Fatal accidents
Technical reconstruction when there are fatalities.
Under the limit and with no time to brake
The case
- A pedestrian crossed an urban street outside the crossing, looking ahead and down, without checking the traffic. She was hit by a car and died.
- On the footage the car appears on the curve and the brake is applied only after the impact: for the driver, it was unexpected.
- The street has a 40 km/h limit, a left-hand curve and a downgrade. The crossing at the junction was in poor condition.
How we helped the client
The driver hired us to clarify whether he could have avoided the collision. We calculated speed two ways: about 37 km/h from the stopping distance (27 m after impact) and about 30 km/h from the damage.
Then we asked whether the accident was avoidable. With the reaction time of an unexpected situation, even at the 40 km/h limit the car would need 44 m to stop, a distance the driver did not have because of the pedestrian’s conduct.
Even before that, we showed the car was already travelling below the road limit, and that the stretch lacked the signage required for crossing.
The car’s speed, by two methods
The event was caused by the pedestrian’s imprudent conduct in crossing without due precautions. The accident was physically unavoidable for the driver, who was below the speed limit.