No Useful Information Revealed in Loss-of-Control Collisions
Officials continue to provide no useful information with respect to recent collisions in southern Ontario. For example several significant loss-of-collisions have occurred recently but even the most minimal information about vehicle travel directions have not been revealed. An important issue is that Electronic Stability Control (ESC) have been mandated in new Canadian vehicles for over 10 years yet recent collisions suggest questionable vehicle motions, as if ESC has not been successful in preventing vehicle rotation.
In the morning of December 22, 2022 a single vehicle collision was reported on Amiens Road just west of London. The single vehicle collision involved the death of two persons while three others were sent to hospital two with life-threatening injuries. While the roadway remained closed, basic information such as the travel direction of the vehicle was not revealed. Long distance photos taken with powerful zoom lens were shown in various news media articles and these showed that the collision occurred near two railway crossings. Yet no mention was made whether these crossings had any relationship to the loss-of-control collision. In fact CTV News quoted one of the investigating OPP officers who made no mention of the railway crossing:
“What our investigators will be looking into, they’ll be looking at speed, they’ll be looking at road conditions, they’ll be looking at weather conditions, that sort of thing to try to figure out what has happened here,” said OPP Const. Jeff Hare. (CTV News London)
Even 10 days later no further information has been revealed about the basic facts surrounding this collision. This led Gorski Consulting to attend the collision site on December 29th or about a week after the occurrence. This inspection confirmed that the involved vehicle, a Ford Escape SUV, was southbound on Amiens Road. The site is shown in the Googlemaps views below.
Important physical evidence would have been lost by the time this site inspection was conducted. What evidence remained indicated that the Ford Escape crossed the 2nd railway crossing and then rotated, out-of-control into the northbound (opposing lane), rotating counter-clockwise, then returning to the southbound lane and impacting the small trees on the west roadside. The tree impact occurred about 100 metres from the 2nd railway crossing.
Evidence of vehicle rotation is determined by noting the presence of yaw marks on a pavement. But such evidence cannot be seen well when a road surface is wet. Unfortunately the road surface was wet at the time of our examination and this was beyond our control. Alternatively, such tire marks can be seen readily on painted surfaces such as the white edge lines of a lane or the yellow centre-line of a roadway. In the present case two sets of such yaw marks were identified along the centre-line of the road approximately halfway between the 2nd railway crossing and the impact with the trees. An example of such tire marks is shown in the photo below.
Because we can confirm the presence of this pre-impact rotation we know that the vehicle likely struck the trees with its driver’s side. This side of the vehicle was never shown in any news media photos. And police provided absolutely no information about the collision what-so-ever. The existence of this rotation should commence the suspicions of any unbiased investigator that the 2nd railway crossing should be considered as a factor in the vehicle’s loss-of-control.
OPP investigators should have been able to access the vehicle’s event data recorder and a collision record should have been available. Typically such an EDR report will contain detailed information about, at least, 5 seconds of pre-crash events. For example if the Escape was travelling at an average speed of 100 km/h prior to the impact then it would travel about 28 metres every second. Thus the available EDR data should capture at least 140 metres of travel and this would cover the zone where the Ford Escape crossed over the 2nd railway crossing.
The effects of various road surface conditions on the motions of motor vehicles are not well-known in the police community. Rarely are there any studies initiated in collisions whereby police can make a proper analysis based on objective data. The fact that the Ford Escape was at a major angle when it struck the trees leads to the question why the vehicle’s Electronic Stability Control (ESC) system was unable to keep the vehicle aligned in a forward-pointing direction. Although ESC may not be able to prevent a vehicle from going out of control, its function is to use independent changes to the power at its wheels to make a vehicle point in the direction it is travelling. This may not seem of much help but, in fact, there is more safety in striking something with a vehicle’s front end than with a vehicle’s side. Of course if a vehicle is travelling very quickly and it is partially lifted by some roadway bump for example, there could be very little tire force available to allow the ESC to be effective. So there should be some investigation here as to whether some form of failure occurred.
Another very recent collision occurred in London, Ontario in the morning of January 1, 2023 where a vehicle’s ESC could be in question. It has been reported that another single vehicle collision occurred on Springbank Drive near Duke Street just west of the City’s downtown district. Springbank Drive contains a curve at this location which has seen a number of serious loss-of-control collisions. News media photos of the collision site show that the vehicle struck a large utility pole and there was evidence of direct contact at the rear of the right side of the vehicle. The driver was reported to sustain life-threatening injuries. Looking at the location of the area of direct contact this severity of injury does not appear to match, at least from this very minimal set of facts. However, once again, we see evidence that the involved vehicle must have been in an advanced stage of rotation when the impact occurred and that the ESC may not have been effective in preventing that rotation. If the vehicle has been pointing with its front end when it struck the pole there would typically be a greater chance of preventing serious injury.
These comments point to the continual lack of information that reaches the general public about collision events that endanger them. It remains mystifying that our society places so much importance on secrecy surrounding such events. This secrecy is one of the reasons why the general public remains very ignorant about the causes of injury. Over the decades collisions with similar causes have remained hidden, thus preventing any positive influence on improving their tragic outcomes.
