Rolling Guillotine. Why Are These Legal?

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

In Driver’s Ed back in the late eighties, we had to watch a gory movie all about how dangerous these things were, and about how newer semis had to have a guard underneath that would hit the body of your car before the blade could chop you into bits.

Daniel

[danceswithcats]

@sciguy

I’m not sure if it’s required or not, but on a some (newer?) semis, there’s a “stop bar” sticking out from the bottom back bump that would, I assume, hit your front bumper and stop you before decapitation occurs.

It’s not new, and it’s called an ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission) bar. They’ve been around since the 1970s, and have been the subject of study as early as 1953. The argument has been regarding level of strength.

On one hand, a very stong bar precludes underrun, but that causes the striking vehicle to stop more abruptly, injuring occupants. On the other hand, a bar with greater engineered yield allows greater risk of intrusion into the passenger compartment of the striking vehicle.

My post stands regarding proper vehicle control and stopping distance maintenance. It won’t save you 100% of the time, but no system will.

[Interrobang]

@Ravenman

Right. We should stop requiring cars to have bumpers, too, because people are supposed to have their cars under control, and if one car hits another hard enough, bumpers won’t really make a difference.

It’s been proposed:

@Steven Landsburg

If you find it hard to believe that people drive less carefully when their cars are safer, consider the proposition that people drive more carefully when their cars are more dangerous. This is, of course, just another way of saying the same thing, but somehow people find it easier to believe. If the seat belts were removed from your car, wouldn’t you be more cautious in driving? Carrying this observation to the extreme, Armen Alchian of the University of California at Los Angeles has suggested a way to bring about a major reduction in the accident rate: Require every car to have a spear mounted on the steering wheel, pointing directly at the driver’s heart. Alchian confidently predicts that we would see a lot less tailgating.

[Zebra]

I recall a special on 13 about traffic accidents and one of the experts said, half-jokingly, that instead of air bags, cars should have a 12 inch steal spike on the center of the driver’s wheel. With that pointing at the driver, the driver would drive in a much safer fashion.

He pointed out how saftey features, like airbags, will make some people worse drivers. They feel they have a stronger probability of surviving an accident that they drive more recklessly.

[Terminus_Est]

How sad that people seem to have forgotten what happened to Jayne Mansfield, who was killed by just such a truck:

On June 29 at approximately 4:07 a.m., Mansfield died in a car accident on U.S. Highway 90 near Slidell, Louisiana. She was riding in the front seat of the 1966 Buick Electra with Harrison and Brody, and her children were sleeping in back, as the roadway became obscured by a white haze from a distant mosquito fogger, which prevented Harrison from discerning the presence of a slow-moving tractor-trailer ahead. They crashed into the truck and slid under it as the top of her car was sheared back. Though all three children survived with minor injuries, as they were cushioned from serious harm, the adults were instantly killed, as was Mansfield’s pet Chihuahua.

Erroneously, it was said that Mansfield was decapitated in the accident. This is not true, though she did suffer severe head trauma. This urban legend was possibly spawned by the fact that her blonde wig flew off her head and was seen in police photographs.

One of the children mentioned in the article is actress Mariska Hargitay of Law & Order: SVU fame.

[Ravenman]

@Q.E.D.

You do realize that bumpers aren’t any kind of safety device, right?

Fine, you win. Amend my last post to replace “bumpers” with “crumple zones.” Are you happy now?

[Q.E.D]

@Ravenman

Fine, you win. Amend my last post to replace “bumpers” with “crumple zones.” Are you happy now?

Works for me.

[Airman_Doors_USAF]

Do you have any idea how hard you would have to hit to have that thing come back through the passenger compartment and hit you? If you hit that hard you have bigger problems than worrying about getting your head taken off by a rollback.

[Skywatcher]

@Terminus Est

How sad that people seem to have forgotten what happened to Jayne Mansfield, who was killed by just such a truck

At an estimated 80 MPH, and I don’t think there’s such a thing as an 18-wheeled rollback.