Corvette driver survives rear ending a semi
#1
Suzuka Master
Thread Starter
iTrader: (1)
Corvette driver survives rear ending a semi
http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoram...200318166.html
A fortunate Chevy Corvette Z06 driver in California last week came away from a horrifying crash with only a few scrapes and a story he'll never forget after smashing into the rear of a semi trailer — exactly the kind of crash that a new report says results in death too often, due to lax standards for the trailer guards that are supposed to protect drivers.
This accident, caught by the Los Angeles Fire Department on Interstate 405, wasn't fatal thanks to the Corvette driver ducking just as his car rammed into the rear of the moving van. As the pictures from the department's Flickr page show, the Vette was destroyed by the impact, as the car dove under the trailer nearly into its rear axle. In the photo above, you can see the trailer guard jutting from the wreckage of the Corvette, which it sliced like a mandoline.
Those underride guards are mandated by the United States and Canada on all semitrailers to help prevent such accidents, and according to new research from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, they usually do a better job of stopping cars. Such crashes claimed 280 lives in the United States in 2011, the most recent data available, and by the IIHS' reckoning, most were due to cars sliding under trailers.
But the IIHS says those guards perform far worse when a vehicle strikes them off-center. To demonstrate, it staged several crash tests using parked trailers from eight manufacturers and 2010 Chevy Malibus ramming them at 35 mph. All passed the full-on tests, and seven of eight successfully handled crashes where the car hit just one half of the trailer.
This accident, caught by the Los Angeles Fire Department on Interstate 405, wasn't fatal thanks to the Corvette driver ducking just as his car rammed into the rear of the moving van. As the pictures from the department's Flickr page show, the Vette was destroyed by the impact, as the car dove under the trailer nearly into its rear axle. In the photo above, you can see the trailer guard jutting from the wreckage of the Corvette, which it sliced like a mandoline.
Those underride guards are mandated by the United States and Canada on all semitrailers to help prevent such accidents, and according to new research from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, they usually do a better job of stopping cars. Such crashes claimed 280 lives in the United States in 2011, the most recent data available, and by the IIHS' reckoning, most were due to cars sliding under trailers.
But the IIHS says those guards perform far worse when a vehicle strikes them off-center. To demonstrate, it staged several crash tests using parked trailers from eight manufacturers and 2010 Chevy Malibus ramming them at 35 mph. All passed the full-on tests, and seven of eight successfully handled crashes where the car hit just one half of the trailer.
#3
Moderator
iTrader: (3)
Lucky to be alive.
#4
Race Director
iTrader: (3)
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: South Florida
Age: 30
Posts: 18,278
Received 3,824 Likes
on
2,847 Posts
Saw this on Wrecked Exotics' Facebook.
He is very lucky to be alive.
He is very lucky to be alive.
#5
(How not to drive your car?)isn't there a thread for these posts already
#6
Trending Topics
#8
Senior Moderator
HEAVY_RL that's a great Flickr page.....even beyond the vette-wreck pics.
The following users liked this post:
HEAVY_RL (03-16-2013)
#12
AZ Community Team
The tractor trailer video is really interesting, shows alot of rear end crash testing.
#13
Suzuka Master
Thread Starter
iTrader: (1)
#16
Senior Moderator
The tractor trailer video is really interesting, shows alot of rear end crash testing.
Most underride guards fail to stop deadly crashes - YouTube
Most underride guards fail to stop deadly crashes - YouTube
BTW, why not just design a guard with THREE posts instead of two? Two outboard and one in the middle? Or even a multi-piece solid-looking guard?
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
rockyboy
2G RDX (2013-2018)
170
12-06-2022 02:29 PM
sockr1
Car Parts for Sale
22
10-01-2015 01:31 AM