Thank you very much for your help. Not too long ago I was involved in a very minor brush and go contact with another vehicle. I was driving a 1999 Dodge Ram 1500, which weighs about 4500 pounds. The other vehicle involved was a 1999 Saturn Sport Coupe, which is 15 feet long and it weighs 2400 pounds. I did not have a chance to examine the extent of the damage that the 1999 Saturn sustained since the driver was driving much faster and by the time she stopped she was about 40 feet ahead of me. However, in court, this lady claimed that the severity of the impact caused the rear end of her Saturn to swing (clockwise) from the lane she was driving at all the way to the next lane while the front of her car continued driving the original lane. At the time I didn't hear her make this claim at court, therefore, I didn't get the chance to challenge it. Obviously the judge must had had found her claim to be credible since he found me 100% at fault. Later, I got shocked when I read it in the transcripts of the trial. Since then, I have been trying to put everything in perspective so I can present it as evidence with my petition to reopen the case.
Knowing the fact that the minimum width of a lane is 12 feet, I calculated the sweeping arc, based on her scenario, to be around 13.87 feet and the angle allegedly her car swung to be around 53 degrees. Although this scenarios is probable, in this particular case all facts at hand makes it implausible. The first fact is, my word against hers, at that moment my pickup was barely moving faster than 5 m/h. However, from the transcript of her testimony, it was established that after the contact between our two vehicles and until she stopped 40 feet later, she continued to drive in her original lane in an un deviated straight line. Logic dictates that after her car was forced to swing 53 degrees towards the cars to her right, her car should have T-boned some of these cars to her right as she continued driving a distance of about 40 feet. Also, logic dictates that somekind of skid mark should have been generated by her rear tires especially knowing the fact that the grade of the road was about 7% uphill which should have caused more of the weight of her car to be shifting to the rear tires of her car. But the most important fact in all of this is fact that my pickup only received a very minor paint scuff mark on the very edge of the fiberglass cover of the front bumper. This alone makes her scenario implausible. Logic and science dictates that for her alleged scenario to happen, it requires a compression force of some significance. However, for a compression force of some significance to be generated it requires the collision of two structural systems. This compression force that is strong enough to swing the rear end of a 2400 pounds car a distance of 13.87 feed should also be strong enough to leave some tell-tale signs on my pickup. All that presumable stress on my fiberglass skin, which got sandwitched between these two compression forces, yet the fiberglass skin of my bumper didn't shatter, crack, not even gouged. Not a single mounting and supporting component behind the fiberglass skin of my bumper got shattered, bent, not even cracked.
Any scientific help from members will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Ray
