News and Information
Another Questionable Collision Involving Elgin OPP Police Cruiser
I have written several articles in the past two or three years involving collisions with the Elgin County Detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). All of this stemmed from my being retained several years ago to defend an elderly driver who was charged by Elgin OPP even though, from my investigation, it was the police who were responsible for the collision consequences. Travelling at speeds of 169 to 200 km/h they failed to provide sufficient warning to the elderly woman and one of their unmarked cruisers collided with her vehicle. In short she was also convicted which irritated me greatly considering my evidence was never allowed to be given at trial. Never-the-less I have tried to keep an open mind.
Many collisions later that mind is becoming difficult to remain open.
Early Sunday morning we had another incident of questionable circumstances where yet another Elgin County OPP cruiser was involved in a high speed loss-of-control collision. This time it was reported that Constable Edward Phillipo, 39, was heading north on Union Road "when his cruiser left the road". The only other reported facts about the collision is that the Constable had to be extricated from his vehicle and was sent to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
And now the real story...
Even two days after the collision I was able to document tiremarks that led to the final rest position (FRP) of the vehicle, over a total distance of about 121 metres. In fact, the first tire marks that I could see indicated that the cruiser was already in an advanced stage of loss-of-control such that there must have been many metres of additional deceleration. Furthermore the Constable was extremely lucky that the cruiser rotated 180 degrees and its rear end impacted a tree thus driving that bumper forward into the back seat (as reported by a bystander). If the cruiser had hit the tree with the driver's side there would have been no protection from any air bags or seat belts and the officer would likely have been killed. Meer luck. Interestingly, the struck tree sported, imbedded, red taillights lens at about my eye height, indicative of the height at which the vehicle was in the air even 112 metres from its initially visible tiremarks.
Even if I had assigned a deceleration rate of 0.4g over that full distance of 121 metres (including the major tree impact) I would still arrive at a minimum speed of 111 km/h in an 80 km/h zone. Obviously the actual speed was nowhere near that value.
Here are some photos of the site evidence.
The above view is looking north on Union Road as we approach the curve where Constable Phillipo lost control. My vehicle is parked on the east roadside close to where the cruiser went off the road. Below is a closer view near my vehicle and my finger is pointing to the beginning of the tire marks that I observed this afternoon. The cruiser travelled off the road surface into the right ditch. 
Below you should be able to pick out three of the curved tire marks in the gravel shoulder indicating that the cruiser is in an advanced stage of loss-of-control and it is rotating clockwise into the ditch.
Below you can see how the cruiser travels through the ditch and toward the trees in the background. The front end of the cruiser is to the right and the rear of the cruiser is too the left and it is rotating clockwise. It might not be apparent but it had knocked over a fence in this location and it has gouged out a chunk of grass before approaching the trees.
The photo below shows the evidence as the cruiser approaches the trees. At this point the cruiser is travelling almost rearwards as its rear end collides with the tree on the left side of this view. If you look closely you will see the deposit of red taillight lens at the base of the struck tree.
If you cannot see the taillight glass in the above photo then you should surely see it in the photo below. But also note how the tail light lens is also imbedded in the tree at about my eye height. What speed do you expect the cruiser would have to be travelling in order for the rear end of the vehicle to strike that high on a tree after travelling more than 112 metres?
The final view I have inserted below is from the struck tree looking back along the path that the cruiser took as it travelled toward the camera. The cruiser's final rest position was behind the camera.
I do not report these facts to "bash" the police. In fact, I have been a supporter of police actions in a vast number of cases. But these events are occurring at Elgin County OPP too frequently.
A neighbour at the site claimed that many residents are alarmed at the number of times police travel through the area at excessive speed. But when the neighbours complain they are singled out by police and suddenly end up with strange traffic citations for minor incidents and so the neighbours remain silent. True, this is the information from a single person and who can say what the real facts are.
But I have also experienced more than questionable behavior from a sergeant from that detachment relating to the collision investigation that I handled involving the elderly woman I mentioned at the beginning of this artilce. Nothing was done about the actions of this Sargent. Statements were mishandled and evidence was changed. I will never forget that and I will never have blind trust in our police again. When the questionable behavior comes from several officers it is no longer an issue of blaming the individual officers but more of questioning the behavior of the police administration that allows these systematic questionable actions to take place. This is not the wild west or some third world dictatorship and we should expect better from OPP administration.
