Another young life lost

[DaisyDuke]

It's online somewhere? Damn! It was old when I saw it! It was part of the curriculum & required. Funny, I don't remember us losing any classmates to car accidents in High school... it must have been remarkably effective! I can still close my eyes and see that picture in my mind...

I googled it and they have the full video on YouTube. That was horrific. I don't know how that wouldn't affect someone.

 

[twinoaks207]

We had to watch "Rellik" (Killer). It definitely made me a more cautious driver.

I looked for it on Google and only found references and no video.

The picture of a guy underneath a semi (he was speeding and ran under the truck) stays with me to this day.

We were driving down I-70 (coming back form PA) once and somewhere (Washington county I think) there's this place where you crest the mountain (big bridge overhead) and right as you get over the top & start to go down again, there's one of those emergency median cross-overs. A semi had tried to pull into it to go the other way and a red car was stuck underneath it. I don't know if it was a convertible before the accident or not --- there was no car from the bottom of the windows up. No clue what happened to the people inside but I suspect that it wasn't good....

 

[twinoaks207]

I googled it and they have the full video on YouTube. That was horrific. I don't know how that wouldn't affect someone.

I did find it on there, thanks. Thinking back, I think that we had to have a signed parent permission slip for that day in class...

I know it made me a more careful driver...

 

[Wenchy]

I did find it on there, thanks. Thinking back, I think that we had to have a signed parent permission slip for that day in class...

I know it made me a more careful driver...

Those movies did make an impact and I had to have a signed permission slip as well.

It's a shame they have taken Driver's Ed out of schools.

 

[DaisyDuke]

I did find it on there, thanks. Thinking back, I think that we had to have a signed parent permission slip for that day in class...

I know it made me a more careful driver...

I was in an accident as a young child. I have vivid memories that have stuck with me and I believe I am a cautious driver because of that. I almost think those videos should be shown in drivers ed today. Probably wouldn't get to all the kids, but at least, maybe some.

 

[RoseRed]

Way back in the dark ages when I was taking Driver's Ed, they showed us a film called "Signal 30". In one part of the film, there was a pick-up truck that tried to beat a train and lost. They showed the emergency personnel lifting out the charcoal remains of the driver -- still in a seated position. To this day (too many years later for me to confess to), I can still see that in my mind, especially each time I come up to a railroad crossing.

Sometimes, it does work. You just never know....

I never saw the movies in driver's ed, but I did see this in real life when I was 11 or 12.

 

[bcp]

They need to update the videos.
Most are from the 50s and early 60s.
Cars at that time didnt have seat belts, and if they did they were only the lap belts, no crumple zones, lower quality tires, weaker brakes, and metal dashboards.
Even if the majority of those accidents were reproduced with todays cars, the outcome would most likely be much different as far as the health of the driver and passengers.

 

[glhs837]

They certainly would. Today's cars make what would have been horror movie material, not only survivable, but in a lot of cases, walk-away crashes.

Like this one, certainly not walk away, the driver had broken legs, but they will walk again.....quote if from an Lxforums member who knows one of the responders to this suicide attempt.


If you really want to kill yourself?

They usually only do the good ones when there is a fatality... but the speed limit is 55 mph, no evidence of braking on the part of the Mag and I don't think the Tractor-Trailer had time to react. So even if he wasn't speeding, I guess the closure speed would be well over 100 mph.

Two broken legs, one a compound femur fracture, and a broken arm. No serious bleeding. This is all second hand, I was not present, but know one of the first responders that was present and he is reliable.

 

[Lurk]

"Well built" will never overcome excessive speed even if the young one feels indestructible.

 

[bcp]

"Well built" will never overcome excessive speed even if the young one feels indestructible.

True, but most of the accidents shown on the film being discussed here would have resulted in walk aways with todays cars.
I think directly to the one where the guy was speeding, went off the road and the bouncing across the field caused stress on the body that allowed the door to open, He was thrown partially out of the car at this point, (lap belt held him in place) and the car slid up to a tree stump causing the door to crush his chest.
Same accident today would have been no opened door, no ejection and no crush. it might have even ended up with the driver driving off and claiming the damage happened in some other way.

 

[glhs837]

Well of course not, and that wasnt my point. My point was that most crashes that were certain death 30-50 years ago are survivable today. AS evidinced by the fact that we have increased the number of vehicles, driver, and road miles travelled, heck, even speed limits, by a large factor, but we have steadily decreased the fatality rates by an even larger number.

Drivers certainly havent gotten safer, but technology has allowed them to avoid a lot of crash conditions. Belts keep the driver in place, ABS and ESP/ESC systems keep the car from getting out of control, and tire, brakes and suspension allow increased envelope before a crash is inevitable. Imagine if we actually trained drivers in emergency driving techniques?

 

[bcp]

Car Crash Video - Old Car vs New Car - YouTube

this was pretty much amazing to me for some reason.
I would have guessed a different outcome.

 

[glhs837]

Yep, structures that sacrifice themselves do better at dissipation of crash forces. We just know more about how these thing behave in a crash than we used to. All the folks who curse black boxes should be thanking them. Without the data they have provided, cars would not be as safe as they are.

 

[bcp]

Yep, structures that sacrifice themselves do better at dissipation of crash forces. We just know more about how these thing behave in a crash than we used to. All the folks who curse black boxes should be thanking them. Without the data they have provided, cars would not be as safe as they are.

Im not an engineer, but I get the general idea that the more the car crumples the more of the force it absorbs and the less force is put on the passengers.
I think the back is even designed to crumple in a front end accident to transfer the force from the drivers compartment to the unoccupied trunk area.

Ive seen pictures of trucks the exact same as mine that were hit head on, the truck is totaled but the owner is the one that took the pictures. Hopefully that crumple would also transfer force away from the driver of the other car too.

 

[smilin]

As I was driving my car down the road I thought of how these new smart cars have actually helped drivers become dumber.
Today some drivers depend on technology to handle better, stop faster, overcome blind spots and hold them in the car, while they then walk away from a totaled car. At least that's the theory.
Unfortunately I am getting the feeling that drivers (especially new ones) are depending on all of this technology to save their A***s when they drive beyond their capabilities. Doesn't happen every time, unfortunately.

 

[glhs837]

You're giving way too much credit for forethought to the average driver, who has no idea what ABS is, of how it works, let alone complex interrelated safety systems.

bcp, in a lot of vehicles, it goes even farther than that. In the Charger (8 or more year old design) for instance, the whole front suspension and surrounding structure is designed to use the tire/wheel combo to absorb energy, and then shove all the metal back out away from the passenger cell. In the rear of the car, the spare tire is part of the energy management, enabling the car to meet the 50mpg offset rear crash test. In mine, no spare from the factory, so there is a foam insert to do the same thing.

 

[twinoaks207]

I hear members of #teambrenn honored their fallen comrad several nights ago by going out in their vehicles donning "teambrenn" written in soap and peeling wheels on pavement and making smoke and driving very fast. This is consistent with waht I read in this thread about someone seeing a car with teambrenn on it going about 75 or 80 mph on the road.

On Friday night, there was a "Memorial Ride", organized by family & friends, and escorted by local members of fire and police.

A memorial fund has also been set up to help the family with expenses. Donations can be made at any PNC bank branch.

(Facts are always better than "hearsay".)