PARAGRAPH 32

 

SNAKING CARAVANS AND TRAILERS (INCLUDING HGV TRAILERS

 

Peter W Jones  MInstP

Retired Head of Science in a Birmingham Comprehensive School ( 20 years)

Currently, “Consultant for Towed Vehicle Accidents” (5 years)

Apart from 19 months national service ( ie conscripton) in the RAF my entire career (almost) has been as a full time teacher. I was a comprehensive school Head of Science for 20 years, but I also spent 7 years as a full time lecturer in a Birmingham Technical College (Further Education Sector).

This blog, and the two linked to it, have therefore turned out to be an untidy set of notes and resource material for teachers/lecturers. After 41 years as a teacher I have difficulty switching to the right mode when writing.

I started advising on oscillating trailer accidents in 2003 (after I had been retired  for 10 years) when I became an Affiliate of the Institute of Traffic Accident Investigators. I had no desire to become an “Accident Investigator” but learned a great deal by reading their journals,  attending some of their meetings/courses, and particularly by exchanging scientfic information concerning road traffic accidents via a private internet site which was used by many ITAI members.

I was also an Associate Member of the Society of Expert Witnesses for a further 12 months and derived great benefit from their extensive written legal advice for “expert witnesses,” and their “mentoring support.”

I am not allowing a direct connection with myself via the web as I was originally  (in 2007) almost put out of action by “comments” to my blog on 20six.co.uk which were mainly pornographic. I am currently relying on private contacts and exploring other means of advertising at low cost as I am working on a charitable basis in support of road safety. My blog details have been circulated by a group of interested solicitors and I am always available to give advice by telephone, particularly as most questions can be answered by reference to items I have written and published on the net. If the solicitors have a problem with passing on technical information I am prepared also to discuss the matter by telephone with the Accident Investigators.

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Addendum Oct 2009

Technorati/Wordpress, as you will see on the internet, have from the beginning of October 2009, started to give more prominence to my blogs. They are keen to promote blogs of a Scientific/Technological nature.

A feature of the new system is that comments are allowed, but these will be carefully screened to eliminate spam.

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VOCATIONAL COURSES FOR TRAFFIC ACCIDENT INVESTIGATORS, ROAD SAFETY OFFICIALS, AND HGV drivers.

Leaving out my “political” offerings most of the items I have written about should  be considered for inclusion in the above courses.

SCHOOL LEVEL WORK

GCSE Physics;  The effect of the centre of Mass of a vehicle on its stability is one item I have taught at this level.

I expect that there is at least one of the many courses for GCSE which contain some Physics for which my lever test for friction based caravan/trailer stabilisers would be a good “practical application.”

I have used Newton’s First Law of Motion to explain why it is very foolish of us to allow unbraked trailers (up to 0.75 tonnes) to be used on our motor ways.

Vectors using scale diagrams

 

GCE “A” level Maths (Theoretical Mechanics/Applied Maths) and GCE “A” level Physics

I have made use of Vectors in writing about the effect of the wind on high aspect vehicles and although I later had the better idea above I originally used some equations of motion to show very approximately that friction based stabilisers could not make any significant contribution to bringing a snaking trailer under control.