Citation

Beck RF, Casteel DA, Phillips E, Eubanks J, English D. Collision 2006; 1(1): 82-96.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Collision Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Collinear collisions involving motor vehicles often cause fatal or severe injuries to motorcyclists. The investigation and reconstruction of this type of collision can often be a complicated task because of the difficulties in determining the pre-impact velocity of a motorcycle from the damage to either the motorcycle or the involved motor vehicle. Because of the potentially great disparity in momentum between the motorcycle and the motor vehicle, determining the change in velocity for the motor vehicle has traditionally been a difficult task in collision reconstruction. However, modern technology has created an opportunity to simplify this problem. Many current motor vehicles are equipped with airbags and often have an accelerometer and a computer module designed for airbag deployment decision-making. Some of these systems record and store the accelerations that are experienced in a collision. When coupled with vehicle speed sensors, this equipment provides an excellent opportunity to contrast acceleration data collected by the sensing and diagnostic module (SDM). Delphi, Visteon, and other component manufacturers have designed event data recorders (EDR) that are integrated with airbag-related computers on many models of motor vehicles made since 1994 by General Motors, Ford, and other motor vehicle manufacturers. The EDR data often includes the motor vehicle’s pre-impact velocity and impact change in velocity. Underreporting has been shown to occur as a function of negative acceleration before algorithm enable. Significant underreporting has been suggested to occur as a result of offset impacts with narrow loading. This research paper covers three motorcycle-vehicle instrumented crash tests.