The solution to the problem may be speed restriction in that particular
stretch of road where accident occurred.
 2. Energy Theory

Applying principle of conservation of energy or conservation of momentum also the initial speed of the
vehicle can be computed if the skid marks are known. It is based on the concept that there is reduction in
kinetic energy with the work done against the skid resistance.
2 2
 ¿ 𝑊 ( 𝑣1 − 𝑣2 )
=𝑊 . 𝑓 . 𝑠
2 𝑔
( 13 )
 
Where W = weight of vehicle
v1 and v2 = speed before and after the collision
f = skid resistance coefficient
s = skid distance
It also follows the law of conservation of momentum (m1, v1 are the mass and velocity of first vehicle

colliding with another vehicle of mass and velocity m2, v2 respectively).

1. Collision of moving vehicle with parked vehicle:

(Q) A vehicle of 2000 kg skids a distance of 36 m before colliding with a stationary vehicle of 1500 kg weight. After
collision both vehicle skid a distance of 14 m. Assuming coefficient of friction 0.5, determine the initial speed of the
vehicle.

Solution:

Let the weight of the moving vehicle is WA.

let the weight of the stationary vehicle is WB.

Skid distance before and after collision is s1 and s2 respectively.

Initial speed is v1, speed after applying brakes before collision is v2.

The speed of both the vehicles A and B after collision is v3

The final speed v4 is 0. Then:

1. After collision:
Loss in kinetic energy of both cars = Work done against skid resistance

2 2
(𝑊 +𝑊 𝐵 ) ∗ ( 𝑣 3 − 𝑣 4 )
 
¿
𝐴
= (𝑊 𝐴 +𝑊 𝐵 ) ∗ 𝑓 ∗ 𝑠2
2𝑔
¿
¿
 

2. At collision:
Momentum before impact = momentum after impact

  𝐴 . 𝑣 2 ( 𝑊 𝐴 +𝑊 𝐵 ) . 𝑣 3
𝑊
=
𝑔 𝑔
 
3. Before collision:
Loss in kinetic energy of moving vehicle = work done against braking force in reducing the speed

2 2
𝑊
  𝐴 . (𝑣 1 − 𝑣 2 )
=𝑊 𝐴 ∗ 𝑓 ∗ 𝑠1
2𝑔
2 2
 𝑣 1 − 𝑣 2
=0.5 ∗36
2𝑔

𝑚
𝑣  1 =27.8 =100 𝑘𝑚𝑝h
𝑠

The pre-collision speed of the moving vehicle is 100 kmph.

 2.Angular collision:
The possible cases of the position of the vehicles after a collision are given below:

Figure 1: Angular collision of two vehicles resulting Figure 2: After collision movement of car 1 in
in movement in resultant direction north of west and car 2 in east of north
 
Figure 3: After collision movement of car 1 and Figure 4: After collision movement of car 1 in north
car 2 in north of east of east and car 2 in south of east
  
Q) Vehicle A is approaching from west and vehicle B from south. After collision A skids 600 north of east and B skids
300 south of east as shown in figure below. Skid distance before collision for A is 18 m and B is 26 m. The skid distances
after collision are 30m and 15 m respectively. Weight of A and B are 4500 and 6000 respectively. Skid resistance of
pavement is 0.55 m. Determine the pre-collision speed.

Figure 5: After collision movement of car 1 north of east and car 2 in south of east
Solution:
Let initial speed is vA1 and vB1.

Speed after skidding before collision is vA2 and vB2.

Speed of both the vehicles A and B after collision is vA3 and vB3.

Final speed is vA4 and vB4 is 0

Initial skid distance for A and B is sA1 and sB1.

Final skid distance for A and B is sA2 and sB2.

Weight of vehicle A is WA and Weight of vehicle B is WB.

a) After collision:
Loss in kinetic energy of each cars = Work done against skid resistance

  𝐴 𝑣 𝐴 32
𝑊
=𝑊 𝐴 ∗ 𝑓 ∗ 𝑠 𝐴 2 As vA4 = 0, is not considered in the above
2𝑔
 
𝑣 equation
𝐵 3= √ 2 𝑔𝑓 𝑠 𝐵 2 =12.7 𝑚/𝑠
b) At collision:
Momentum before impact is momentum after impact (resolving along west- east direction)

𝑊
  𝐴 𝑊𝐵 𝑊𝐴
𝑣 +0= 𝑣 cos 𝛽 + 𝑣 cos 𝛼
𝑔 𝐴2 𝑔 𝐵3 𝑔 𝐴3
  𝑊𝐵
𝑣 𝐴 2= 𝑣 cos 𝛽+ 𝑣 𝐴 3 cos 𝛼 𝑣  𝐴 2=23.66 𝑚/𝑠
𝑊 𝐴 𝐵3

Resolving the moments along south- north direction

𝑊
  𝐵 𝑊𝐵 𝑊𝐴
𝑣 𝐵 2 +0=− 𝑣 𝐵 3 sin 𝛽 + 𝑣 𝐴 3 sin 𝛼
𝑔 𝑔 𝑔

 
𝑣 𝐵 2=
𝑊𝐴
𝑣 𝐴 3 sin 𝛼 − 𝑣 𝐵 3 sin 𝛽
𝑣  𝐵 2=5.34 𝑚/ 𝑠
𝑊𝐵
c) Before collision:
Loss in kinetic energy of each cars = Work done against skid resistance

 
¿¿
𝑚
𝑣  𝐴 1= √ 𝑣 𝐴 2 +2 𝑔𝑓 𝑠 𝐴 1=27.45 =99 𝑘 𝑚 / h 𝑟
2
𝑠

Similarly, using the same equation and using sB2

𝑚
𝑣  𝐵 1=√ 𝑣 𝐵 2 + 2 𝑔𝑓 𝑠 𝐵 1=17.57 =63.26 𝑘 𝑚 / h 𝑟
2
𝑠

Answer: The pre-collision speed of the vehicle A (approaching from west) is vA1 = 99 km/hr

and vehicle B (approaching from south) is vB1 = 63.26 km/hr.

Newton's second law
The second law states that the rate of change of momentum (M= m*v) of a body is directly proportional to
the force applied, and this change in momentum takes place in the direction of the applied force.

  𝑑𝑀 𝑑 ( 𝑚𝑣 )
𝐹= =
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡

The second law can also be stated in terms of an object's acceleration. Since Newton's second law is
valid only for constant-mass systems, m can be taken outside the differentiation operator by the 
constant factor rule in differentiation. Thus,

  𝑑𝑣
𝐹=𝑚 ∗ =𝑚 ∗𝑎
𝑑𝑡

Where, F is the net force applied, m is the mass of the body, and a is the body's acceleration. Thus, the net force
applied to a body produces a proportional acceleration. In other words, if a body is accelerating, then there is a force
on it.
Impulse
 In classical mechanics, impulse (symbolized by J) is the integral of a force (F) over the time interval (t
= t2 – t1) for which it acts. 

The impulse is the integral of the resultant force (F) with respect to time:

𝑡2
 
𝐽 =∫ 𝐹 ∗𝑑𝑡
𝑡1

Where, F is the resultant force applied from t1 to t2.

From Newton's second law, force is related to momentum (M) by

  𝑑𝑀
𝐹=
𝑑𝑡
 𝑡2 𝑀2
  𝑑𝑀
𝐽 =∫ ∗ 𝑑𝑡 =∫ 𝑑𝑀 = 𝑀 2 − 𝑀 1
𝑡 1
𝑑𝑡 𝑀 1

  Coefficient of restitution (e) =

Thank You