QuestionHello,
Mark we are litigating a MVA where our client was broadsided by a drunk driver on a small residential street. The speed limit is 25 MPH. Based on the facts provided to us by the LAPD report, we are trying to guess, roughly, how fast the drunk driver was going.
Here are some facts.
1) From the stop sign where the defendant began, to the point of impact is 115 feet + the width of 2-lane intersection, (we are going to measure that soon)
2) Drunk drivers car weighs about 4127 lbs.
3) Our clients car weighs about 3830 lbs.
4) There were skid marks made by drunk driver.
5) The impact launched our clients car 88 feet,(sideways), into another car.
6) Our client was not moving.
I know this is not much information. We plan on hiring an accident reconstructionist expert witness if we need to. At this point we want an "everyman's" rough estimate. Based on these simple facts, we believe there is no way he was going 25 MPH.
Cna you help?
AnswerWay too thin to make a good calculation.
if the drunk had been stopped and accelerated forward at the normal acceleration rate of 5 feet per second squared then he would have attained a speed of only 26 mph.
using a simple momentum calculation for your client going completely sideways, therefore full braking efficiency, the drunk would have to have hit him at 81 mph.
there is a lot of varience there with so little information.
Iwork for NICB now and can't handle your case at this time, but I recommend Mallie Donohoe and his partner Lorne Starks. Worked with them both and they know their stuff.
http://www.dsinvestigations.com/
