Reply With QuoteYup. Compare this to what would have happened with cars built with 1950's technology.
Chip H.
I was at our terminal today talking to one of the drivers. I had heard someone had had a big wreck, and I could tell from the conversation it was he, so I asked what had happened.
He had picked up 42,000 lbs of eggs in Pittsburg, TX, and was headed toward our terminal. The egg place is out in the boonies, with nothing but narrow 2-lane roads for quite a ways in any direction. He was tooling down one of those roads when a car ran a stop sign and pulled out in front of him.
He stood on the brakes, almost pulled the horn cord out of the ceiling, but he had nowhere to go to miss it. He clipped it in the left rear corner.
But "clipped" is too weak a word, applied to 80,000 lbs hitting a 4,000 lb vehicle. The car went through the ditch and into a farmer's yard, making about 3 360's in the process. Our driver got stopped and went back to check on the damages, convinced he was going to see carnage.
The left rear wheel on the fairly new Volkswagen (I don't know what model) was pushed up under the back seat. The left side was a disaster. But the driver of the car managed to open the door and step out, apologizing to him all the while that she hadn't seen him; she'd been concentrating on the car ahead of him. She went around to the right side, opened the door, and unbuckled the two children in the back seat.
Total injuries? Bumps and bruises, and one of the children had a scrape from the shoulder belt. All the airbags had deployed. Everyone was wearing a seat belt. The car is a total loss.
He had the farmer whose yard the car ended up in pull his bumper out from contacting his tire, and went on his way.
This was a case where the technologies in a modern car probably saved some lives.
Yup. Compare this to what would have happened with cars built with 1950's technology.
Chip H.
Former owner: 2012 Honda Civic LX, 2006 Honda Ridgeline RTL, 2000 Honda CR-V EX, 2003 MINI Cooper S, 1992 Honda Accord LX, 1999 Mercedes ML-320, 1995 VW Jetta GLX, 1991 Mercury Capri XR2, 1981 Mercury Zephyr, 1975 Chevrolet Impala
Great tale Mike. I hope that the driver's record doesn't take a hit.
In the past sixteen months, I've been hit twice by drivers running stop signs and in both cases they had stopped and for some reason proceeded into the side of my car. I'm beginning to get paranooid over it, what the hell are they picking on me for?
Do you drive in Las Vegas. I too am becoming slap-happy from being hit so many times.Originally Posted by jdm
Sure - but per this discussion, let's assume a full-size car with the same safety package as the VW in MIke's story. It would have been safer still!
Posting Permissions