UPDATE: JULY 15TH, 2010
It was reported last night on the local television channel (A-Channel News, London) that Constable Phillipo was charged with "stunt driving" and that his license was taken away for seven days. None of this has been reported in any of the local newspapers or other media outlets including the local St. Thomas newspaper. Again, the public deserves better.
A-Channel reported that the officer was responding to a "service call". What does that mean? Was he simply going to meet another officer at a donut shop or was he responding to an emergency requiring his immediate assistance? The public has a right to know.
In the collision I investigated in 2005 the police were responding to the report of children trapped in a school bus that was involved in collision. This is a reasonable concern and travelling at very high speed was an option that could be reasonable. But charging a little old lady for failing to avoid the police "missiles" was totally improper. Changing the facts to hide the police errors simply compounded the problem.
In the present case a charge of "stunt driving" is applied when the driver is travelling over 50 km/h above the speed limit. Thus there should have been good evidence to say that Constable Phillipo was travelling above 130 km/h. The scene evidence likely supports that speed but more importantly the cruiser was likely equipped with an event data recorder (EDR) that likely indicated the actual speed. The public has a right to know why Constable Phillipo was travelling at such a high speed and what actions are being taken by police administration to inform officers of the dangers they create. Not only do they pose a threat to their own safety but innocent person's lives are at stake.
The climate seems to be that police are given the right to travel at any speed simply because they are called to an emergency and they do appreciate the extreme danger that is caused when the public cannot get out of the way of the speeding police because of the high speed. The mind set from the police viewpoint is that the public is acting improperly while the reality is that very often the police do not understand what the average driver is capable of doing when faced with a sudden realization that a cruiser is approaching at extreme speed. This element of surprise is not appreciated because police believe that their lights and sirens should provide enough warning without realizing that sometimes persons need time to select a method of getting out of the way and this takes time to develop.
$15 Million Court Judgment A Lesson For Roadway Barrier Maintenance
Although a recent trial judgment in Camden, New Jersey is somewhat out of bounds of Canadian relevance, it is never-the-less a reminder of the consequences that await various municipalities and provinces that fail to provide sufficient funds to their roadway maintenance departments to maintain their roadway infrastructure.
It was reported yesterday that Camden County will have to pay $15 million as a result of a jury finding that a roadway guard rail was improperly installed and led to the severe injuries of Mr. Nick Anderson in a collision that occurred in 2004.
Closer to home I have documented a number or recent accidents and roadways where the local municipality is in danger of being held liable for the condition of its roadway barriers and guard rails. For example, see the photo below:
You might be able to recognize that the post and cable barrier at the bridge is missing its cable. Here is a closer view:
You might recall last year when I reported my findings from examining a collision site near Rodney, Ontario wherein a female passenger of a pick-up truck was fatally injured following a rollover collision. The driver of the vehicle was alcohol impaired and there was the usual story about how drinking and driving led to another fatality. While this is very important, what the news media failed to report was that the vehicle rollover would have been prevented had a post and cable barrier been properly installed. My examination of the barrier showed that the cable of the barrier was extremely slack such that I could dislodge it by two or three feet (one metre) just by applying my foot against it. Such a cable would be of absolutely no use in preventing a vehicle from entering the ditch where the fatal collision took place. Nothing was mentioned of that deficiency.
It might be surprising that in this modern age of advanced knowledge in transportation safety such obvious deficiencies exist without public knowledge or outcry.
Fatal Head-On Collision on Egremont Drive This Morning
It has been reported that a head-on collision occurred between a Pick-up truck and a Honda passenger car on Egremont Drive just east of Hickory Road this morning, June 22, 2010. The driver of the Honda sustained fatal injuries. The collision occurred at approximately 0830 hours.
Photos of the accident scene were shown in London Free Press article that was posted just after noon today. The debris field confirms that the point of impact was close to the roadway centre line as opposed to being close to either of the road edges. This information suggests it is not a typical loss-of-control collision but may still be a loss-of-control of a different nature. It is reported that police believe the Honda crossed the roadway centre-line but one should be careful. The left front wheel of the Pick-up truck can be seen lying on the middle of the road, separated from the vehicle. There are occasions where the separation of failure of components at a left front wheel lead to such collision events.
