Don’t miss this unique opportunity to hear Dr. Searle discuss the conditions he has established for calculating speeds based on the overall throw distance of pedestrians and bicyclists struck by vehicles. In addition to addressing the reliability of the speed calculation, he will also discuss the range of acceptable friction values he determined as presented in his paper published by the Society of Automotive Engineers. Following his presentation, Dr. Searle will permit a question and answer period.

During his 33 years as a lead engineer with the Ford Motor Company, Mr. Ruth had the opportunity to work on a number of product developments including Ford’s control modules and a common EDR output format. He was the primary interface between Ford and Vetronix and personally helped debug many of the new releases to assure data integrity. His unique qualifications and inside knowledge make him the ideal presenter on this topic. Mr. Ruth will give an update on the current CDR Release 3.1 and show you what is new in this release, what vehicles have been added and what data is now available. He will also discuss newly published research that can help you in meeting Frye and Daubert criteria and provide you with new analytical tools to assist you in your efforts.

For four years Dr. Navin has been diligently working with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on an experiment to link drag sleds to skidding vehicles. A new set of experiments with a “solid tire vehicle” has demonstrated a direct relationship between a drag sled and a car treated as a drag sled. The relationship between the car-as-drag-sled and skidding vehicles illustrates the link between the drag sled and a skidding vehicle. These new ground breaking experimental results are being used by the RCMP to refine their drag sled calibration procedures. Testing has shown that the procedure is simple to use and gives accurate speed estimates. The results of this research will be provided as a Power Point presentation and a scientific paper with all the research data.

For the past few years a numbers of articles have been written and published reporting that drag sleds are inaccurate for determining a surface co-efficient of friction. Sgt. Williams will provide you with a standardized method of calibration for using the drag sled and you will be given the opportunity for “hands on” exposure to the RCMP process. This session will complement Dr. Frank Navin's “Drag Sled Study” presentation.

Photogrammetry is a proven science that requires certain intrinsic information of the camera(s) in order to compute accurate and reliable image-based measurements from 2D (single image) and 3D (multi-image convergent triangulation.) This presentation will cover AR measurement examples of both (2D) planar rectified single-image as well as (3D) multi-image triangulation using cameras of unknown camera origin, as well as metrically calibrated cameras. During this session, Mr. DeChant will discuss the use of the Zaraf, XYRectify, iWitness and iWitnessPRO software programs.

This session will review the physics behind uniform projectile motion. One equation will be developed that may be used for all airborne trajectories. You will learn how to apply rotational mechanics to airborne trajectories in order to refine airborne speed estimates and to calculate a minimum speed necessary for a vehicle to become airborne. Actual motor vehicle airborne testing will be used to show you the proper methodologies of determining the distance and height of a motor vehicle translated during its airborne trajectory.

Mr. Wright, Mr. Baxter and Mr. Robar will present the data collected on rolling resistance values for all the vehicles gathered for testing over the period leading up to this conference. They will also present the experimental data collected on motorcycle lane change vs. lean angle comparisons. A detailed discussion on current views and accepted practices in determining these values will accompany the presentation of their experimental data.

Most crash investigators and reconstructionists are familiar with traditional reconstruction methods such as energy and momentum and do not use simulation techniques because the method is relatively new and the actual procedures are not well understood. There are real advantages for using simulation, both in time savings as well as the quality of the final work product. This session will provide a basic overview of simulation: what it is, how it works and how the final work product will look.

The data gathered on instrumented crash vehicles regarding filament acceleration will be presented and discussed.

Mr. Jobe will discuss the modern technology that is available for real time testing to help make your crash investigation more conclusive. Specifically, you will learn how the VC4000 can now measure drag factor as well as render a drag factor that cannot be manipulated or distorted. Additional features of the computer will be presented such as its additional sensors, GPS speed, angular rate gyro and magnometer. You will also learn how to convert the VC4000DAQ into a commercial vehicle inspection station. This session is designed to help you decide what equipment will best fit the needs of you and your department.

Mr. Bonnett will provide you with a general overview of the latest REC-TEC ONE program, with an emphasis on Linear Momentum, Turning Maneuvers, Crush (Crash3 Damage Analysis), S-Cam Air brakes, and Motion Analysis. He will then move on the introduce the advanced features available in REC-TEC Platinum including Finite Difference Analysis, Monte Carlo analysis, SMAC, Pole/Narrow Object Impacts, Vault/Slide Integration and Angular Momentum. Mr. Bonnett will also provide a demonstration of what is on the horizon for REC-TEC.