A system and method that utilizes information relating to vehicle damage information including damaged vehicle area information, crush depth of the damaged areas information, and vehicle component-by-component damage information to estimate the relative velocities of vehicles involved in a collision. The change in velocity is estimated using a plurality of methods, and a determination is made as to which method provided a result that is likely to be more accurate, based on the damage information, and the types of vehicles involved. The results from each method may also be weighted and combined to provide a multi-method estimate of the closing velocity. The methods include using crash test data from one or more sources, estimating closing velocity based on the principals of conservation of momentum, and estimating closing velocity based on deformation energy resulting from the collision.