The finite element method, which has been widely used in crashworthiness analyses and structural optimization design, is not practical in the traffic accident reconstruction because of the limitation of computation ability. Elastic-plastic deformation of the vehicle and the collision object are the important information produced during the course of the traffic accidents, and the information can be fully utilized by using the finite element method to increase the computing precision. Now, with the development of high performance computing technology, the finite element method based on parallel computing could be used in the accident reconstruction, both the direction and the crash velocity of pre-impact could be found accurately, and these results can provide a scientific foundation for accident judgement. In this paper, one typical traffic accident was studied using the finite element method. According to the simulation results, the deformation of the key points on the frontal longitudinal beam and the mudguard could be measured in the post process of the software. By comparing the results of the real accident and the simulation tests, the best simulation test could be found, thus the most accurate relative angle and the initial velocity could be found.
