Elk or large animal Collisions

Sewelli · Newbie

Elk or large animal Collisions

BlueB · Veteran Member

Never dealt with an 'elk-acc' but common reasoning would suggest the effects would be somewhat similar to impacting any other semi-deformable movable mass of about 2-300Kgs. Discussing whether the object was carried, vaulted or run over may come into the discussion as well. The weight ratio of the SUV is probably the biggest issue to discuss.

Sewelli · Newbie

The vehicle striking the elk went on to a headon accident, and of course I have it 3 years later so the vehicle is not available and I have only poor night photos, but my best estimate is the impact was full-on with the body and it was carried/pushed off the side of the road. Of course the question of airbag deployment dependent on the particular algorithm for that vehicle, which is of course is propietary. The vehicle was a 2001 Dodge Durango, weight with driver approx 4750 lbs or 2100+ kg.

BlueB · Veteran Member

Knowing that others are probably asking the same question. The vehicle is about 8-10x greater mass than the elk. We could estimate the veh momentum, but on th elimited info you have, estimaiting the true influence of the elk could be difficult to quantify and even more difficult to justify. I could come up with some great experiments to replicate the scenario/s but can we would need a kind volunteer who no longer wants to keep their 01 Durango.

omegacrash · Veteran Member

In my 24 years of law enforcement I have had my share of car vs. deer accidents and have yet to see an airbag deployment with one. But, then again, a deer weighs about half of that of an elk. It would be interesting if the EDR was downloadable to see what was recorded but I doubt that it is. This is going to take some looking into. This is a very interesting case and I am curious to see how it works out.

omegacrash · Veteran Member

OK. I did some work on this last night. I had to make a couple of assumptions such as the speed of the vehicle before impact but you will see the speed range I used made little difference in the delta V.
Weight of the Elk (Target) 600 LBS
Weight of the Dodge Durango (Bullet) 4800 LBS. Curb weight + passenger of about 200 lbs.
Speed of the bullet vehicle - I used speeds of 35, 45, and 55 MPH at impact
Delta V of Bullet at 55 MPH - 6.11MPH
Delta V of Bullet at 45 MPH - 5.00MPH
Delta V of Bullet at 35 MPH - 3.89 MPH
If you want the work sheet, give me a fax number or your e-mail address and I will get it to you.
This probably is not enough of a Delta V to set off an airbag so the airbag most likely went off with the impact to the vehicle. I can also vary the weight of the elk if you want and give you the info on this as well.
Craig

Sewelli · Newbie

Thanks for comments, I will contact you offline. I agree deer do not set off airbags, but I think elk is different story, size of a small MC, the approx speed was 55 and 600 is a good weight for elk, it was a cow so could be a little less, along with your veh weight looks right as well. The vehicles are long gone so no EDR, and as a 2001 I dont believe even if we had it, that the CDR software works for that year, as least it is not shown in my tables. I also have some EDR activation data suggesting activation with Delta V as low as 3-6 MPH.