Crash Scene Investigation - the Science of Motion: applying the Year 10 science curriculum to reduce crash outcomes

The South Australia Police Road Safety Centre has developed a 90 minute Year 10 road safety product "Crash Scene Investigation - The science of motion", which is based upon the middle school science curriculum ‘science of motion’ unit of work. Traditionally, road safety education (RSE) lesson plans are written to address the required learning outcomes and then links to the school curriculum are identified. For some schools, there is no other nexus with the student’s education and RSE is delivered as a ‘stand-alone’ product. The ‘science of motion’ is a standard Year 10 unit of work under the National Schools Curriculum. Crash Scene Investigation is delivered as a lesson within this larger unit of work and provides natural world examples of how the formulae learned in the classroom are applied to practical, vehicle crash, scenarios. The presentation uses Newton's three Laws of motion to explain vehicle and occupant behaviour in a collision. The formula for kinetic energy and its crash implications is explained, as are other formulae such as the speed of light and the co-efficient of friction. Starting with the curriculum and then identifying road safety links, represents a fresh approach to designing RSE programs for secondary school students. Being the age group most likely to crash and the group most likely to drive older vehicles, the package uses current ANCAP crashworthiness research and (authorised) video footage to demonstrate how vehicles respond to collision forces, including how the structure of a vehicle can have the capacity to prevent energy being transferred to the occupants. Crash scene reconstruction software is used to create an animation of a crash, by using data obtained from the scene and applying basic laws of physics. A driving simulator is used to allow students the opportunity to safely participate in a number of driving tasks, whilst being distracted. The session is interactive and, through discussion, encourages students to develop social competence and resilience rather than the session being purely information based.

• Record URL:
  http://acrs.org.au/publications/acrs-conference-papers/acrs-database/
• Authors:
  • Illingworth, J
• Conference:
  • Australasian Road Safety Conference, 1st, 2015, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
• Publication Date: 2015-10

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 4p
• Monograph Title: Taking action together: 1st Australasian Road Safety Conference (ARSC2015), 14-16 October, Gold Coast, Queensland

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Adolescents; Crash reconstruction; Distraction; Driver education; Driver training; Drivers; Driving simulators; Education; Physics; Young adults
• Uncontrolled Terms: Safe systems (road users)
• Geographic Terms: Australia; South Australia
• ATRI Terms: Crash reconstruction; Distraction; Driver education; Driver training; Driving simulator; Physics; Young driver
• ITRD Terms: 1621: Reconstruction (accid); 1680: Simulator (driving)
• Subject Areas: Education and Training; Safety and Human Factors; I82: Accidents and Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01591338
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: ARRB
• Files: ITRD, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 26 2016 9:17AM