Methods for determining the physical quantities describing the vehicle movement and the driver during a road accident

Abstract

The paper compares the displacement and speed courses of cars, motorbikes and motorcyclists during a road accident obtained with the use of two measurement methods. In the first method, the course of the impact recorded by a fast camera recording 1000 frames per second was used (“frame by frame” film analysis). In the second method, the courses of accelerations and angular velocities of the objects were used (numerical integration of the recorded courses). The measurements were carried out during crash tests involving a frontal-side collision of two cars or a motorcycle with a car. The results has been shown in the time interval 0-0.5 s. During this period, the following phases of the experiment are observed: vehicle collision and the process of their deformation, the separation of vehicles, the start of independent movement of both vehicles after the collision. The measurement results obtained with the use of both methods are burdened with errors resulting, among others, from limited data sampling frequency, offset errors, calibration errors and sensor noise, duration of the analyzed waveforms. The use of two of the above-mentioned measurement methods simultaneously allows to minimize measurement errors.