NCJ Number
115554
Journal
Law Enforcement Technology Volume: 16 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1989) Pages: 30-33
Date Published
1989
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article reviews the technology and training currently used and projected to enhance police accident reconstruction skills.
Abstract
Institutes that specialize in training for accident reconstruction are the Northwestern Traffic Institute (NUTI) in Evanston, Ill.; the Institute of Police Traffic Management (IPTM) in Jacksonville, Fla.; and the National Police Institute (NPI) in Warrensburg, Mo. Classes offered by IPTM, NUTI, NPI and many State police and highway patrol training facilities provide training in an array of traffic-oriented subjects. These include at-scene and advanced traffic accident investigation (AI); traffic homicide and technical AI; motorcycle, heavy truck, and commercial vehicle AI; and microcomputer applications to AI. After reviewing the evolution of computer software used in traffic accident reconstruction, this article lists recent books and reference manuals on accident reconstruction. The article concludes with descriptions of current and projected equipment for measuring a car's speed at the time of an accident, such as the VC-200 accelerometer, which is a computer that measures a simulation vehicle's speed when brakes are applied, the braking distance, how long it took to complete the slide, and both the peak and average drag factor of the roadway.