Loss of Control Accidents

       Graphing accident rates and vehicle weight ratio's where cars vary from 10% lighter on the rear to cars that are 30% lighter on the rear The figures come from An Analysis of Traffic Deaths By Vehicle Type and Model. Available from ACEEE publications. http://www.aceee.org/pubs/t021full.pdf    and from An Accident Analysis and Prevention The effects of vehicle model and driver behaviour on risk available from Elsevier publications http://sitemaker.umich.edu/mhross/files/wenzel_ross_2005.pdf .

It is common to see news reports involving vehicles on loose gravel. Often the vehicles are 10 to 30% lighter on the rear than the front.   single vehicle loss of control accidents " The North Dakota Highway Patrol says the man was heading north on a gravel road about 2 1/2 miles southwest of Tolna about 9:15 a.m. when he lost control of the car, entered the east ditch and overturned. eastbound on County Highway M about 10 pm when he went onto the gravel on the shoulder, lost control , spun across the roadway, entered the opposite ditch, slid down an embankment and into some small trees . Peters says it seems the driver lost control when the road turned from bitumen to gravel who has not yet been identified, was driving a 2006 Chevy Cobalt northbound on a gravel roadway about 2 1/2 miles southwest of Tolna when he lost control of the vehicle, entered the ditch and rolled. A Honda Accord car was severely damaged in a crash after the dri...

Importance of tire placement to reduce loss of control vehicle accidents Front Wheel Drive Stability Test Video  I have 2 identical cars and several sets of tires with different treads which allows for testing    " I did not think I was going too fast". A common remark from people losing control of front wheel drive vehicles. What the average person and some experts are not aware of is that there can be as high as 950 pounds or more weight on the front axle of their vehicle than the back. So a car that feels like a limousine on the front holds like a golf cart on the back     A 3000lb car with a weight ratio of 65% front weight and 35% rear weight will weigh 1950lb on the front and 1050lb on the rear. After you use 10 gallon of fuel from the rear tank one of the front wheels has as much traction as both rear combined.      If you analyze single vehicle accidents you will find most of them ha...

Graphing single vehicle loss of control accidents                                 How important is Rear traction Your chances of having an Accident There are no recognized tire authorities that make the statement " the best traction tires on a front wheel drive should be on the fron t " Film footage has shown that in adverse conditions the rear tires on a front wheel drive are more important than the front. Rotating the best tires to the front for winter driving is not a good idea ! Less weight on the back or less traction is the leading cause of loss of control accidents. By increasing rear traction by 10% you can dramatically improve handling. The larger the variation in weight difference front to rear the harder it is for the driver to predict a safe speed and the harder it is to ...

There is much debate over why so many loss of control accidents, with many varying opinions from experts and the public.   But what if we take everything out of the equation but the car? The most common scenario involving loss of control is a vehicle traveling on an icy road and a front wheel coming into contact with a ridge of slush or hard snow and the vehicle starting to pivot out of control. We know the point at which the vehicle will start to pivot and that is when one front wheel has more traction than both rear wheels combined. 67% front weight to 33% rear weight.     To understand how a vehicle will get to this point we need to understand that upon impact with the slush or snow weight is shifted to the front of the vehicle making the front of the vehicle heavier and the rear of the vehicle lighter. The calculation for weight shift is (G force, percentage weight of the car x height of centre of gravity) divided by the wheelbase. So a half G force on an...