What is Car accident: Definition and 65 Discussions

A traffic collision, also called a motor vehicle collision, car accident, or car crash, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other stationary obstruction, such as a tree, pole or building. Traffic collisions often result in injury, disability, death, and property damage as well as financial costs to both society and the individuals involved. Road transport is the most dangerous situation people deal with on a daily basis, but casualty figures from such incidents attract less media attention than other, less frequent types of tragedy.A number of factors contribute to the risk of collisions, including vehicle design, speed of operation, road design, weather, road environment, driving skills, impairment due to alcohol or drugs, and behavior, notably aggressive driving, distracted driving, speeding and street racing.
In 2013, 54 million people worldwide sustained injuries from traffic collisions. This resulted in 1.4 million deaths in 2013, up from 1.1 million deaths in 1990. About 68,000 of these occurred in children less than five years old. Almost all high-income countries have decreasing death rates, while the majority of low-income countries have increasing death rates due to traffic collisions. Middle-income countries have the highest rate with 20 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, accounting for 80% of all road fatalities with 52% of all vehicles. While the death rate in Africa is the highest (24.1 per 100,000 inhabitants), the lowest rate is to be found in Europe (10.3 per 100,000 inhabitants).

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  1. kyphysics

    I Car Accident Physics - Are Wheels/Tires Good or Bad Energy Absorbers?

    Here's an applied everyday life physics question based on a MVA (motor-vehicle accident) I was involved in a few weeks ago. I was driving straight when a women hit me from the driver side (said she didn't see me due to being in her blind spot - her claim, not mine, as I don't know if I was or...
  2. Alfos001

    Seat-belt effects on passengers during a crash

    I have attempted solving this problem several times on an long since finished online quiz. However no answer I gave seemed to be correct despite what I could reasonably understand regarding the effect of seatbelts and their effect on reducing force by extending the distance of deceleration...
  3. B

    Car Crash Analysis: Analyzing Friction & Speed

    Homework Statement Your consulting agency, with its extensive knowledge of physics, has been subpoenaed to provide expert testimony at an automobile accident case in civil court. The case involves a crash between a Ford Escort car and a tractor-trailer truck. 1. The police department...
  4. M

    B Hey guys, I'm going to say right up front that I haven't a c

    Hey guys, I'm going to say right up front that I haven't a clue how to do these calculations, but I have a scenario that I would like the math to if anyone can help me figure it out. What I had been able to attempt to figure out doesn't seem tangible? The formulas I had researched/used was...
  5. E

    Calculating Initial Velocity of Car 1 in a Collision | Homework Problem

    Homework Statement A car hits another car at rest. Debris is found 6.75m from the cars, the two cars stuck together over a distance of 6.75m, there are skid marks a distance of 312m before the car crash, car 1=2946kg, car2=1232kg, coefficent of friction is .72. Find the initial velocity of car...
  6. J

    How do forces of the tires contribute to car rollovers?

    I'm trying to understand the physics of car rollovers and perhaps what can prevent them in terms of the forces that are involved. According to various diagrams I've seen, there is friction applied by the tires (with some diagrams showing a set of forces acting only on a single tire which...
  7. lisab

    John Nash and his Wife Killed in Car Accident

    So sad. The mathematician who inspired the story "A Beautiful Mind", was killed in a taxi accident, along with his wife. They were both in their 80s. RIP. http://www.nj.com/middlesex/index.ssf/2015/05/famed_a_beautiful_mind_mathematician_wife_killed_in_taxi_crash_police_say.html
  8. Astronuc

    News Bob Simon, CBS News Legend, Dies at 73 in NYC Car Accident

    Bob Simon of CBS News dead at 73 in New York City car crash http://news.yahoo.com/cbs-news-correspondent-bob-simon-killed-york-city-025008055.html What a loss! My condolences to his family, friends and colleagues.
  9. J

    Energy and momentum in a car accident

    Two identical cars collide with equal and opposite velocity to each other. What happens to the energy? What happens to the momentum? Answer: energy is converted into heat and momentum disappears. But what has that to do with force?
  10. G

