CASE STUDY 1

Violation of Right of Way vs Excessive Speed

Circumstances

Vehicle 1 was occupied by an elderly couple and was crossing a four lane divided highway in a rural area with a speed limit of 55 MPH.  The elderly man, driver of  the vehicle, stopped in the median before attempting to cross the remaining two lanes.  He saw headlights in the distance, but thought he could continue across the road safely.   The approaching vehicle, Vehicle 2, could not stop before it collided with the right side of  Vehicle 1.  As a result, the elderly passenger in Vehicle 1 was fatally injured.

Pre Crash Data of Vehicle 2 (Originally captured in 0.1 sec intervals, displayed in half sec intervals for simplicity)

This collision demonstrates how EDR data can provide crucial information that would otherwise be unavailable.  Due to the anti-lock brake system in Vehicle 2, there were no visible skid marks left on the roadway.  The absence of skid marks would have prevented investigators from establishing the true speed of the vehicle.  As shown in the diagram above, Vehicle 2 was travelling 124 MPH a full five seconds prior to the crash.  The driver did not apply his brakes until two seconds before the crash, and at the high speed at which he was traveling, he was unable to slow his vehicle before it impacted Vehicle 1.   If Vehicle 2 had been doing the speed limit of 55 MPH, this crash would not have happened.  Only through data analysis could this conclusion have been reached.

Results

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