What is also notable is that there is very little direct contact along the front end of the Pick-up while there there extensive crush and intrusion along the front of the left side of the Honda. This could mean that the Honda was passing and was attempting to return to its own side of the road when the impact occurred. The solid double centre-line indicates that no passing is allowed in this area.
The improper engagement of frontal structures is a common theme in safety research these days. Despite air bags and advanced seat belt systems researchers are concerned that occupants, and in particular drivers, are dying because of events such what happened this morning. As I indicated in a previous article, controlled tests are not replicating the type of real life deformations that take place in the real world.
UPDATE: June 22, 2010, 1615 Hours
It is being reported that two of the male occupants of the GMC Pick-up truck (Paul Foley and Adam Nigh) sustained minor injuries and have since been released from hospital.
Having now examined the site I can indicate that the Pick-up truck was westbound and there are gouges in the westbound lane indicating that the collision took place there. The critical fact however is that there was at least 47 metres of skid marks produced by the Pick-up truck prior to impact and then the vehicle travelled through the roadside ditch for another 44 metres. Even if we applied a conservative deceleration rate of 0.5g for the skidding distance (to take into account the towed trailer) and 0.4g for the gouging distance through the grass this would lead to a combined speed of about 102 km/h without taking into account the deceleration from the impact.
The 47 metres of skid that I observed was during a sunny day when the full length of skid marks would be difficult to see. So the actual length could have been greater.
Overall the police should be looking at the speed of GMC Pick-up as a factor in this collision. This vehicle looks to be a late model that should be equipped with an event data recorder and pre-crash data. So they should be downloading that data to confirm the vehicle's speed. The fact that the collision occurred in the Pick-up truck's lane does not explain all the relevant factors and hopefully someone will be capable enough to evaluate all relevant issues.
UPDATE: June 22, 2010 - 2215 Hours
Here are some photos of the accident site taken this afternoon. The image below is a view looking westbound along the skid marks produced by the GMC Pick-up truck as it slid toward the area of impact in its lane. Even though this is a sunny day the skid marks are still fairly clear.
Next (below) is a westbound view of the gouges at the point of impact in the westbound lane. Note that the gouges are in the northern (right) portion of the lane. Also the damage to the front end of Honda included direct contact along the front of its left side. The combination of these facts makes it peculiar that the Honda would be in a passing motion because it would have to be very far over in the wrong (westbound) lane and and it would have to be travelling at an angle back toward its own side of the road. One might wonder whether the Honda might have been exiting the driveway at the POI but that is also peculiar because it would have to be travelling quite slow yet its final rest position shows that it was not pushed in the GMC's travel direction meaning that it must have had some substantial forward velocity.
The next photo is a view looking north west along the travel path of the GMC Pick-up truck as it travelled through the north roadside. Note the gouging of the grass would require a higher rate of deceleration for any speed calculations.
Finally, the photo below shows the view from the GMC's final rest position and looking toward the area of impact. Again, this is a fairly long travel distance considering there has been a substantial head-on impact and the GMC has produced at least 47 metres of pre-impact skidding. The police should be looking into the speed of the vehicle.
Fatal Loss-Of-Control Collision - Embro Ontario - June 20th, 2010
It has been reported that at about 1730 hours, yesterday, June 20th, Stefani Lillywhite sustained fatal injuries as a result of a single-vehicle, loss-of-control collision that occurred on Zorra Township Line #43 just south east of Embro, Ontario.
The young woman's vehicle was seen by witnesses travelling at a relatively high speed on the gravel road as it passed by the T-intersection of Township Road #80. I examined the site this afternoon and can indicate the following. Below is a view, looking southbound, along Line #43 just before it meets with Line #80. Lillywhite's vehicle went off the right side of the roadway in the distance background.
(We are having difficulty entering the photos into this article - standby)
As it seems our difficulties persist I am going to relay some information verbally.
The vehicle in question left about 56 metres of visible tire marks before it travelled off the roadway and then it rolled over a distance of 45 metres. Applying a rate of deceleration of 0.3g for the tire marks and 0.5g for the rollover leads to an initial speed calculation of just over 100 km/h. That is fast for a gravel roadway. But there is more.