    Clueless and in need of help -- I was the rear car of a 4 car collision

    Hi guys I'm completely useless when it comes to physics and need help with working something out regarding a car accident. I was rear car of a 4 car collision where all cars infront had already crashed. Now the guy infront of me is saying I shunted him which is a complete lie. I was traveling...
  11. S

    Automotive This is somewhat of a question -- calculations about my car accident

    Now, I had a collision approximately two weeks or so ago, however, I was the one blamed for the collision due to a "witness" but I need some help with the correct calculation I need. You see, her car weighed 2602 pounds, where as my car weighed 3359 pounds, but she hit me hard enough on the...
  12. S

    How Does Breaking Apart Enhance Safety in Formula One Cars?

    Homework Statement Why are formula one cars(except the place where the driver sits) designed to break apart into small pieces very fast? I believe that there is all kinds of things as aerodynamics, but my assignment talks about how the breaking apart mechanism is a safety feature 2. Homework...
  13. J

    How Fast Was the Car Moving When It Hit the Van?

    Homework Statement "You are investigating an accident where a 1500 kg car rolls down a hill with a slope of 8 degrees, a distance of 150 m (measured along the road) and hit a parked van. How fast was the car moving when it hit the van, assuming little friction?" Homework Equations If I knew...
  14. O

    Calculating the Impact: A Detailed Look at My Car Accident on Friday Night

    I was in a car accident Friday night and we both claim the other guy ran the red light. I drive a 2005 Audi A4 which is approx. 3205 lbs, I weigh 350. the other guy was in a 96 toyota corolla which weighs 2,553. I was going about 4 mph when the accident occurred, I had been sitting at a red...
  15. F

    Was I born before or after my older sister?

    quote from wikipedia: "According to the special theory of relativity, it is impossible to say in an absolute sense whether two distinct events occur at the same time if those events are separated in space, such as a car crash in London and another in New York. The question of whether the events...
  16. E

    Probability growth with time

    I've been wondering about a simple question that I can't just google and get the answer to. Usually when we calculate probability, we know the number of possible outcomes. Say we toss a coin, there are 2 possible outcomes with one being head and one being tail. So the chance of getting a head is...
  17. N

    What is the force of a head on collision between a jeep and a bus?

    Hello. I'm a writer going back and doing some fact checking to make an important scene more believable. It involves a character, Lux in the backseat of a jeep which has just suffered a head on collision with a bus. But I think I am doing something wrong because the numbers I get don't seem to...
  18. N

    Conservation of energy for a collision

    Homework Statement You are just starting a new job as investigator for the car collision investigation. You assist your superior in order to determine, as accurately as possible, the circumstances surrounding collisions (initial velocity of the vehicles involved, direction vehicles were...
  19. 2

    Colision Investigation Problem

    Homework Statement You are starting a job for Montreal Police Colision Investigators. Your boss tells you to file a report on an accident on Notre-Dame Street. There has been an accident involving 2 cars. Your findings are as follows: Numerous debris were found at a distance of...
  20. K

    Kinematics - How fast does the car stop?

    Kinematics -- How fast does the car stop? Homework Statement A car is moving with a speed of 32.0 m/s. The driver sees an accident ahead and slams on the brakes, giving the car an acceleration of -3.50 m/s2. How far does the car travel after the driver put on the brakes before it comes to a...
  21. N

    Testifying in a case involving an accident

    Homework Statement As an expert witness, you're testifying in a case involving a motorcycle accident. A motorcyclist driving in a 60km/h zone hit a stopped car on a level road. The motorcyclist was thrown from his bike and landed 39m down the road. Was he speeding? The Attempt at a...
  22. C

    Dynamics- collision of cars problem

    The problem is like this Assume both cars A and B are intially traveling to the right at 98 ft/s. Car A is tailgating leaving very little room between car A and car B. At that instant driver of car B notices a n accident and starts to break witha deceleration of 2o ft/s^2. By the time the...
  23. J

    Do Past, Unrelated Events Affect Future Probabilities?

