2017 LX570 Saved my life! (1 Viewer)
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- Thread starter
- #22
That’s insane! But another example of how safe these vehicles are! And probably some element of luck. Glad to hear she walked away relatively unscathed. Was she at a stop when she was hit?
bloc
SILVER Star
I go to auto accidents for work very often. Based on the condition of that tundra, in most cases this would be a life altering incident… IMO your wreck was both great vehicle design and a lot of luck.. glad you made it out with relatively minor injuries.
No, she had moved over to the side
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- Thread starter
- #25
I can only guess that there is significantly more energy in a head on collision where 2 vehicles are approaching each other vs 1 vehicle hitting a stationary object. My mind is blown right now!
I think it helped that they did not hit directly head on. In the pic with the truck, the truck was spinning and hit my wife’s driver side corner with the trucks passenger front corner. The truck then spun counter clockwise and the passenger bed side hit my wife again on her driver side rear quarter panel. Here is the DPS illustration from their report.
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Holy Shīt, I’ve been to years and years worth of accidents, you my friend are very lucky to have walked away from that. and to “only“ sustain the broken arm is incredible for sure. Glad youre on the mend and the Lexus protected you.
Wow. It's pretty incredible that you got away with that little injury. Certainly one of the better outcomes!
Absolutely right! I got rear ended (enough to significantly bend the 1/4" steel frame/hitch in the back of my Tacoma) while sitting at a red light in 2018. Some personal injuries involved. Even with a lawyer, it took 4 years to get a (meagre) cheque from the insurance company.
Absolutely right! I got rear ended (enough to significantly bend the 1/4" steel frame/hitch in the back of my Tacoma) while sitting at a red light in 2018. Some personal injuries involved. Even with a lawyer, it took 4 years to get a (meagre) cheque from the insurance company.
greynolds
SILVER Star
Pretty much, yes. If both vehicles are going 50mph in a head on collision, the impact is the same as one of the vehicles going 100mph and the other one stopped.
Very glad to hear you were able to walk away from your accident and are on the mend.
You're right, and the math definitely maths to support it. Seeing stories about bad accidents in 200s always makes me feel bad for the people involved, but makes me feel good about what I'm driving.
bloc
SILVER Star
As I understand it that’s not strictly true. Kinetic energy increases with the square of velocity. So while those 50mph cars would “cancel out” and basically be like hitting a wall, the same car at 100mph with double the velocity would have four times the kinetic energy hitting whatever it did.
greynolds
SILVER Star
It has been a long, long, time since I had my college physics courses (or made use of much of it), so my memory is kind of foggy on lots of it... These sites seem to do a decent job of explaining what happens in the 2 scenarios:
Mythbusters on Head-on Collisions | Greg Laden's Blog
gregladen.com
There are, of course, a ton of variables involved. For example, crumple zones make a huge difference in the amount of damage the human ends up with and walls don't usually have crumple zones (this is probably why some of the barriers on highways now have something similar to crumple zones instead of just a solid block of concrete).
No matter what the specifics are, these types of collisions are never fun. When someone walks away relatively unharmed, it's a good end result.
bloc
SILVER Star
It has been a long, long, time since I had my college physics courses (or made use of much of it), so my memory is kind of foggy on lots of it... These sites seem to do a decent job of explaining what happens in the 2 scenarios:
Mythbusters on Head-on Collisions | Greg Laden's Blog
There are, of course, a ton of variables involved. For example, crumple zones make a huge difference in the amount of damage the human ends up with and walls don't usually have crumple zones (this is probably why some of the barriers on highways now have something similar to crumple zones instead of just a solid block of concrete).
No matter what the specifics are, these types of collisions are never fun. When someone walks away relatively unharmed, it's a good end result.
What I found really interesting and not at all intuitive is yes crumple zones matter with regard to the energy felt by the occupant, but when two of the exact same vehicle traveling at the same speed have a dead center head-on collision (however improbable that is) it is no different than either of them hitting a concrete wall.
What appeared to be of the best online articles I could find about where mythbusters was right and wrong is mostly behind a paywall.. I’m curious enough to learn more that I’m considering paying for it.
With regard to crumble zones on barriers.. another thing I get to see up close with relative frequency. And it’s crazier than you probably know. The corrugated metal barrier on wooden posts beside roads is often threaded into a large metal block at the end that pushes the barrier through it on impact, flattening the corrugation which dissipates energy. Or others that have multiple sliding stages, with the first one impacted anchored to a single high grade steel bolt that tears through a metal track with holes that are drilled progressively further apart, dissipating energy progressively less and less as the whole assembly gets closer to full compression and eventual concrete barrier impact.
All while attempting to make these systems cost effective.
I’ll see if I can get some pictures.
greynolds
SILVER Star
Yeah, I ran into the pay wall on some of the articles that looked promising as well.
God bless! That LX did its job magnificently. Glad you are alive.
Amazing guardian angel action, particularly on the absence of marble counter tops on that rack deal. I wonder if the Toyota-on-Toyota action also protected you with some 'we make all of our vehicles particularly crash-compatible with each other,' magic. That would be a very Mr. T thing to do.
