Free Accredited Traffic Accident Reconstructionist Practice Questions
10 exam-style questions with answers and explanations, straight from our 1,030-question bank. Tap an answer to check yourself. When you're ready, take the scored version in the free practice test.
The Accredited Traffic Accident Reconstructionist exam has 100 questions and runs 8 hours.
These 10 free Accredited Traffic Accident Reconstructionist questions are organized by exam domain, so you can see how each part of the Accredited Traffic Accident Reconstructionist blueprint is tested. Reveal the answer and explanation under each question.
Domain 1: Theory Examination (Part 1)
Question 1
Two cars approach at right angles and separate before either reaches a curb or barrier. Their masses, approach headings, and immediate departure velocity vectors are established. External impulse during vehicle-to-vehicle contact is negligible. Both cars have permanent crush, but vehicle-specific stiffness data are unavailable. How should their impact speeds be determined?
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Correct answer: C - Apply two-dimensional momentum balance across the vehicle-to-vehicle impact.
Question 2
Consider the first instant of a right-side impact to a left-hand-drive sedan. The vehicle accelerates leftward with negligible rotation; its driver and right-front passenger have not yet received appreciable restraint or interior-contact impulse. Which pairing correctly describes their initial cabin-relative motion and identifies the near-side occupant?
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Correct answer: D - Both move rightward relative to the cabin; the passenger is near-side.
Question 3
A sedan points due north at impact and experiences a net collision impulse due east. Rotation during contact is negligible. The report depicts principal direction of force with an arrow pointing in the direction the force acts on the sedan, rather than the direction from which it comes. Where should that arrow point relative to the car?
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Correct answer: C - Toward the car's right side
Domain 2: Practical Examination (Part 2)
Question 4
A curved tire mark contains fine oblique striations. Video shows that the wheel continued rotating while the plane of the wheel became angled to its local direction of travel. No impact occurred along this segment. What tire motion most directly accounts for the evidence?
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Correct answer: B - A rotating tire slipping laterally as the vehicle yaws
Question 5
A rear incandescent stop/tail bulb has separate, positively identified filaments. Its glass envelope breaks during the collision. Before recovery movement or electrical testing, the bulb is isolated and preserved. The tail filament is substantially stretched; the stop filament is broken without visible elongation. Which finding is best supported?
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Correct answer: D - The tail filament was hot when it underwent deformation.
More Accredited Traffic Accident Reconstructionist practice questions
Question 6
An intersection reconstruction places a rotating sedan's longitudinal axis at 65 degrees immediately after separation. Its center-of-mass path initially follows a tangent at 12 degrees, then curves toward a final-rest position lying on a 35-degree bearing from separation. The car's final body heading is 110 degrees. All angles are measured counterclockwise from east. Which angle belongs in the sedan's immediate post-impact momentum vector?
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Correct answer: A - 12 degrees
Question 7
Immediately before a collision, a car's center of mass travels east at 18.0 m/s. Immediately after separation, its velocity components are 6.0 m/s east and 9.0 m/s north. The report requires the magnitude of the car's collision delta-v, not its loss of speed. Select the value to enter, to the nearest 0.1 m/s.
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Correct answer: C - 15.0 m/s
Question 8
During review of a compact-car/SUV head-on collision, an analyst argues that the heavier SUV exerted the larger contact force because the compact car experienced the greater velocity change. Restrict attention to the forces the vehicles exerted on each other. The appropriate correction is:
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Correct answer: A - Their contact forces were equal and opposite; the lower mass can have the larger velocity change.
Question 9
A critical-speed assessment uses a shallow circular yaw arc on level pavement. The chord is correct, but the recorded middle ordinate is too large; it remains much smaller than the chord. The path has already been corrected to the vehicle's center-of-mass path, and the lateral friction coefficient is valid. In which direction does this measurement error bias the calculated radius and critical speed?
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Correct answer: D - Both the radius and speed estimates are too low.
Question 10
From separation to rest, a car slides 25.0 m on downhill asphalt and then 20.0 m on level gravel. Tests reproducing those sliding conditions establish constant whole-vehicle net deceleration factors of 0.65 and 0.40, respectively. The asphalt test already includes the roadway's 5% downgrade. There is no further impact or appreciable rotation, and these segments account for the post-impact motion. Using g = 9.81 m/s², what separation speed does the evidence support, to the nearest 0.1 m/s?
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Correct answer: B - 21.8 m/s
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