17-08-2010 Physics of speed-Key text

Published by

Australian Academy
of Science

KEY TEXT
Fatal impact – the physics of speeding cars
This topic is sponsored by NRMA – ACT Road Safety Trust.

Recent studies show that driving even a few kilometres per hour above
the speed limit greatly increases the risk of an accident.

Many of us cheat a little when driving. We figure that while the speed
limit is 60 kilometres per hour the police won't pull us over if we sit on 65.
So we happily let the speedo hover just above the speed limit, unaware
that by so doing we are greatly magnifying our chances of crashing.

Using data from actual road crashes, scientists at the University of

Adelaide estimated the relative risk of a car becoming involved in a
casualty crash – a car crash in which people are killed or hospitalised –
for cars travelling at or above 60 kilometres/hour. They found that the
risk doubled for every 5 kilometres/hour above 60 kilometres/hour. Thus,
a car travelling at 65 kilometres/hour was twice as likely to be involved in
a casualty crash as one travelling at 60. For a car travelling at 70
kilometres/hour, the risk increased fourfold. For speeds below 60
kilometres/hour the likelihood of a fatal crash can be expected to be
correspondingly reduced.

Reaction time

One reason for this increased risk is reaction time – the time it takes
between a person perceiving a danger and reacting to it. Consider this
example. Two cars of equal weight and braking ability are travelling along
the same road. Car 1, travelling at 65 kilometres/hour, is overtaking Car
2, which is travelling at 60 kilometres/hour. A child on a bicycle – let's call
him Sam – emerges from a driveway just as the two cars are side-by-
side. The drivers both see the child at the same time and both take 1.5
seconds before they fully apply the brakes. In those few moments, Car 1
travels 27.1 metres and Car 2 travels 25.0 metres. The difference of 2.1
metres might seem relatively small, but combined with other factors it
could mean the difference between life and death for Sam.

The figure of 1.5 seconds is the reaction time of average drivers. A

driver who is distracted (eg, listening to loud music, using a mobile phone
or has drunk alcohol) may take as long as 3 seconds to react.

Braking distance

The braking distance (the distance a car travels before stopping when
the brakes are applied) depends on a number of variables. For example,
the slope or grade of the roadway is important – a car will stop more
quickly if it is going uphill because gravity will help. The frictional
resistance between the road and the car's tyres is also important – a car
with new tyres on a dry road will be less likely to skid and will stop more
quickly than one with worn tyres on a wet road. If slope and frictional
resistance are equal, the factor that has most influence on braking
distance is initial speed.

The formula used to calculate braking distance can be derived from a

science.org.au/nova/058/058key.htm 1/4
17-08-2010 Physics of speed-Key text
general equation of physics:

where Vf is the final velocity, V0 is the initial velocity, a is the rate of

deceleration and d is the distance travelled during deceleration. Since
we know that Vf will be zero when the car has stopped, this equation can
be re-written as:

From this we can see that braking distance is proportional to the square
of the speed – which means that it increases considerably as speed
increases. If we assume that a is 10 metres per second per second and
assume that the road is flat and the braking systems of the two cars are
equally effective, we can now calculate braking distance for cars 1 and 2
in our example. For car 1, d = 16.3 metres, while for Car 2, d = 13.9
metres.

Adding reaction distance to braking distance, the stopping distance for

Car 1 is 27.1 + 16.3 = 43.4 metres. For Car 2, stopping distance is 25 +
13.9 = 38.9 metres. Car 1 therefore takes 4.5 more metres to stop than
Car 2, a 12 per cent increase.

We can now see why Car 1 is more likely than Car 2 to hit Sam. If Sam is
40 metres from the cars when the drivers see him, Car 2 will stop just in
time. Car 1, though, will plough straight into him. By re-writing the first
equation, we can calculate the speed at which the collision occurs:

(where d = 40 metres minus the reaction distance of 27.1 metres = 12.9

metres).

Thus, the impact occurs at about 30 kilometres/hour, probably fast

enough to kill Sam. If the car's initial speed was 70 kilometres/hour, the
impact velocity would be 45 kilometres/hour, more than fast enough to
kill.

These calculations assume that the driver has an average reaction time.
If the driver is distracted and has a longer than average reaction time,
then he or she may hit Sam without having applied the brakes at all.

