Accident Reconstruction Newsletter

September 2008 | Issue #97

September 2008 marks the 10th year anniversary of the ARC Network! It was 10 years ago I decided to put my idea of a portal web site for accident reconstruction on the Internet. I still remember the very first member who joined the ARC Network "Donald Dupray". I also remember the many emails I received asking why would someone join an organization that doesn't have any members?  Now in our 10th year, the ARC Network is the largest organization for accident reconstruction and traffic accident investigation with over 900 members!

Taking a look back, the ARC Network has grown and matured in many ways:

1997: Initial concept and business plan presented to a couple investors - the concept of the ARC Network was shot down and I was told it could never work. Using my own resources and funding, I refused to believe them.

1998: After a year and a half of research and development, the ARC Network was launched on the Internet.

1999: In March 1999, the first issue of the Accident Reconstruction Newsletter was emailed

1999: In April 1999, the ARC Network signed up its first member.

2000: By April of 2000, the ARC Network was already receiving over 200,000 hits per month and was gaining recognition. Membership was growing at a rate of about 10 new members per month.

2001: Began working with other organizations like CAARS, FARO, NAPARS, IAARS and SOAR. The ARC Network also survived the dotcom bubble burst. We also witnessed the September 11 terrorist attacks. As a result, the ARC Network donated a portion of membership funds to the Red Cross Liberty Fund.

2001: The ARC Network implemented a dynamic, database-driven Expert directory and search engine.

2002: The ARC Network recorded over 7 million hits to the website and has just over 300 members.

2002: Launched Police membership, Members only section, Database driven Events Calendar, and online Discussion forum.

2002: Partnered with Rusty Haight and Collision Safety Institute and hosted the first ARC-CSI Crash Conference. This conference was attended by 58 people and held in Seattle, Washington.

2003: First major redesign of the ARC Network website.

2003: Moved the ARC-CSI Crash Conference to Las Vegas, NV and attracted over 100 attendees.

2004: Moved the ARC Network web site to a new server to handle the over 16 million hits per year we received.

2004: Added an online equation section, online library of technical papers and crash test video clips to the members only section. We also invested in a new database server.

2004: Worked on search engine optimization and reworking the layout of the ARC Network. It was this year we became the #1 search result for Google! We have remained the #1 search result since.

2004: Launched a new web site for our conferences - www.crashconferences.com

2004: Launched a new business entity I Got Hit LLC - this would come into play at a later date.

2004: Became a reseller for the Vetronix Crash Data Retrieval System.

2005: Relocated office to Kirkland, WA

2005: Developed an automated membership process and moved to a secure merchant server.

2006: The first CDR User's Conference to a sold out audience.

2006: Launched another new business entity - Collision Publishing LLC. Launched the premier issue of Collision Magazine.

2006: NAPARS became the Premier Industry Partner with Collision Magazine helping us successfully launch this new print publication.

2006: Record attendance for the annual ARC-CSI Crash Conference

2007: Became the exclusive distributor for the Bosch CDR product line - moved this distributor business into the I Got Hit LLC business entity.

2007: Published Volume 2 of Collision Magazine.

2007: Record attendance for both the CDR User's Conference and ARC-CSI Crash Conference (over 250 attendees for each conference).

2007: Began hosting and attending the CDR Summit meetings to help advance the CDR technology.

2008: Began the task of a major redesign of the ARC Network. Started implementing sections in late 2008.

2008: Published Volume 3 of Collision Magazine.

2008: Changed the business name of I Got Hit LLC to Crash Data Group.

2008: Began reworking the business and marketing plan for the ARC Network, Collision Publishing and Crash Data Group. The new plans will make the ARC Network more of a "community" web site by allowing users to upload information directly to the web site. A new search engine will also be deployed in the ARC Network making it easier to find the information you are looking for. 

I fully understand that none of what I have done would be possible without the support of those in the accident reconstruction industry. I don't think of what I do as a job, I truly enjoy and look forward to coming into work everyday and trying to create new and exciting things for this industry.