Cyclist Gender Observed on or Adjacent to Roads in London Ontario In 2022
Many municipalities have increased their documentation of cyclist volumes on their roads and London, Ontario is no exception. The general consensus is that cyclist volumes are increasing. But beyond this basic fact there is little additional data being made publicly available.
How many cyclist collisions are occurring. How many injuries occur to cyclists. Where are cyclists located when they are involved in a collision. What characteristics do cyclists possess. How do cyclists ride on or adjacent to urban roadways. All these facts are important. Yet these facts are unavailable.
Gorski Consulting has been making observations of cyclists in the vicinity of London, Ontario for over 10 years. As a result of our involvement in collision reconstructions we have had the opportunity to conduct detailed, multi-video camera analyses at the sites of those collisions in order to develop data that could be used in a specific collision primarily for settlement of claims in civil litigation. As a result of these video analyses observations of cyclists also became possible because video simply captured every traffic unit in the site that is studied. Thus it has been possible to return to some of these earlier collision reconstruction studies and gather information about cyclists. These observations have been supplemented recently by our own direct studies of cyclists. Thus a substantial body of data is being assembled on cyclist issues in London and its vicinity.
One of the ongoing cycling studies has involved still-photo documentation of cyclists riding on or in the vicinity of roadways in London. We have just completed the calculations for the year 2022 where a total of 1083 cyclist observations were made. We will be reporting on some of these data in the near future. Some of the results may be surprising to some.
For example the numbers of male versus female cyclists has been of continued interest. In observations from the year 2022, the gender of 53 cyclists could not be determined. Thus this resulted in a study of the remaining 1030 observations. Of those 1030 cyclists where gender could be determined there was a vastly higher number of male cyclists than female. For example, of the 1030 observations, 895 were males and only 135 were females. This results in a percentage of females of only 13.11 %.
Given that one would think that one could purchase a cycle equally regardless of whether one was male or female, this imbalance of vastly higher numbers of males interesting. Yet this percentage has not changed much throughout the 10 years of our observations.
So what is the cause of this discrepancy? And how will this affect the ability to increase cyclist ridership in the future?
Highway 401 Blizzard – When Will Cable Barrier Repairs Be Done?
The blizzard that came through southern Ontario on December 23, 2022 tested the resources of all official personnel. Numerous collisions occurred throughout the region and roads had to be closed, including Highways 401 and 402.
Now, as some sense of normalcy is returning, the issues of clean-up and repairs come into focus. For example there have been many collisions described in the news media and many were mentioned along Highway 401. Presumably the median cable barrier that runs between Tilbury and London has been damaged at many locations.
During storm events the cable barrier becomes damaged and, to function properly, it must be repaired. When it is not repaired there is a likelihood that a subsequent collision might occur where a vehicle strikes the previously-damaged barrier. Not only does this make the barrier less effective but in some instances the damaged barrier can be more dangerous than if no barrier existed at all. So repair of the barrier needs to be done as quickly as possible.
In an article posted to the Gorski Consulting website on September 5, 2022 (“Highway 401 Damaged Cable Barrier – Continued, Unadvertised Safety Problem”) we described how drives along Highway 401 on May 7 and September 2, 2022 demonstrated several areas where the cable barrier was damaged and unrepaired. In the September 5, 2022 article we made the following observation:
“In summary impact damage to the cable barrier on Highway 401 caused the barrier cables to be loose for a distance of 2.1 kilometres west of Furnival Road. Two additional impacts to the cable barrier between Dunborough Road and Coyne Road meant that an additional 3.6 kilometres of cable was left loose. Thus a total of 5.7 kilometres of cable were observed to be loose in the 68 kilometre distance between Colonel Talbot Road and Victoria Road. Stated differently, 8.4 percent of the total cable length was observed to be in a state of disrepair.”
What is the present status of the cable barrier? How many impacts have occurred and what length of the barrier remains damaged? There should be an answer to this question that is publicly visible. Yet neither Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation, nor the OPP, and not even the various news-reporting organizations have provided that answer. It must rely on private individuals to drive along Highway 401 and make observations. And even then there is no way of disseminating that information to the wider public domain.
Whatever damage has been done, how long will it be before that damage is repaired? Will it be springtime? Thousands of users of Highway 401 are placed in danger when these repairs are delayed.
While there is considerable propaganda using the Vision Zero motif, and claims that we will reach zero transportation deaths in the not-too-distant future, it remains nothing more than propaganda when those words are not followed up by concrete action.
Multi-Fatal Rollover on Amiens Road West of London Ontario
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) have not released any photos of the collision site where at least 2 persons were killed when a Ford Escape rolled over on Amiens Road just west of London Ontario in the mid-morning of Thursday December 22, 2022. The photos that are available are the property of various news organizations that will not allow their photos to be shown except through their outlets. The difficulty with this result is that crucial information cannot be fully discussed with respect to the possible causes of the crash.
