Augusta GA Auto Accident Lawyers - Crash tests put driver in accidents – on purpose
By Sarah Schulz
A loud impact followed by stunned silence and then curiosity.
For the members of a two-week technical course on crash dynamics, watching an actual collision was both exhilarating and useful.
Cameras were rolling on Thursday as Dave Thome, a staff instructor at the Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Center, got behind the wheel and intentionally drove into a parked car.
And then he did it again.
The first collision involved two Chevrolet Luminas — a parked “target” car and a driven “bullet” car — in a lower-speed crash. The bullet car was likely going around 30 mph.
The second crash involved a Ford station wagon, a Toyota 4Runner and a slightly higher speed.
Thome said the first crash was meant to show what happens when the vehicles are of a similar size, while the second one showed what happens when a larger vehicle hits a smaller one.
The target cars were donated by Kramer’s Auto Parts. The bullet cars were seized during drug arrests and have been used in various training scenarios, he said.
Prior to the crashes, Thome and his fellow instructors did calculations based on data from the vehicles, such as their weight and mass, to determine a “safe” crash speed.
“The purpose of this is to walk away,” Thome said.
Thome also wore coveralls, a protective vest, goggles, a helmet and a four-point harness.
Thursday was his first time behind the wheel in a controlled crash environment. When the class is offered again in two years, he hopes to have the money for a pulley system so they can stage higher-speed crashes.
During the first accident, Thome said, he tried to be as relaxed as possible to avoid injury.
“It all happened in the blink of an eye,” he said. “The approach to the target vehicle happened so quickly.”
When a crash occurs, there are actually several collisions. The first is the vehicle striking another vehicle or object, then the occupants hit their seat belts or something inside the vehicle, and then the occupants’ internal organs collide with their bony structures, he said.
This class is the fourth step in a five-step process toward becoming expert accident reconstructionists. The first classes — basic, intermediate and advanced — are all one-week courses that focus on the math and physics of accidents. The technical course offers more on the practical application of those skills and can prepare the officers for presenting the information in court. The final step, which is also a two-week course, is offered at Northwestern University in Chicago and a school in Florida, he said.
The intermediate, advanced and technical courses are funded by the Nebraska Office of Highway Safety, he said.
Thirty students from law enforcement agencies across Nebraska and one from Kansas have been at the LETC since Monday, and on Thursday they broke into two groups to mark, measure and diagram the accidents.
They had already studied vehicle/pedestrian accidents using a crash-test dummy on Wednesday, Thome said.
They have to use their measurements to figure out how fast Thome was driving at the point of impact, he said.
Colin Caudill of the Otoe County Sheriff’s Department said seeing the accident happen is helpful in learning about crash dynamics because officers usually come up on a scene after the accident has occurred.
Tom Giffee of the Nebraska State Patrol agreed seeing what happens and then working backwards using the math will have practical applications in his job.
It is also helpful because many times law enforcement officers arrive after medical personnel, and they don’t get to see the scene before it’s disturbed, said Rhonda Wicht of the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Department.
To enhance the learning experience, Thome and the other instructors mounted a camera in the Toyota before the second crash. They also had a trooper film both accidents from a lift above the scene, and one of the instructors took professional-grade photos immediately following the collisions.
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