Can Simulation Software be Utilized for Reconstructing Pedestrian Accidents?
April 4th 2022
There are many tools at the disposal of Accident Reconstructionists to aid in the reconstruction of accidents involving pedestrians. Specific commercially available simulation software tools for reconstructing pedestrian accidents include PC Crash and Virtual Crash. These simulation software programs are constantly evolving to offer the Accident Reconstructionist more capability. For example, PC Crash 13.0 includes a new feature for animated pedestrians with a prescribed gait and stride length [1].
PC Crash 13.0 [1].
Virtual Crash 5.0 has an optimize feature to move pedestrians by kinematics in simulations.
Virtual Crash 5.0 [2].
Generally, with pedestrian accident reconstruction, pedestrians can be modelled as a simple block shape or as a more complex multibody model. The simpler model can be useful for determining pedestrian visibility in the scene and for time-distance analyses. However, to obtain higher fidelity motion, the pedestrian should be modeled as a multibody system, which provides the Accident Reconstructionist a tool to study accident dynamics in greater detail – understanding pedestrian injuries as they pertain to vehicle damage areas.
While these types of software can be useful tools to compliment additional forms of analyses done by the Accident Reconstructionist, it is important to ensure that the Accident Reconstructionist you are working with fully understands the strengths and weaknesses of simulating pedestrian accidents with simulation software.
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