    For a long time now I've been thinking about something I find odd about probabilities. For example, let's say that I win the lottery, something that is extremely unlikely. What is the probability that I will be struck by lightning? The odds of someone winning the lottery and getting struck by...
  24. W

    Real world problem, with KE problem

    What forum should I post this in, my friend died in a horrible car accident, some of us just want more answers I guess... Object A is in straight line motion Object B is static Object A impacts Object B Object A moves straight forward 60 m and rests Object B moves straight forward 76 m and...
  25. F

    Dog damaged neighbors car, want your input.

    Hi PF: So I had an incident with a neighbor about a month ago. The long story short is my dog was on a leash in the back yard, leash was tied to one of those sprial "stakes" that thread into the ground. The dog saw something (neighborhood is full of squirrels), managed to pull the stake out...
  26. D

    [Game Theory] A pedestrian is hit by a car. How many people will help?

    Homework Statement Consider the following social problem. A pedestrian is hit by a car and lies injured on the road. There are n people in the vicinity of the accident. The injured pedestrian requires immediate medical attention, which will be forthcoming if at least one of the n people call...
  27. R

    How Fast Was Car A When It Hit Car B?

    Homework Statement You testify as an "expert witness" in a case involving an accident in which car A slid into the rear of car B, which was stopped at a red light along a road headed down a hill. You find that the slope of the hill is θ = 12.0°, that the cars were separated by distance d =...
  28. L

    What is the necessity for the FDIC in the banking system?

    A bank's basic function is to "borrow short and lend long". In other words, it borrows money from depositors over the short term, promising to repay it on demand, while it lends most of that money out over the long term to borrowers, for instance in the form of 30-year mortgages. This...
  29. PsychonautQQ

    Finding center of circle with Polar Coordinates

    Homework Statement r=7sin(∅) find the center of the circle in Cartesian coordinates and the radius of the circle The Attempt at a Solution My math teacher is impossible to understand >.< and then the stupid homework is online and crap blah this class but I REALLY want to understand the material...
  30. V

    How bright is the future of Maglev Cars?

    Hey guys, I made a topic similar to this earlier, but after I was informed that my ideas has several flaws that would prevent it from working, I revised it and researched more about my topic. This is my original idea with several concepts that has changed. I am planning on making a mini-model...
  31. P

    Experiment Suggestions For Friction and Momentum

    Hey does anyone have any good suggestions for an experiment for both of these topics momentum and friction? Because I'm currently doing a physics investigated research task that's about if you go a KM over or mile over it is worse. so i need to do some investigating that links the two topics to...
  32. R

    Car Crash Problem: Solving Speed Before Impact

    **Not a homework problem but I was directed here** Hello, over the weekend I was involved in a car accident and received a careless driving ticket because the officer believed that I was going an insane amount of speed. My first instinct to react to this would to be to sit down and do the...
  33. G

    Spring Oscillations Problem Question

    Homework Statement You have a job at a medical forensics lab investigating an accident at a commuter railroad station. Your task is to determine the response of the safety system that prevented a railroad car from crashing into the station. Because the brakes on the passenger car failed, it...
  34. R

    Problem on Kinetic Friction

    1. A police officer investigating an accident estimates from the damage done that a moving car hit a stationary car at 25 km/h. If the moving car left skid marks 44 m long, and if the coefficient of kinetic friction is 0.68, what was the initial speed of the moving car? Homework Equations...
  35. S

    Accident Reconstruction using Friction, Energy, Momentum, and Work

    (I believe I got this right, but it's necessary context to the next problem.) PROBLEM 1 1. Homework Statement "The police department determined that the force required to drag a 130 N (29 lb) car tire across the pavement at a constant velocity is 100 N (23 lb). Specifications from the truck’s...
  36. R

    Calculating v from v0, frictional coefficients, and angle

    You testify as an expert witness in a case involving an accident in which car A slid into the rear of car B, which was stopped at a red light along a road headed down a hill. You find that the slope of the hill is θ = 12.0°, that the cars were separated by distance d = 23.0 m when the driver of...
  37. I

    Technologies or devices or knowledge for cars in specifics subjects

    I do a small theoretical project, in this project I need to investigate some technologies or devices or knowledge that must to be related to cars or to futures cars or cars industry, it can be all the kinds of cars, not only private car, it can be also buses, tractors, trucks or all others kinds...
  38. bcrowell

    Newtonian force as a covariant or contravariant quantity

    I recently came across a very cool book called Div, Grad, and Curl are Dead by Burke. This is apparently a bit of a cult classic among mathematicians, not to be confused with Div, Grad, Curl, and All That. Burke was killed in a car accident before he could put the book in final, publishable...
  39. S

    Was my husband's car hit twice in a 3 car collision?

