the-BA : Making an impact

Driving at 30 mph doesn’t feel particularly fast. Hitting a brick wall at that speed certainly would. What about hitting a vehicle coming head-on at 30 mph? How does the combined speed of 60 mph affect the damage? Given similar vehicles, you might expect each to suffer similar damage; but what if one was doing 20 mph and the other 40 mph? The combined speed is still the same, so is the damage evened out, or is one vehicle damaged more?

Have you ever wondered whether accident investigators can deduce collision speeds from the amount of vehicle damage?

You might like to …

• devise laboratory procedures for testing simulated ‘bodywork’ in controlled collisions; you will need consistent ‘bodywork’ designs, so different tests are comparable; consider how you will assess and record the damage
• investigate the effects of speed; both for each ‘vehicle’ individually, and their combined speed; assess the relative damage to each ‘vehicle’ under different conditions
• consider what other factors, besides speed, are likely to affect the amount and distribution of collision damage; investigate one of these
• find out how vehicle manufacturers, and other organisations, perform and assess collision damage tests on real vehicles; suggest whether the results of such tests can help accident investigators deduce the speed of each vehicle involved in a collision, and if so, how.

Further links:
www.euroncap.com/

Photo courtesy of Michael G Jackson

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