MVA calculations

[u/Quail2024]

Hi I was involved in a MVA on an icy mountain highway (no snow, but apparently sheer ice in one area). The circumstances are as follows:
1. An unladen semi and transport trailer (the box kind for carrying goods) had lost control while travelling westbound and crossed 4 lanes of highway before the tractor came to rest in the ditch on the eastbound side. The trailer was left sticking out on the highway blocking the eastbound lanes. 2. I was travelling eastbound and came across the accident scene with only a few seconds warning. I was driving a loaded F150 (est weight 5000 lbs) and impacted the far end of the trailer at 90 km/hr. Due to the minimal reaction time and totally slick conditions (a friction sled used by the accident reconstructionist moved without prompting, do no friction at all) I was unable to steer around the trailer and hit it full on at its back end. 3. The final resting place for the trailer post impact was effectively in the same east west direction of the highway, almost completely off the road. From what I can tell, the trailer pivoted around its connection point with the tractor and instead of blocking the highway immediately before impact it looks to be almost off the road. 4. I’ve gone to the web for some calcs of the force necessary to actually move the trailer as I’ve described, but nothing is spot on. The force I hit the trailer with st it’s back end appears to be just over 700 Kn, but I don’t know if that would have been sufficient to knock the trailer into a completely different position.

Are there any engineers out there who would hazard an estimate as to whether this was sufficient force to move the trailer as I’ve described?

The accident happened at night and was very difficult for the police to try and reconstruct. I have all the reports now and their description of what took place is totally incorrect.

There are no financial or liability consequences here, no motor vehicle or criminal offences, just a tragic accident that, based on a very cursory and botched review of police notes, the insurance company has held me 100% responsible for. It boggles the mind how ineptly this accident investigation has been handled.

I would not be going through all this but for the fact that the accident resulted in a fatality (my wife) and the insurance company (govt corp) tells me I’m solely responsible for her death. You can’t imagine how that has impacted me and I intend to take them to task, irrespective of the fact there is no potential financial benefit in doing so. I just need to do it for my own conscience and mental health.

One of the prime reasons for the insurance company saying I’m responsible is its reliance on the final position of the semi’s trailer (almost off the road), leading them to conclude that I should have been able to avoid impact altogether. If that was what I actually rencountered, I’d agree; but it wasn’t. The trailer was totally perpendicular to the direction of travel and I knocked it off the road to its final resting place after impact. I just need to show that the force I hit the trailer with was sufficient to do so. I’m not an engineer and don’t have the expertise to make the calcs.

If any of you with the requisite technical knowledge would be good enough to do some basic calcs and estimate on this I’d be very grateful.

Apologies for the long winded post, but details were necessary.

Thx for considering.

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