    Hello I am new here. I am currently working on my masters in Engineering Tech and have looked to this Forum for help before. I am posting here b/c I am looking for some help... my husband was in a car accident and was the notorious middle car. The cars in his lane went from 35-40 to 0 pretty...
  40. T

    Choosing which types of Distribution

    Given the following distributions I have to choose which one to use under the given scenario. Distributions - Binomial - Poisson - Pascal - Multinomial - Hypergeometric - Normal (z distribution) Scenarios: a. I love snickers so I pull candy from the bag and immediately putting...
  41. A

    Violation of simultaneity - real of frame-dependent perception?

    I am trying to understand what 'violation of simultaneity' really means, and whether it has any real importance (i.e. why was it introduced?). The Wikipedia note on this (Topic: Relativity of Simultaneity): "... the relativity of simultaneity is the concept that simultaneity–whether two...
  42. S

    Does adding an extra bolt distribute seat belt forces evenly?

    Hi all, I'm having an online discussion and curious to know about the forces a 3-point seat belt has on a car. One guy is fitting this retractable belt to his car. The retractor and anchor mount at one bolt hole, the anchor is off centre, it attaches via a steel extension piece, the section...
  43. T

    Is it better to accelerate into a head on collision?

    Naturally, one would think, the faster your going the more energy you will create and the harder you will hit. But take a deeper look. Under the basis that in a car accident, it isn't the "Crash" that kills you, but the stop (inertia). If you were to be involved in a head on collision with an...
  44. L

    Automotive Can a Low-Powered Hybrid Car Push Another Car Uphill While Reversing?

    Dear All, I was involved in a car accident. The facts of the case as follow: Location: At a side road joining into a major road. The side road slopes downwards on a 10 degree gradient to the major road. My car was the first vehicle awaiting to exit into the major road. Background of...
  45. R

    Help me out please - Car accident analysis

    Help me out please -- Car accident analysis hey guys, I have a question... If car 1 weighing in at 4400lbs is traveling at 0 degree heading at 55 MPH and is impacted on the right side by car 2 weighing in at 2700 lbs from a 90 degree heading traveling at 5 mph and the departure angle of car 1...
  46. J

    Will Smart Car Protect you in a High-Speed Accident?

    Good day, I'm curious about the Smart Car's commercial. It says it can withstand up to 3 tons of weight. Now, I want to know if it can protect the passengers in it if a vehicle weighing 1 ton running at 150 kph crash into it? May I know what's the formula to answer my question? Thanks in...
  47. G

    Calculate Speed of Car in Car Accident

    Recently I have been involved in a car accident, and would like to figure out what was the speed of the other car that crashed into us. I only have two figures, the distance from the point of impact to where the car stopped and the mass (of both cars); and also, the final velocity which is 0...
  48. H

    Three Car Accident, Domino Effect

    My mom and I were involved in a 3 car accident. We were the middle car. The car in front of us had come to a complete stop in bumper to bumper traffic. We made a sudden stop but stopped completely. Seconds later the car from behind us hit us with great force sending us into the car in front...
  49. F

    Solving a Bumper Dent Mystery: Proving Force and Info Needed

    A car is at rest , the driver let's off the brake and hits car in front, the cars were 5 feet apart prior. No damage is apparent, later, front car claims back chrome bumper has dent. Is there a formula to prove or disprove the required force to dent the chrome bumper? What other info would be...
  50. M

    Two Identical Car Accidents: Which is More Dangerous?

    Suppose you are a police investigator and are investigating two car accidents. Before you even go to either accident scene, you know (interestingly) that both accidents were identical head – on collisions with identical cars moving at identical speeds, but in one case the cars locked bumpers...
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