Case Study A Bad Day of Sandy Dayton

Sandy Dayton is a college student who got an accident while she was driving her car.
Unfortunately she got crashed by a van behind her car. Sandy must stopped her car because the
light had turned yellow and some high school students were already starting to move across the
intersection. Unfortunately the van behind her car crashed with her car. The rear of her car was
totally damaged by the crash.
After the crash, the police collected statements from both Sandy Dayton and the van driver.
Sandy said that she hit the brake because the light had turned yellow and some high school
students were already starting to move across the intersection. Her car was starting to stop but
theres a van behind her car and the van get crashed with her car. Sandy stated that her car was
travelling at the speed limit.
The driver van stated that suddenly Sandy slammed on her brake, and he did the same thing, but
the crash was inevitable. He believed that the light just turned yellow, and they had time to go
through the light.
Some information got by the police accident re-constructionist. The front of the van had been
damaged and the car was badly damaged in the rear. The skid marks are found which it is a
proved that both vehicles had braked. The speedometer of the van was showing about 25 mph.
From Accident Investigators report on the accident at Broad Avenue and West Trenton Avenue,
there is some information about the accident. The Sandys car is 1978 Ford Mustang and its
weight is approximately 2700 lbs. The coefficient of kinetic friction between the road and the tire
is 0.59. The Ford left a 90-foot skid mark prior to being struck by the van, while the van left a
45-foot skid mark prior to impact. The driver van is 1988 Chevrolet Cargo Van.
From all the statements information, it can be taken as initial verified data for investigation.
Both vehicles had braked (according to the report submitted by the police accident re
constructionist). The minimum end speed of the van was Vvan2=25 mph (according to the report
submitted by the police accident re-constructionist). The path length of the Ford prior to being
struck by the van: SFord=90 foot (according the Accident Investigators report). The path length
of the van prior impact: Svan=45 foot (according the Accident Investigators report). The
coefficient of kinetic friction between the road and the tires is 0.59 (according the Accident

Investigators report). The speed limit on West Trenton is 35 mph (according the Accident
Investigators report).
Two unknown values must be determined: the initial speed of the Ford before the driver start
slowing down and the initial speed of the van before the brakes.
The next steps were accomplished in order to find the actual speeds of both vehicles before
theyve started braking. According to the Newtons second low: =, where Fr is a friction
force, m is the weight of the 1978 Ford Mustang and a is the acceleration. The force of friction
can be found as: ==. F is the initial force of the both vehicles and g is
acceleration of gravity 32.2 ft/s2.

, so

For Ford Mustang

Fr = F = 24343.2 lbf

So the V0 (initial speed) is,

So the Sandys car initial velocity is 39.87 mph.

For Chevrolet Cargo Van

The van left a 45-foot skid mark prior to impact is half of the length of the Ford Mustangs skid
mark, so the van was going the Ford Mustangs speed divided by square root of two. So, V1
(initial speed of van) is,

From the calculations above, the results are Sandys car initial velocity is 39.87 mph and the
initial speed of the van is 28.28 mph. These clearly state that Sandys car initial speed is beyond
the speed limit on West Trenton is 35 mph. Even the initial speed of the van is under the speed
limit, the driver was too late to take the action to hit the brake, it caused the impact of both
vehicles. I suggest that both Sandy Dayton and the van driver must honestly tell the truth.