Suppose a car is moving at high speed, say between 60 and 75 mph, when it strikes a motionless car directly. The driver of the first car is wearing his or her seatbelt, and has fully working airbags.
Typically, would a person survive this type of accident?
“Typically” I believe the answer is yes they would survive. The majority of most classes of accidents are non-fatal. Your hypothetical is like a typical head on at 30mph. “Most” drivers with airbags survive those.
If your interest is more about what is likely to happen, hypothetically, you may be interested by this piece about non-contact brain injuries.
I think a lot of it depends on the type of car also. Size, weight, type of frame, and year of vehicle would all matter in determining the safety of the passenger in this vehicle. For example, a person in a Ford Focus would probably sustain more damage and injury compared to a person in a Mercedes S550.
This just happened in San Diego- the first vehicle was a big-assed truck which hit the second vehicle (a Honda) head-on.
The driver of the truck was unharmed and ran away. The driver of the second car was killed instantly.
A whole lot depends on exactly which car is doing the striking, and what is struck.
Here is a video of a Smart car and another cheap car doing a glancing blow into a barrier at 70 mph. About 4:40 in you get to see what is left of the driver’s foot well of the Smart. If the driver had lived, he would have no lower legs for sure, and quite likely no legs at all. Compare that to the intrusion in the foot well of the other car.
One of the most severely damaged Volvos I have ever seen was stopped at a toll both and rear ended by a cement truck going and estimated 70 mph. The blow did not hit square, it was off set to one side. It threw the car forward like it had been launched by a missile. :eek: Both drivers lived. The cement truck’s due to the sheer mass (The Volvo did not impede its progress much), and the Volvo’s due to the seats and belts.
Larger is not always better when it comes to crash safety. Large SUVs that have ladder frames can be too stiff in a crash and transmit too much crash force back into the passenger compartment, not to mention their greater mass means more energy to dissipate.
Thanks all. As you might have guessed, the situation in the OP almost happened to me. I was in my 96 Toyota Celica, and I almost struck a stationary SUV of some type that broke down on the highway.
I never guessed it was you, but driving a 1996 Celica, it would have been pretty nasty. Good thing it didn’t come to that.