CARS, POLES, LEVER ARMS AND ELEMENTARY PHYSICS

Hi All,

The BLOG entry below, about the accident, is an incredible travesty of basic Physics, let's have a look.

The picture above is a classical exemplar of what happens when a vehicle, moving at some speed, collides with a pole. The pole above was struck by a vehicle travelling toward us the viewers. It takes a significant velocity to snap a pole and so, it must have been, in the Clubhouse parking lot. The pole stump appears to be a 4" x 4" solid pine pole, securely fixed in asphalt at the bottom.

Note, that the base of the pole leans in the direction of travel of the colliding vehicle. At the instant the pole snaps, the top, longer, member is a free standing lever arm, and therefore, force applied in any direction causes the other end to travel in the other direction, think of a see-saw. The pole in the picture above, is obviously constrained at the top by wires; or it would have fallen toward the car that struck it. This is simply Newtonian Mechanics, as it rotates on its center of mass.

The Pine pole in the Clubhouse parking lot is not so constrained at the top, and it's base is pointed away from (to the right) the direction from which it was struck. There is no doubt whatsoever that the top, longer member of this pole flew in the direction from which it was struck, to the left.

The scenario being painted of a phantom vehicle coming from the right, snapping the pole, transporting it vertically across TWO barriers, impressing said pole deeply into the hood of the opposing vehicle and pushing said vehicle backwards against the resisting forces of engaged gearing; is ludicrous beyond belief. Of course one might hypothesize that the vehicle gear was left in neutral; but this is not normal or likely. To move a parked vehicle against such set gearing from across two barriers, and leave the pole base and top as described would require a large vehicle moving at high speed.

My two cents, for what they are worth; the cop is right and good luck finding the phantom vehicle!

Dave Israel

Car Accident Thursday, July 2nd Handicapped South Parking

I am asking for the help of all who read this Blog who may have witnessed this accident in the parking lot or who may have a neighbor whose front of the car has been recently pushed in, since Thursday. Carol arrived at the clubhouse and entered our meeting room at 12:30PM as I was sitting on the side of the front door to greet prospective members or new members coming in for their badges. I looked at the clock when she arrived to see what time it was. Carol came in very happy introducing her friend as she walked. During the meeting she was asked to leave and go outside. She came back to get her friend. Her car was no longer it it's handicapped spot but in the middle of the road facing south. It had been hit in the front as you can see and pushed into the road. Carol's steering wheel would have been sutned from coming into the spot or it would have been pushed straight out. A police officer accused her of knocking the sign down in front of where she was parked and then backed up and left her car in the middle of the road and calmly went in to her meeting. Carol is not a calm per under stress. The officer took her friend aside to find out what happened as she did not believe Carol and then turned around and pointed at Carol and said, you know what happeded, tell me. George Lowenstein and Anita Cruz were there and were quite upset that Carol had knocked down the sign. I was not there but know Carol and the next day she was still pretty shakey from the experience of being grilled by the officer. I went with Carole from our club to take pictures of her car at the shop and in the parking lot. Too bad I did not see where the sign had fallen after the accident. The 2 pictures tell a story. One shows a small piece of Carol's grill and the other shows how the sign fell. The grill piece and other small pieces are on Carol's spot. The bit of the sign that is left show that the sign was knocked down from the opposite facing side and the broken off part was dragged on the tar and over the blue barrier and onto Carol's hood. At 1:20 a woman reported that Carol hit her back bumper and at that time wanted $1,000. for damages. Carole was in a meeting at 1:20 with all in the room to see. I believe that the woman was parked in a spot with Carol in the middle of the road and instead of going to get a guard to get the car, Carol's, out of the way of getting her car out of the spot proceeded to back up and scrapped her bumper on Carol's back bumper as Carol has a white rub on her bumper. I think if Carol had hit her the rub would of Carol's paint would be on the white Chevy not the Chevy's paint on Carol's car just as someone else's paint seems to be on the front of Carol's car. As well Carol's friend told Carol on the way from the insurance office after the accident that she smelled smoke. Since Carol's car was in park I believe she either has transmission damage or damage to her brake due to being forced back. I cannot understand an officer not seeing what the evidence seems to show, she was just interested in getting Carol to confess her crime. Please, take the time to look at your neighbor's cars to see if they have damage or if a car is in for repairs. I think someone wanted to step on the brake on instead stepped on the gas, went over the blue barrier hit the sign down and over the next barrier and into Carol's car and panicked and fled. They may also have scraped the bottom of their car on the barrier as there seems to be a small gouge out of the barrier that still looks clean.