Vehicle

 

Motor vehicle accidents are the most common ones to cause injuries in the US. In the last few years is more than 35,000 are killed and 2.5 million require medical treatment out of which nearly 200,000 hospitalized. According to NHTSA in 2016 the major reasons for these fatalities are: Distraction – 3450, Drossiness – 803, DUI – 10,497, Speeding – 10,111 and Unbelted – 10,428. The cost of these accidents is estimated at $150 billion. There are many types of accidents: single car crash, multiple car crashes, side swipe, T-bone crash, low speed rear end collisions, rollover, truck’s jackknife and others.

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Major causes

• Driver errors and capabilities (e.g. response time)

• Driving conditions (e.eg rain and poor visibility)

• Speeding and reckless driving

• Failure of mechanical components such as brakes

• Road design and misleading road signs

• Inattentive driver (e.g. texting of phone use)

• Use of alcohol and drugs

 

Services FEI provides

• Crush energy analysis

• Momentum and energy calculations

• Determination of speed from skid marks

• Simulation and animation of the occupants

• Human factors

 

FEI case examples

​T-bone accident on PGA Boulevard

A vehicle travelling westbound T-boned a vehicle that was travelling east bound and turned south in an intersection with no stop signals. The first driver was blamed for the accident claiming that he was travelling at high speed and a results he could stop in time. Knowing the collision and the rest points of the vehicle FEI could show that the driver was driving within the speed limit and the cause of the accident is misjudgment of distance and speed by turning vehicle’s driver.

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Contaminates Brake fluid

A customer put his car for service in the dealer shop. They replaced the whole braking system: master cylinder, calipers and pads. Couple of weeks later the customer brought his car back to the dealer and claimed “something wrong with brakes”. A technician tested the car and told the customer that everything is OK. A week later, on a hot day the customer was driving on a highway and realized that the traffic, more than 250 feet ahead, was stopped. He applied his brakes but there was no response and he collided with the vehicle in font of him and as a result suffered major injury. Our investigation found the brake fluid was not replace at the time of the repair. The old brake fluid had a boiling point of 260°F (due to water contamination) rater then over 450°F of a fresh one. With environment conditions of high temperature and the constant rubbing of the pad, the brake fluid’ temperature reached the boiling point and as a result the braking capabilities diminished.