Pedestrian crashes are one of the most frequent types of injurious crashes in urban areas. Because of their unique and challenging nature, special techniques are required to investigate and reconstruct these incidents. Pedestrian crashes are broken down into two main categories, each with their own techniques required to properly investigate them; forward projection crashes and wrap trajectory crashes.
Forward projection crashes are where the vehicle's leading edge is higher than the pedestrian's center of mass. This causes the pedestrian to be projected forward from the vehicle collision. Wrap trajectory crashes are where a vehicle's leading edge is lower than the pedestrian's center of mass. This causes the pedestrian to wrap up onto the vehicle and depart off of it as the vehicle passes the under the pedestrian.
Crash Tech Reconstructionists are school trained and certified from the University of North Florida to handle the unique and challenging circumstances that these collisions present. Some of the areas Crash Tech investigators are trained in with regards to pedestrian crashes include:
- Pedestrian crash problems
- Pedestrian impact dynamics and kinematics
- Collection of data
- Pedestrian conspicuity
- Perception and Reaction time/human factors
- Reconstruction techniques
- Hit and run investigation techniques
