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A type of Event Data Recorder (EDR) was developed which can detect a crash accident automatically, and record the vehicle's motion and driver's maneuver during a pre-defined time period before and after the accident. The data items of the EDR included the acceleration, yaw rate, vehicle speed, engine rpm, braking application, steering and several digital inputs for recording driver's maneuver. To detect the accident-related-crash, it is important to understand characteristics of the crash signal, which are much different from those of normal driving. Therefore, analytical considerations should be taken in designing pre-filtering circuits and selecting appropriate parameters for identifying crash accidents. And, it is necessary to select proper combination of motion sensors and design proper pre-filtering circuits in order to describe the vehicle's motion.

A planar model for the mechanics of a vehicle-pedestrian collision is presented, analyzed and compared to experimental data. It takes into account the significant physical parameters of wrap and forward projection collisions and is suitable for solution using mathematics software or spreadsheets. Parameters related to the pedestrian and taken into account include horizontal distance traveled between primary and secondary impacts with the vehicle, launch angle, center-of-gravity height at launch, the relative forward speed of the pedestrian to the car at launch, distance from launch to a ground impact, distance from ground impact to rest and pedestrian-ground drag factor. Vehicle and roadway parameters include postimpact, constant-velocity vehicle travel distance, continued vehicle travel distance to rest with uniform deceleration and relative distance between rest positions of vehicle and pedestrian. The model is presented in two forms.