Thank you again for supporting the ARC Network!

by IBF Investigations
South Africa

As a unit specializing in the use of advanced technologies in Forensic Road Traffic Collision Investigation and Reconstruction, we are constantly exploring new and innovative ways to achieve our presentation goals.
One of the technologies we have used regularly in our efforts to reconstruct and analyze road traffic collisions have been Photogrammetry. This technology is actually very unique and innovative, and enables us to literally "take a vehicle to court" for presentation in evidence.

In a recent case, were able to photograph and model a complete vehicle from real-world photographs and then create a 3D model of the vehicle, showing all the vehicle damage dynamics and crush profile for ease of illustration. As a scaled unit, we could easily use it for real-world measurements months or even years after the vehicle has been repaired, sold, broken apart or even crushed.

Download/View Complete Article in PDF 

by
John Kerkhoff

Stein Husher

Michael Varat

Alison Busenga

An Investigation into Vehicle Frontal Impact Stiffness, BEV and Repeated Testing for Reconstruction

The reconstruction of motor vehicle collisions requires an analysis and quantification of the impact phase of the vehicular collision. In order to study the dynamics and velocity dependence of the impact phase, a series of four rigid barrier impact tests were designed and conducted. These tests were structured to bracket publicly available government compliance test data for a specific make and model vehicle and to define the vehicle frontal crash response over a broad range of impact speeds. These tests also provide a basis for the analysis and comparison of the results of common damage energy reconstruction technique. A car to car, front to rear, impact test using the same make and model vehicles, was conducted to allow the comparison of crush incurred in two different collision environments at similar Delta V (AV) exposure levels.

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by

Julie White

Vear Inc. - The New Driving force Behind Accident Reconstruction in the Southeast

(Birmingham, Ala.)-The founder of Vista Engineering LLC has joined forces with Robinson and Associates LLC to form Vear Inc., an industry leader in the field of accident reconstruction, announced Raymond G. Thompson, PhD, PE, who will also serve as president of the new company.  Robinson and Associates was founded in Birmingham in 1991 by Edward L. Robinson PhD, who along with Tom Talbot, PhD, PE, and Michael Loop, PhD, will join Vear as senior experts.  Both Robinson and Talbot are considered national authorities and founding practitioners in the field of accident reconstruction.  The company will relocate later this month to Vear's new offices in one of the leading business - high tech incubators in the country, The Innovation Depot located in Birmingham, Ala.

View the Full Press Release

by

James Neptune

A Method for determining Accident Specific Crush Stiffness Coefficients

Engineers are often asked to perform an accident reconstruction when there are neither published stiffness coefficients for the side structure of the target
vehicle nor crash test data from which to determine the stiffness. Fortunately, published stiffness coefficients usually are available for the front end structure of the bullet vehicle. This lack of side stiffness data, however, requires an engineer to estimate the stiffness coefficients, A and B, of the target vehicle in order to use the damage analysis portion of the CRASH3
program in a reconstruction of such a traffic accident. Such estimations could be associated with a high potential for inaccuracy.

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by

Seat belt use in 2008 stood at 83 percent, a gain from 82 percent use in 2007. This result is from the National Occupant Protection Use Survey (NOPUS), which provides the only nationwide probability-based observed data on seat belt use in the United States. NOPUS is conducted annually by the National Center for Statistics and Analysis of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. 

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by

Bob Gritzinger

New standards for automotive big brother take effect
in 2012

Until a few weeks ago, Florida attorney Scott Weires was eagerly awaiting delivery of his new Nissan GT-R. But in late August, Weires canceled his order--not because he doesn't want the $82,000 Super Silver supercar he has lusted for since it was first unveiled as a concept seven years ago. Weires says he's uncomfortable with the fact that every GT-R has a recording device strapped to its chassis, an electronic black box that monitors how each owner drives his or her GT-R.

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by

Terry Day