Reckless+Dumping+Of+Items+From+Overpass+by+Dominque+Miller

=**Introduction**= Drivers should know that throwing things off of overpasses and bridges are not only dangerous to themselves but others around. Dumping trash into on going traffic can cause accidents, because drivers do not expect objects to fly out of no where. It is important for a people to understand the dangers of such actions. Other things such as ice falling can also be a dangerous hazard and should be handled properly by our government.
 * Brief Description of Driving Safety Hazard**

- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7874818.stm In this article from BBC News, they talk about several serve accidents due to falling ice off an overpass. The link above will take you to the article, and a video of the news report. - http://www.rapplaw.com/news/many-injured-after-pieces-of-wantagh-parkway-overpass-fall20091122.cfm In this article from RGG&L, they report about the pieces of the Wantagh Parkway Overpass falling and injuring people.
 * Statistics or News Articles Related to this Hazard**

The relevant Kinematics concepts that relates to this problem are position and time. The only way to find the solution to this problem is by using these variables. To determine weather or not a car will be affected by a falling object depends on when the car left, how fast the ice was falling, and where the person was when the ice began to fall.
 * How the Kinematics (principles of motion) Relate to This Hazard**



**Scenario**
====Bob Hymen drives under the St. Thomas overpass everyday after work, which is 5 m tall. One day after a horrible ice storm he was driving towards the overpass. Ahead he sees a big piece of ice falling from overpass. The ice falls to car, cracking the windshield. How many seconds did it take for the ice to hit the the car?====

**How to Solve Problem**
In order to solve this problem, I use the following formula

__Formula Explanations__ - ▲x stands for the height of the overpass - **//a//** stands for the accelerations, which would equal gravity because that is what's pulling the ice off the bridge. - //**t**// stands for the time, which is what we are trying to find - **//Vo//** stands for Velocity at it's resting point
 * In the equation [[image:Picture_2.png width="22" height="20"]] cancels itself out because //**Vo**// will equal 0 because it is not moving when it is at rest, and anything multiplied by 0 equals 0.



**How this Hazard Can Be Avoided With a Better Knowledge of Kinematics**
After using the following equation, my solution was that the ice would take 1.009 seconds to hit Bob's car. This was proven by solving for //**t**// in the equation stated above. Kinematics related to the solution because in order to find out how long it would take for the ice to hit the car, I needed to find acceleration and be able to find out how it relates to how long it would take for the ice to hit the car.

**Other ways to Represent this Scenario**
Position vs Time Graph (for Ice) __Explanation of graph__ In the P v. T (position versus time) graph above, you can see the complete layout of the how the ice fell. The graph shows the position of the ice at any time. As you can the graph is not linear because of the curve. This means that it did not more the same distance each time in the beginning.

Motion Map for Ice

__Explanation of Motion Map__ The qualitative motion map map above represents non-linear movement of the ice. As you see the distance between the arrows increases as position increases.

**Conclusion**
After solving this problem I have learned the importance of safe driving in bad conditions. Drivers can use Kinematics to remain safe, and avoid accidents like the one above. This can also help the government see how important it is to keep the road conditions good for driver. Places like Indanappolis have already taken precausions with sites like this:

http://www.indy.gov/EGOV/CITY/DPW/ROAD/SNOW/Pages/icesnow.aspx

The rest of the country should learn from their example and begin to take responsibility for their State. I hope that you will learn a lot about driving safety from this shit, and will become a much safer driver.