time, speed and distance

Using Time, Speed, Distance to Defeat Arguments of Excessive Speed

     In a car or truck accident case where the parties dispute liability, they usually are disputing the time, speed and distance of the vehicles.

As any accident reconstruction textbook will underscore, people usually overestimate the time it took for a car accident to unfold. In one study, participants who viewed a thirty second event gave an average estimated duration of 150 seconds, 500% longer than it actually took.

This typically works to the advantage of the plaintiffs' car accident lawyer, particularly with respect to speed. Why? Because the longer a visual estimation takes, the slower the vehicle must have been traveling.  

Here is a sample cross:

Q: When you saw the Plaintiff, how far away was he from your vehicle?
A: I'm not sure. I did not have a tape measure.

Q: So you have no idea. You can't even offer an estimate?

A. Maybe 40 yards.
Q: Forty yards? Could it have been 50?
A: I guess so.
Q: Could it have been 60?

A: I don't know. Again, I didn't have a tape measure.

Q: How long was it until impact after you saw the vehicle?

A: Maybe a second.

Then you have to close in and underscore how the defendant is contradicting himself/herself;

Q: The court has taken judicial notice of how far vehicles can travel over time at given speeds. You would agree that at 30 mph a vehicle is traveling at 2 miles per minute.
A: Yes.
Q: And there are 1760 yards in a mile? (The witness is using yards here. If feet, there are 5,280 feet in a mile?)
A: Yes.
Q: So at 30 mph, a vehicle is traveling less than 15 yards per second?

A: I suppose.

Q: So you had maybe four seconds before the impact?

No matter what the answer is to this last question, you have underscored that the defendant's story is woefully inconsistent which substantially diminishes defendant's credibility.

Certainly, you want to look for opportunities to exclude the argument of plaintiff's speed because it was not causally related to the accident or because the lay witness testimony is inadequate to support a finding of contributory negligence because of excessive speed. Argue Myers v. Bright but be prepared for argument that the Maryland Court of Special Appeals opinion in Romero v. Brenes is controlling.

This is a good cheat sheet for time, speed, distance calculations.

1 mile per hour            =          1.4667 feet per second
10 miles per hour         =          14.7 feet per second
20 miles per hour         =          29.3 feet per second
25 miles per hour         =          36.7 feet per second
30 miles per hour         =          44.0 feet per second
35 miles per hour         =          51.3 feet per second
40 miles per hour         =          58.7 feet per second
45 miles per hour         =          66.0 feet per second
50 miles per hour         =          73.3 feet per second
55 miles per hour         =          80.7 feet per second
60 miles per hour         =          88.0 feet per second
65 miles per hour         =          95.3 feet per second

 

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