title: Two Simple Formulas for Evaluating the Lower Bound of the Impact Velocity in Vehicle-pedestrian Accidents.
abstract: Formulas for evaluating the lower bound of the impact velocity are valuable in vehicle-pedestrian accident reconstruction. The theory of classical mechanics and four hypotheses were employed to derive formulas; the research results and simulation/accident tests were employed to validate their feasibility. Then, two simple formulas were developed according to the distance between the rest positions of the vehicle and the pedestrian and the flight-phase distance. The results showed that the evaluated results by the two proposed formulas are inferior to the existing results. The influence of a roadside step on the impact velocity, which decreased with an increase in the flight-phase distance and a reduction in the road slope, was evaluated. Based on a real accident, the study concludes that the lower bound can be easily obtained with the proposed formulas, which can be used to determine the evaluated impact velocity during simulations.
authors.affiliation: Hunan Province Key Laboratory of Safety Design and Reliability Technology for Engineering Vehicle (Changsha University of Science & Technology), Changsha, Hunan, 410114, China.|School of Automotive and Mechanical Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha, Hunan, 410114, China.
authors.forename: Tiefang
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.affiliation: Department of Security, Guangdong Police College, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510641, China.
authors.forename: Yonggang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Hunan Province Key Laboratory of Safety Design and Reliability Technology for Engineering Vehicle (Changsha University of Science & Technology), Changsha, Hunan, 410114, China.|School of Automotive and Mechanical Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha, Hunan, 410114, China.
authors.forename: Ruoyu
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yin
keywords: accident reconstruction; forensic science; lower bound; slope road; vehicle velocity; vehicle-pedestrian accident