Check Out Reconstruction of Wreck That Killed James Dean

Check Out Reconstruction of Wreck That Killed James Dean
AP Photo/File
Background
On September 30, 1955, actor James Dean was killed in a two-vehicle accident near Paso Robles, CA. Dean was killed, but his passenger and the driver of the other vehicle survived. The police reported that speed contributed to the cause to the accident and that Dean was traveling over 65 mph at the time of the impact.  In 1992, while working on the NBC television series “What Happened?”, Exponent’s engineers were asked to look into the accident.  
Our Work
The vehicles that were involved were not available for review, so our engineers used photos from the accident scene to review crush damage, the police report and photogrammetry techniques to survey the accident scene.   This information was used in our analysis to determine the speeds, steering and braking of Dean’s Porsche Spider and a Ford Sedan.  The accident happened about 6pm in the evening, so our visibility consultants reviewed any potential impact that the setting sun might have contributed. 
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