'Accident Recreation'
2006
Troy Whitmer
Class of 2006
Accident Photos
Time- 7:30 AM
Date- 2/10/06
Weather- Snow on the road and some overcast
[POINT A] I am driving with traffic at 40MPH in the left westbound lane down E. Hampden Ave. The hill I am coming down has a pitch grade of 5.59%, and for reference I-70 coming out of the mountains has signs warning of 6% grades, and runaway truck lanes. Traffic is light, and the lane next to me is clear for over a hundred feet. As can be seen in the on-scene evidence images, there are clear tracks signifying the left and middle lane, the right is scarcely touched and therefore still quite snowy. As I am driving down the hill Ms. D begins to pull out into the eastbound lanes of Hampden, crossing them to make a left hand turn to the westbound side. [POINT B] As Ms. D drives into the roadway I begin to apply brakes. Ms. D rides between the middle and left lane then begins to drift, without signaling, into the left. I try to brake, but slide on the snow, with the pitch now at 3.49%, and we collide. [POINT C] My front right corner makes contact with her left rear bumper and my vehicles' course is shifted so I clip the curb at point D. We both drift to a stop in the left bound lane. We spoke with an Aurora officer who left soon after a Sherrif, Officer Gary Moore, arrived on scene. After an hour wait for Colorado State Patrol Office Moore instructed us to file an accident report, and informed us that if he were within his jurisdiction that he would cite Ms. D at fault for failing to yeild to straight traffic. Afterwards, Ms. D's uncle, Wayne, suggested we take care of the accident without involving insurance and police. I filed an online accident report within 10 minutes of returning home.
Date- 2/10/06
Weather- Snow on the road and some overcast
[POINT A] I am driving with traffic at 40MPH in the left westbound lane down E. Hampden Ave. The hill I am coming down has a pitch grade of 5.59%, and for reference I-70 coming out of the mountains has signs warning of 6% grades, and runaway truck lanes. Traffic is light, and the lane next to me is clear for over a hundred feet. As can be seen in the on-scene evidence images, there are clear tracks signifying the left and middle lane, the right is scarcely touched and therefore still quite snowy. As I am driving down the hill Ms. D begins to pull out into the eastbound lanes of Hampden, crossing them to make a left hand turn to the westbound side. [POINT B] As Ms. D drives into the roadway I begin to apply brakes. Ms. D rides between the middle and left lane then begins to drift, without signaling, into the left. I try to brake, but slide on the snow, with the pitch now at 3.49%, and we collide. [POINT C] My front right corner makes contact with her left rear bumper and my vehicles' course is shifted so I clip the curb at point D. We both drift to a stop in the left bound lane. We spoke with an Aurora officer who left soon after a Sherrif, Officer Gary Moore, arrived on scene. After an hour wait for Colorado State Patrol Office Moore instructed us to file an accident report, and informed us that if he were within his jurisdiction that he would cite Ms. D at fault for failing to yeild to straight traffic. Afterwards, Ms. D's uncle, Wayne, suggested we take care of the accident without involving insurance and police. I filed an online accident report within 10 minutes of returning home.
These are images from on scene at the accident, taken with a Nokia Cell phone.
This is a straight on angle of my front right corner.
My car from a profile angle
The front of my car.
Ms. D's rear left bumper
Images of my vehicle upon return to my house
My vehicle's front right corner
The front right corner in profile
An image of the rear left hubcap that broke upon collision with the curb.
Diagramed images of the intersection
These images were originally designed for print, and are fairly high resolution.A highlight of the two makeshift lanes, and their clear visibilty.
The angle measure of the intersection.
Point "B" angle grade, the hill right before the intersection.
Point A angle grade, the top of the hill I was driving down during the accident.
A diagramed photograph of the intersection where the accident occured.
A diagram showing where the accident occured.
The intersection diagramed from an angle looking up the road from past the accident site.
A diagram looking from point 'A' at the top of the hill.
Digital Reenactment Videos
This is a video of the accident, virtually reproduced. The westbound lanes have been matted with snow, taken from images of snow on the same area of road on E. Hampden Ave. to simulate road conditions on Friday, February 10th. There are two versions of this video, the Windows .AVI, or the half-quality Quicktime .MOV, however they are the same video.
