Abstract
The most frequently cited cause of truck accidents is “speed too fast for prevailing conditions.” To cite this cause, a speed estimate is necessary. This paper shows the factors that should be considered. The factors most useful in estimating a truck's braking capability include vehicle configuration, loading, location of the centre of mass, and axles with brakes. The exact value of some of the variables is difficult to obtain.The formulation proposed in this paper builds on a simple and effective procedure used by police agencies to estimate speed from skid marks. The formula given by R. Rivers' “Traffic accident investigator's handbook” is formalized and the elements in his correction factor N are derived. Basic equations for the braking of straight trucks and combinations are derived. The difficulty of implementing the equations in practice for all but the simplest situation is obvious from the complexity of the equations. A lumping of all the parameters into a simplified form is developed based on truck stopping distances obtained from published experimental data. All the trucks in the data had well-adjusted brakes. The final equation to estimate speed from a truck's skid marks accounts for the average ability of such vehicles to stop as well as the variance in stopping ability. Key words: truck braking, braking efficiency, stopping sight distance, skid marks.
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