What I wanted to show you in some photos is that there was a roadway disturbance about 27 metres past (south of) the intersection of Zorra Line #80. I did some testing.
While travelling at 80 km/h roughly in the middle of the road there was no problem with maintaining control. Yet when I travelled slightly toward the right side of the road and onto the noted disturbance I had difficulty controlling my car even at a speed of 70 km/h. Part of the reason is that the road cross-slope at this disturbance was about 8.6% to the west. That is not good.
Following this disturbance the vehicle travelled to the east (opposite) side of the road where the cross-slope was about 5.7% to the east. Thus, after receiving the initial disturbance and being directed to the opposite side of the road the vehicle then experienced another (counter) side-slope which increased the problem.
Was the roadway the issue? Well somewhat. But over 100 km/h on a gravel road? What was the driver thinking?
Furthermore, witnesses claimed that the car's roof was generally intact (i.e. no major structural intrusion) and that she was found about halfway along the path of the vehicle as opposed to being projected past the vehicle. What this means is that she was crushed by her own vehicle as she was ejected. And that is the tragic part. If she had remained within the shell of the vehicle she would have done OK. But being ejected she was not thrown clear - as the term is often used.
I respect the need for the family to have privacy during this difficult time but I also point out that the future holds another young person that is likely to be involved in a similar event and that young person could be saved if they are aware of these tragic consequences. Seat belt use is extremely important. Staying inside the protective shell of your vehicle is extremely important, even at times when you think there has been major structural intrusion. You must get a better understanding of how often persons avoid major injury even if there is major roof crush.
Also understand how quickly you can lose control on a gravel road when you are travelling too fast. 100 km/h is simply much too fast on any gravel road.
Hopefully I may be able to add some photos to this article to better explain my comments. But if not I apologize.
UPDATE: June 22, 2010
Success at last: I am able to show one of the photos below.
If you look at the utility pole on the west (left) side of the road then that is where the initial road disturbance was located. From this distance the utility pole looks like its at the intersection when in fact it is located about 30 metres south of the centre-line of Line #80. It would appear that, as southbound vehicles drive over the crest created by the intersection of Line #80 their suspensions compress in the vicinity of that road disturbance and they are destabilized. Of course if you are travelling at a reasonable speed that should not be a problem. But combining this road problem with excessive speed causes the problem.
Below is a view taken from the final rest position of the car in the west corn field. This view is looking north east toward the trajectory path of the car. Notice how there is standing corn between this rest position and its path indicating that the vehicle was in free flight at various stages as it tumbled to rest.
Because the corn is still small (only about 2 feet tall) it is easy to see the rollover evidence. if this had happened two months later it would be a more difficult issue.
Below is a view looking south west from the point where the car enters the west ditch and its left front corner first digs into the earth and begins to roll.
As mentioned earlier, this is an unfortunate event but it is also typical of what happens in a rollover at highway speed. Typically the vehicle almost reaches a point of sliding sideways before the rollover commences. Under conditions where the vehicle begins a rollover while leading with its left side the first ground contact is usually with the upper right of the roof. This is another reason why the event is tragic because this first major contact with the roof is distant from the driver's location, as long as the driver is restrained by a seat belt and stays in the protective cage of the vehicle. Subsequent contacts with the ground get progressively less severe so the driver has a substantial advantage to avoid injury even if parts of the roof appear to contain major intrusion.
Speed Necessary To Produce 50 Metre Skid Mark
I noticed an interesting search item that led the searcher to our Gorski Consulting website wherein the person searched for an answer to how quickly might a vehicle be travelling in order to produce a 50 metre (164 foot) long skid mark. I'm not trying to dodge the question but that really depends on the conditions and what you assume.
Assuming a typical passenger car on a level, dry asphalt pavement with a fully functioning braking system, and an emergency type of brake application, we might assume the co-efficient of friction between the pavement and tire might be in the range of 0.7 to 0.9, depending on things like ABS brakes availability. Using the slide-to-stop formulation discussed earlier in this NEWS section of the website it is a simple procedure to input this friction value and distance and get a speed value of about 94 to 107 km/h. That might seem quite simple if all the assumptions are correct, but the reality is more complicated.
