A virtual reality method for digitally reconstructing traffic accidents from videos or still images

[Display omitted] •The perfect combination of real accident video analysis and 3D restoration technology with high accuracy.•The method is used with multi-source data from single image to vehicle CCTV videos.•The method in the manuscript is practical and can be popularized easily. With an increase in the number of traffic accidents and enhanced attention to the rule of law, technical appraisement to reconstruct traffic accidents is attracting increasing attention. Accident videos are important aspects in identification; however, we cannot reconstruct an accident scene onsite using video for many reasons. In this paper, we introduce a computer-based virtual reality method that can digitally reconstruct a traffic accident. This method employs accident videos to perform a three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of accident scenes. Using video screenshots, it constructs a model of humans and vehicles in 3D space to achieve the goal of dynamic restoration. The results indicate that this method has relatively high accuracy, requires little time and is easy to use. In this paper, we analyse the sources of errors for this method and summarize the application conditions.