Calculation reliability in vehicle accident reconstruction

• The article concerns the reliability of expert opinion from the scientific viewpoint.
• The vehicle accident reconstruction reliability is defined using Bayesian networks.
• One of its elements is the calculation reliability.
• The calculation uncertainty is an attribute of pure, isolated calculations.
• The calculation reliability takes into account the context of the reconstruction.

The reconstruction of vehicle accidents is subject to assessment in terms of the reliability of a specific system of engineering and technical operations. In the article [26] a formalized concept of the reliability of vehicle accident reconstruction, defined using Bayesian networks, was proposed. The current article is focused on the calculation reliability since that is the most objective section of this model. It is shown that calculation reliability in accident reconstruction is not another form of calculation uncertainty. The calculation reliability is made dependent on modeling reliability, adequacy of the model and relative uncertainty of calculation. All the terms are defined. An example is presented concerning the analytical determination of the collision location of two vehicles on the road in the absence of evidential traces. It has been proved that the reliability of this kind of calculations generally does not exceed 0.65, despite the fact that the calculation uncertainty itself can reach only 0.05. In this example special attention is paid to the analysis of modeling reliability and calculation uncertainty using sensitivity coefficients and weighted relative uncertainty.