What testing was done to determine the precise co-efficient of friction on the surface. Did the tester perform the test over the exact same conditions? For example if the test is performed in the normal wheel tracks of a lane you might get a different deceleration level than if the test is just slightly away from the normal travel path for obvious reasons.
Were all the wheels fully and equally effective during the braking process? How hard did that driver actually slam the brake pedal? Was the application performed by a 200 pound police officer while the actual driver was an elderly 90 pound female? Wouldn't you be concerned if the test was set up in that fashion?
How do you know the braking occurred over 50 metres? The skid mark may show most of the braking distance but are you sure there wasn't additional braking going on while the driver was evaluating what action he/she should take and braking was only marginal or moderate? No skid mark would be visible during this moderate braking distance. It does happen in real life you know. And so on and so on.
The bottom line is you can get a simple answer to this question very simply and be simply wrong.
Congratulations To London City for Proper Maintenance on Veterans Memorial Parkway
While I complain a great deal about improper actions of various official entities in the realm of motor vehicle safety, there are occasions when aplause is due for a job well done.
In April, 2010 I had raised the issue of dangerous edge drop-offs that existed on Veterans Memorial Parkway just north of River Road and south of Hamilton Road. Recall the photo below that was taken on April 19th.
The edge drop-off was about 4 1/2 inches. This was not acceptable for a busy expressway that normally carries over 20,000 vehicles per day.
My comments were also televised on our local Rogers news program (First News) at about May 5th, 2010.
The upshot of this is that last week the City of London brought their road crew to the site and re-graded the shoulders on both sides of the highway. The important thing that I want to high-light is that they compacted the gravel that they re-graded. Here is a view of the result from essentially the same location as where the photo was taken on April 19th.
I performed my famous "foot test" on this gravel. Meaning that I simply stepped on the gravel to see how far my shoe became compressed into the gravel. I can say with great admiration that my shoe did not leave any distinguishable impression. The surface of the re-graded gravel was as hard as a rock. Wow, A terrific job. For so many years I have watched as various roadway jurisdictions have created greater safety problems by stirring up the gravel and causing greater drag on a vehicle's wheel than if they had left the edge drop-off as dangerous as it was. Everyone seemed to be oblivious to the danger that was obvious to me from examining numerous loss-of-control collisions from such conditions. Someone at the City works department woke up and they should be congratulated.
Now, I am not saying that all the problems have disappeared. We are still left with an excessive slope in the shoulder but at least the first metre or so of the shoulder is relatively flat. Beyond that however we are still left with the conditions I spoke about earlier as demonstrated below.
You can see my carpenter's level and an angle finder in the above photo. A close-up of than angle is shown in the photo below.
You should note that the angle is about 22 degrees and that is certainly excessive. Now there may be reasons for this. They created a narrow median which will result in vehicles travelling through it and colliding with vehicles coming in the opposite lanes. To compensate they have included this enormous elephant trap to drag vehicles down into the depths of the median and prevent them from emerging back out on the other side. This is why we have the excessive cross-slope. But there is a danger that you will increase the chance of a rollover when you have these excessive slopes. A loss-of-control typically leads to a vehicle sliding sideways before it rolls over. When a vehicle slides sideways on this 22 degree slope it will naturally increase the likelihood of rollover.
And recall the that edge line at the southbound passing lane next to the median is in fact at the asphalt edge. Another bad decision when they built the road to save money. You can see how all these problems were created when someone thought they could save some money by having narrow medians and narrow lanes on an expressway and no one was there to say this will cause problems in the future. There is no excuse by suggesting that this decision was made in the distant past. My recall was that this expressway was built in the 1980s when I was still at the UWO Accident Research Team and I was horrified when I saw what was going on. Whoever made that decision made it at a time when there was amply evidence of problems that would occur. For example right at that same time there were numerous articles and presentations on local news agencies talking about the numerous median-cross-over collisions that were taking place on Highway 401 - specifically in the narrow median area west of Woodstock through to Windsor. An inquest was held in 1989 to force the completion of a concrete New Jersey barrier to prevent these incidents. And the planners for Veterans Memorial Parkway were making their decisions right in the midst of all that. And the City is now reaping the difficulties of that decision by trying to come up with a solution that is not easily available.
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