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.

So it looks like I’d better keep the speed down on my Model A. To, say, five miles per hour.

it’s good that you ask — and it’s my job to answer, since I am too lazy to translate the whole audio.

Yes, the ADAC guy was talking about the dummies. High impact forces were registered for the shinbones, the chest, and the head. In the case of the 40 mph crash, the impact forces were low. At the higher speed, the passenger cell was just about intact but close to collapsing.

Sammy: actually, the video had a kind of pro-Renault bias because it stressed how the Laguna has the best crash ratings not only of its class, but of any car tested in the Euro-NCAP. They are basically saying: Even with an extremely safe car, crashing at 50 mph is potentially fatal.

Everybody else: sorry and I understand how frustrating it is to listen to a language you don’t know. We thought the videos were still worth being shown to a wider audience.

Can anybody recommend a good program for adding subtitles to .flv video?

Despite the A-pillar and door sill damage on the higher speed vehicle, I couldn’t see any obvious reason that the crash was less survivable. Obviously I don’t understand enough German to know if the guy talked about the forces registered by the dummies.

Spiegel TV = German Dateline

Renault = French car (?)

Hmmm…I wonder why they didn’t orchestrate this test w/a German car. I thought ADAC was above petty politics, but perhaps they are following the lead of the German motoring press (which practices unabashed protectionism when it comes to it’s ratings and criques).

The Germans sure love their eleven-syllable compound words. Try saying “Maximum Speed Limit” ten times, quickly, auf Deutsch:

Hochsgeschwindigkeitsbegrenzung!

Sammy Hagar’s “I Can’t Drive (55)” probably didn’t translate well over there…

# autoemployeefornow :
#August 21st, 2008 at 5:43 pm
#Very informative wenn du deutsch sprechen kannst.

Experimental vehicle developed by NHTSA in the 1970s that weighed only 2,450 lbs, achieved 32 miles to the gallon in 1978 and was able to protect its occupants in a full frontal barrier impact at 50 miles per hour (mph) and in side impact and rollover crashes at 40 mph without significant risk of occupant injury. The RSV created by NHTSA was destroyed by the government.

Have they seen the chinese cars crash tests?

I submit that for them, more time in the car is a good thing ;)

There is no way to absolutely guarantee the safety of anyone in a car, at any speed. Not forgetting that the first automotive casualty (death) occurred some 110 years ago and what we would describe as a walking pace.

Back in the day before cars, people were regularly killed by having their horses throw them off.

In short, we simply accept the risk and move on, or we’d be completely parylized and could not leave the house. (Which, ironically, would not make life safe for us anyway since most accidents occur at home!)