What on earth did I just ride through?!

[ohnovino]

Ever seen an accident and been left bewildered at what's happened?

I've just ridden past an accident maybe 30 seconds after it had happened, and I couldn't believe the carnage. It looked like half a dozen vehicles had damage, with debris spread all over the road.

What I can't get my head round is that the impact (and most of the debris) was on my side of a dual-carrigeway, but there was another car on the other side of the road, facing the wrong way and with bits missing. The only way I can see that happening is if they were going so fast that they've gone straight through the Give Way and jumped the roundabout you can see here

Before the crash I'd been cursing the dopey woman in front who'd been holding me up - now I guess those few seconds might have saved me!

 

[upsidedown]

It's only when you see it that you realise the energy involved in car crashes. Glad you're ok.

 

[Zoiders]

The mess can be suprising but remember that if it's a head on smash you have to add the speed of both cars together to give an actual idea of the striking energy involved.

 

[smokeysmoo]

Remember as well that modern cars are actually designed to deform in an impact, and with all the plastic covers, cowls and panels that disintegrate in a crash things can look worse than they really are.

+1 glad your ok, and hope the vehicle occupants were ok too

 

[Chrisz]

Also consider that most modern cars have loads of plastic bits at the fronts, mostly clipped together so even with a small/low speed impact bits fall off!

 

[Orange]

Travelling down the M1 once I saw a brown cloud rising in the distance. As I approached I saw a car on the opposite carriageway, parked in the fast lane, facing the wrong direction. The two front seat passengers were looking around bewildered - and with good reason - there was no back half to their car! It had been completely severed and I could not see where the back half was.

I had passed it in seconds but even now, years later, can still vividly recall the image of those two swivelling heads in the front seats. It certainly made me slow right down for the rest of the journey.

 

[ohnovino]

It's in the local paper today. Apparently the car that went over the roundabout was driven by a man in his 80s who blacked out at the wheel, and one of the cars he hit was driven by a pregnant woman, who also had her young boy as a passenger. Thankfully it sounds like everyone escaped with minor injuries.

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

The mess can be suprising but remember that if it's a head on smash you have to add the speed of both cars together to give an actual idea of the striking energy involved.

The boffins will be along shortly to tell us why it's not quite as straightforward as adding the 2 speeds

 

[Gixxerman]

You have to also accept that kinetic energy, which is the important thing in impacts, is proportional to the square of the speed (E[sub]k[/sub]=1/2 mv[sup]2[/sup]).
So imagine an impact at 15mph - this would be quite a bump and cause quite a bit on damage.
Imagine the same bump, but this time at 30mph. The impact is not twice the 15mph impact, but actually 4 times.
Imagine the same bump again, but this time at 60mph. The impact is not 4 times the 15mph impact, but actually 16 times.

 

[calibanzwei]

The mess can be suprising but remember that if it's a head on smash you have to add the speed of both cars together to give an actual idea of the striking energy involved.

When metal can look like water...
[media]
]View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfDoQwIAaXg[/media]