Schools

CSI: Plainedge High School

Physics and forensics students show what they've learned after simulated car crash.

An out of control car sped through the parking lot of Plainedge High School. The driver slammed on the brakes and a loud screeching sound filled the air. Within minutes, a team of investigators was working the scene.

But these weren't ordinary investigators. There was no actual crash and students from the school's physics and forensics classes were assigned the task of analyzing the evidence in the simulated accident.

The exercise was part of a program called "Crash! The Science of Collisions," which was  presented at the school on Friday.

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"The program is a way of jelling everything that we've learned this year and showing the students that all the applications that we've had in classes and all the formulas we've been using have real life applications," said Philip Orlando, a physics teacher at the school.

The Plainedge forensics team had to measure the skid marks and give the information to the physics students, who would then try to determine how fast the car was going based on the information.

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"We measure the tire marks in the accident to see where they stopped and see if they were actually speeding," said Stephane Haasnoot, 17, who says she's interested in a career in forensics. Haasnoot and her classmates determined the car's left tire skidded  60 feet.

It's not as easy as it seems to determine the distance. While measuring the skid marks in broad daylight, it was difficult to see how far they extended while looking towards the sun.  The students facing away from the sun could see that the marks extended another six or seven feet.

The difference can have an affect on the outcome of the case, forensics physics professor John Kwanoski, who helped develop the program, told the students. 

"Say you have a drunk driver, who strikes a pedestrian and kills him," he said. "If you miss the entire mark by seven feet, your calculation is going to be under the speed."

The Nassau County District Attorney's office also participated in the program, which was sponsored by the Allstate Foundation, and Assistant DA Mary McCormick said she hoped the students "would learn the lesson that it's just too dangerous to drive recklessly or drunk."

After finishing the investigation, the students returned to the classroom to analyze the results. Orlando was pleasantly surprised by the results.

"The calculation of the speed of the car, to my amazement, was 100 percent correct,"  he wrote in an email to Patch.

The speed calculated and  the speed reported by the police officer [who drove the car] was 39 mph.  I was very impressed."

 


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