Accident Reconstruction Based on EDR Records - Simulation and Experimental Study

The authors measure and simulate the vehicle motion in situations where typical defensive maneuvers in road traffic are being carried out, namely straight braking, double lane-change (overtaking), and ramp input on the steering wheel. They reproduce the vehicle motion (i.e. velocity, vehicle's C.G. trajectory and yaw angle) by using real records or by the simulated electronic data recorder (EDR) outputs. Thus, they operate in a way that is similar to that employed by forensic experts who analyze the EDR outputs. The employed method provides means of comparing the real or simulated exact values of velocity and of the vehicle's C.G. trajectory to the readings obtained by integrating the EDR outputs simulation. Estimation of the error, produced by the expert employing the EDR outputs, can be made in this way. The results show a possibility of occurrence of significant values of the error for simplified version of the device.