PHS Crash Investigation Class Held
Posted on 10/29/2018
ofc martins and detective fenn teaching a class at phs

On October 18th, Plainville High School SRO (School Resource Officer)  Jessica Martins, Plainville Police Detective Jamie Fenn,  and retired Thomaston Police Department Officer Susan Graham  served as guest speakers in Plainville High School faculty member Jeff Robert’s UCONN Early College Experience Physics classes, sharing information  about assessing automobile crashes and the relationship to Physics. Roberts, Martins and Graham first co-presented information about automobile crashes, their causes and how they are investigated. Students learned about  determining the minimum speed a car travels before a crash occurs, measurements the police take at the scene, and how to calculate speed. During the second half of the class program, the students and guest speakers went outside to test the processes learned, using a police car. The police personnel, using a police vehicle, created  “skid markings” that the students then measured and subsequently calculated the speed of the car, which was then compared to the actual speed of the vehicle used in the experiment.