Recently, I came upon an accident scene. The only car I could see that was involved was a early 80’s model station wagon. It was up a telephone pole almost vertically!
I could see how a car might climb a little bit up. But this car’s drive wheels - the rear ones - would’ve lost contact with the ground too early. And although it might have had enough speed to do this coming down a hill nearby, it would’ve had to have jumped a median island and a curb. It would’ve lost too much momentum.
I looked in the news, but I never heard any mention of the incident.
Anyone have any other ideas how a lone station wagon could do this stunt?
I say a similar accident several years ago where a sports car scaled (or apeared to scale) a pole near my home. The car jumped the curb and slid right up the cable that suported the pole. Unless you were standing at such an angle as to be able to see the cable, it appeared to have magically climbed the pole like the station wagon you mentioned.
This reminds me of a fatal car crash I had the very unfortunate opportunity to witness.
My friend and I got off a bus at the same stop; he crossed the road in front of the bus (not checking both directions of traffic), and was hit by a car that was overtaking the stopped bus. Not surprisingly, he was killed instantly.
The bizarre thing was, both his shoes - laces perfectly tied - came off during the impact. It’s the one image that even now (some 11 years later) that is so vivid in my mind, and the reason why I cried when I saw Steven King’s Pet Semetary (the little boy’s shoes perform this same trick).
To answer your question: Shit Happens - and who knows why?
In terms of the physics of it, a car moving at a good speed has lots of energy, and it is fairly easy to see how that energy could be translated into raising the cars center of mass. At 60 mph, a car has the energy to raise it’s center 26 feet or so, and if it is just leaning against a pole then it’s mass is probably raised only 7 feet or so. Assume that the car was well built (so as to avoid excessive deformation) and the pole was solid and anchored well, the energy has to go somewhere. If there is a pole shaped indentation in the cars front, and rotating around the pole is somehow a more resisted path than riding up, then up it goes.
I think most light poles (not electric poles, though) are now break-away and cars are more frequently designed to deform in a manner safe to the passengers. It would have to be an odd set of circumstances to cause a car to climb a pole like that. On the other hand it is certainly possible, and lots of accidents occur so it’s bound to happen now and then.