Accident Investigation Simulations

Highway Accident Investigation:
Motorcoach run-off-the-road at Exit 45 on Interstate 90, vault and rollover near Victor, New York
June 23, 2002

Videos are available in wmv format, and were presented at the Board meeting June 22, 2004 in Washington, D.C., for the Victor, NY Highway Accident Investigation.

Disclaimer: Simulations presented below used scene surveys, aerial photographs, witness statements, vehicle testing, vehicle plans and vehicle operating characteristics. The depictions represent actual lighting and weather conditions at the time of the accident.

Vehicle Dynamics: Four different views of the vehicle dynamics were rendered to show various perspectives of the crash. In the simulation, the initial speed of the bus was 68 mph, and the bus slowed to 61mph in gore area at the exit ramp. The bus slowed to 46 mph as it vaulted over the on-ramp and cleared the guardrail on the far side. The bus strikes the guardrail on the nearside of the eastbound entrance ramp and pushes it in front of the bus. The guardrail that was pushed by the bus struck three passenger vehicles of which two rolled over. The vehicle rollovers were animated to match physical evidence.

Video 1  Chase View.  VictorChaseView.wmv (Video = 1.52MB)

This is an aerial chase view of the bus in real time.

 

Video 2  Fixed Side View.  VictorFixedSideView.wmv (Video = 551KB)

This is a side view of the bus as it vaults over the on-ramp. The view also shows the other three passenger vehicles.

 

Video 3  Fixed Rear View.  VictorFixedRearView.wmv (Video = 513KB)

This is a view from behind the bus as it approaches the guardrail and vaults. It shows the relative positions of the other three vehicles and the interaction with the guardrail.

 

Video 4  Driver's View.  VictorDriversView.wmv (Video = 1.40MB)

This is the potential bus driver’s view as he approached the exit and went across the field approaching the entrance ramp, vaulted and overturned. Witnesses indicated that the bus driver intermittently was falling asleep. The view shown was his potential view, if he was alert during the approach. The simulation steering inputs are shown at the bottom of the view.

 

The vehicle dynamics simulation was produced on an HVE™ PC system using SIMON™, EDVSM™ and EDGEN™ programs. All of the programs are trademarks of the Engineering Dynamics Corporation. The software, ReadDataFile, developed by Collision Engineering Associates, was also implemented for the simulations. These movies were produced in Adobe Premiere™. This program is a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated.

 

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