German Crash Tests, Part 3: Crash Slow or Die Hard
Crash tests have shown that contemporary cars are pretty safe at middling speeds. You can hit a wall at 40 mph and walk away with a few bruises. But what happens at higher speeds? German automotive club ADAC crashed a five-star (Euro-NCAP) car at 50 mph and the results were not pretty. The Renault Laguna III is way up there is terms of safety, as good or better than any other passenger car (no Freedom Fries jokes here please, I've driven a Laguna and it's good). In this video, a grey Laguna hits a solid barrier at 40 mph, after which its occupants could exit unharmed (if dummies could walk). Taken to 50 mph, the orange Laguna is close to doing a Dianamobile. The A-beam collapses and the door sill folds. Physics rule; at double the speed, crash energy increases to the square, so even a relatively small increase in velocity can cause havoc. Passengers of the orange Laguna would suffer serious injury, despite being equipped with the works: chest airbags, seatbelt tensioners, and knee airbags. At the tested speed, the crumple zone is used up. Any faster and the car would basically fall apart. ADAC: "Appropriate speed can save your life". Which is not exactly news, but seeing the evidence is more, uh, "visceral" than just knowing the facts.
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Sammy Hagar, Germany occupied France so many times that they are confusing now which thing belongs to whom. Same for England on France. Same for Spain on Italy. Actually, same for everyone for everyone, except Liechtenstein, it's hard to pronounciate.
kendahl: Home Run!!!! Paying damned attention would save more lives than ANY safety equipment. I'm stopping there before I get mad. You go, kendahl!!!
"Passengers of the orange Laguna would suffer serious injury, despite being equipped with the works: chest airbags, seatbelt tensioners, and knee airbags. At the tested speed, the crumple zone is used up. Any faster and the car would basically fall apart. ADAC: 'Appropriate speed can save your life'." So it looks like I'd better keep the speed down on my Model A. To, say, five miles per hour.
I saw a show where one side was proclaiming how wonderful crumple zones in todays cars were compared to older vehicles. The argument they used went something like this: Would you rather be wearing a stack of foam or a brick to protect yourself from a hammer strike on your head. While a bit silly, the point they try to make is the foam naturally absorbs the energy while the brick does not. However, if the force exceeds the foam's capability to compress the hammer does enormous damage to your head. While the brick may transfer a lot of energy, it also protects a lot better when forces increase. The hammer is not making through the brick easily. The point is we have been convinced the secret to safety is the crumple zone without the asterisk being added that there are limits to the feature.