The crash site is close to a Canadian National Railway (CNR) crossing. Amiens Road is also a lightly travelled road that would not garner the attention of road maintenance personnel in comparison to more travelled highways. Also a Ford Escape is known to be a vehicle with a higher centre-of-gravity, narrower track width and a shorter wheelbase compared to other light, passenger vehicles. Combining these facts unbiased investigators should consider the involvement of the railway crossing as a possible contributor to the Escape’s loss-of-control.
Unfortunately the OPP are the only entity that is allowed on the collision site to conduct their investigation. No one else has the opportunity to follow-up with an independent study should there be questions about the OPP conclusions. This is unfortunate because the OPP have no objective means to evaluate road surface problems that could lead to a vehicle loss-of-control.
At Gorski Consulting there has been an extensive evaluation of road surface conditions and their effect on the motion of a vehicle. The Road Data page of this website contains the details of numerous tests that have been performed throughout south-western Ontario that have documented the response of a test vehicle to a variety of road surface conditions. More specifically testing has been done on railway crossings, bridge junctions and speed bumps that would relate specifically to the current case.
The text below is a summary of a website article posted on the Gorski Consulting website on July 25, 2018. It describes testing that was conducted on a railway crossing on Hardy Road in Brantford, Ontario. This is the type of testing that should be conducted on the Amiens Road site to assess the condition of the railway crossing.
RESULTS FROM TESTING ON CN RAIL CROSSING OF HARDY ROAD IN BRANTFORD ONTARIO
by Zygmunt Gorski | Jul 25, 2018 | News
The results are now in from the testing that was conducted on the CN rail crossing of Hardy Road in Brantford, Ontario.
The Brantford Expositor newspaper had run a story regarding complaints by local residents regarding the “deplorable” condition of the CN rail crossing at Hardy Road in Brantford. Gorski Consulting visited the site on July 23, 2018 and testing was done to determine the effect that the crossing had on the motion of a test vehicle.
There was considerable longitudinal and lateral motion caused to the test vehicle travelling eastbound at just 28 km/h. The standard deviation of the Longitudinal Rotation was 0.0979 radians per seconds, while the standard deviation of the Lateral Rotation was 0.1744 radians per second. These values can be compared to the data shown on the Road Data webpage of this Gorski Consulting website.
The motion caused when travelling westbound was not as dramatic.
For the westbound test the standard deviation in the Longitudinal Rotation was 0.0642 radians per second whereas the standard deviation in the Lateral Rotation was 0.0985 radians per second.
Three tests were performed in each direction.
How Fast Was That Car Going?
The internet is full of experts who use false information to confuse, and sometime defraud the public. The realm of collision analysis is no exception. A common theme is to use false evidence to support a false claim. There are many examples where collision evidence is misinterpreted, sometimes on purpose. The classic case is one of using the existence of collision damage as an indicator of collision severity and vehicle speed.
The above photo was posted on the Boston Fire Department Twitter account showing a recent impact of a building at Corinth St. Roslindale. The massive destruction of the building caused many viewers to be amazed that a car could cause so much damage. This naturally leads to the belief that damage must equate to massive severity of impact and an incredibly high speed of the vehicle. It only requires a quick look into the debris to observe that the front end of the car shows little in the way of rearward crush. For example the right front fender appears to be relatively undamaged. There is damage to the windshield and roof of the vehicle but that is mainly due to the debris falling down from the façade of the building.
There is a simple relationship involved here that Sir Issac Newton encapsulated centuries ago: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In short, in an impact of two objects, the force applied to one partner must be equal to the force applied to the other partner. In the above example of the building collapse the force applied to the building must be equal to the force applied to the car. When we see the obvious evidence of major damage to an object we do not know the object’s properties. A building may be very strong in terms of holding itself upright but it may be brittle and may not be able to withstand the vibrations of a lateral force. The evaluation must involve the examination of the collision partner, the car, to determine the magnitude of the force that was involved.
In the world of motor vehicle collision reconstruction we know quite a lot about the structural properties of motor vehicles. For example Federal Transportation agencies routinely collide vehicles into immovable barriers. And with the advent of event data recorders (“Black Boxes”) there is a lot of data that allows comparison between visible damage, change-in-velocity and acceleration. So in the above case, even without detailed data, we can look at the damage to the car to see if it supports our belief that the building sustained a tremendous impact.
Clearly, even from this very cursory view, the damage to the building does not match the relatively mild damage to the car. The damage to the building is likely the result of the gravitational force, the normal force, which collapsed the building when the foundation of the bricks. etc, was disturbed. Yet, to the inexperienced eye, all it needs is some “expert” to fool the general public into thinking this must involve a vehicle travelling at a tremendously high speed. This is just one example where the public is continually fooled into believing all sorts of delusions by persons willing to take it down that delusional path. The internet has provided the means by which millions of viewers can receive the same delusional message and be influenced by it.
The moral of the story: buyer beware. The public must be better at critically evaluating what it is swallowing.
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