Impact on a pedestrian

Because the pedestrian, Sam, is so much lighter than the car, he has
little effect upon its speed. The car, however, very rapidly increases
Sam's speed from zero to the impact speed of the vehicle. The time
taken for this is about the time it takes for the car to travel a distance
equal to Sam's thickness – about 20 centimetres. The impact speed of
Car 1 in our example is about 8.1 metres per second, so the impact lasts
only about 0.025 seconds. Sam must be accelerated at a rate of about
320 metres per second per second during this short time. If Sam weighs
50 kilograms, then the force required is the product of his mass and his
acceleration – about 16,000 newtons or about 1.6 tonnes weight.

Since the impact force on Sam depends on the impact speed divided by
the impact time, it increases as the square of the impact speed. The
impact speed, as we have seen above, increases rapidly as the travel
speed increases, because the brakes are unable to bring the car to a
science.org.au/nova/058/058key.htm 2/4
17-08-2010 Physics of speed-Key text
stop in time.

Once a pedestrian has been hit by a car, the probability of serious injury
or death depends strongly on the impact speed. Reducing the impact
speed from 60 to 50 kilometres/hour almost halves the likelihood of
death, but has relatively little influence on the likelihood of injury, which
remains close to 100 per cent. Reducing the speed to 40
kilometres/hour, as in school zones, reduces the likelihood of death by a
factor of 4 compared with 60 kilometres/hour, and of course the
likelihood of an impact is also dramatically reduced.

Modern cars with low streamlined bonnets are more pedestrian-friendly

than upright designs, such as those found in 4-wheel drive vehicles,
since the pedestrian is thrown upwards towards the windscreen with a
corresponding slowing of the impact. Cars with bullbars are particularly
unfriendly to pedestrians and to other vehicles, since they are designed
to protect their own occupants with little regard to others.

Impact on a large object

If, instead of hitting a pedestrian, the car hits a tree, a brick wall, or some
other heavy object, then the car's energy of motion (kinetic energy) is all
dissipated when the car body is bent and smashed. Since the kinetic
energy (E) is given by

E = (1/2) mass × speed2

it increases as the square of the impact velocity. Driving a very heavy

vehicle does not lessen the effect of the impact much because, although
there is more metal to absorb the impact energy, there is also more
energy to be absorbed.

Less control

At higher speeds cars become more difficult to manoeuvre, a fact partly

explained by Newton's First Law of Motion. This states that if the net
force acting on an object is zero then the object will either remain at rest
or continue to move in a straight line with no change in speed. This
resistance of an object to changing its state of rest or motion is called
inertia. It is inertia that will keep you moving when the car you are in
comes to a sudden stop (unless you are restrained by a seatbelt).

To counteract inertia when navigating a bend in the road we need to

apply a force – which we do by turning the steering wheel to change the
direction of the tyres. This makes the car deviate from the straight line in
which it is travelling and go round the bend. The force between the tyres
and the road increases with increasing speed and with the sharpness of
the turn (Force = mass × velocity squared, divided by the radius of the
turn), increasing the likelihood of an uncontrolled skid. High speed also
increases the potential for driver error caused by over- or under-steering
(turning the steering wheel too far, thereby 'cutting the corner', or not far
enough, so that the car hits the outside shoulder of the road).

Killer speed

All these factors show that the risk of being involved in a casualty crash
increases dramatically with increasing speed. In the University of
Adelaide study referred to earlier, this was certainly true in zones where
the speed limit was 60 kilometres/hour: the risk doubled with every 5
kilometres/hour above the speed limit. A corresponding decrease is to be
expected in zones with lower speed limits.

science.org.au/nova/058/058key.htm 3/4
17-08-2010 Physics of speed-Key text
Is the risk worth it? In our hypothetical case, the driver of Car 2, travelling
at the speed limit, would have had a nasty scare, but nothing more. The
driver of Car 1, driving just 5 kilometres/hour above the limit, would not
be so lucky: whether Sam had lived or died, the driver would face legal
proceedings, a possible jail sentence, and a whole lifetime of guilt.

CREDITS

Printer-friendly version of complete topic

Page updated October 2003.

The Australian Foundation for Science is a supporter of Nova.

This topic is sponsored by NRMA – ACT Road Safety Trust.

© Australian Academy of Science

science.org.au/nova/058/058key.htm 4/4