Validation of Pedestrian Collision Reconstruction Using the PC-Crash Multibody Pedestrian Model

When evaluating a collision between a vehicle and a pedestrian, a reconstructionist will often attempt to determine the location on the roadway where the first contact occurred, the speed of the vehicle at impact, the speed of the pedestrian at impact, and the motion of the pedestrian from first contact to rest. Computer simulation using a multibody pedestrian model is a method that can assist the reconstructionist to simultaneously determine the location of impact and the vehicle speed. Multibody simulation can also inform the reconstructionist’s determination of the speed of the pedestrian at impact, their body posture, and their motion from first contact to rest. PC-Crash is a collision simulation software that is widely used by the accident reconstruction community. PC-Crash includes a pedestrian multibody model that can be used for collision simulation. This article validates the use of the pedestrian multibody model in PC-Crash for analyzing pedestrian collisions. This model is particularly useful when other methods are not feasible. The pedestrian model in PC-Crash enables the reconstructionist to account for the physical evidence, and to determine the set of inputs (vehicle impact speed, pedestrian speed, gait position, etc.) that are most consistent with the documented physical evidence (vehicle and pedestrian rest positions, pedestrian-to-vehicle contact points, vehicle damage, and pedestrian injury locations).