That'll Buff Right Out

[canucksafari]

Aussie in a 100 Series took a rock through the windshield which caused him to lose control and smash into a hydro pole. Apparently the only injury was to his head from the rock coming through the windshield. Guess he was glad he didn't have his wife's Prius and he was alone.

Full set of pics and more story here:
Koo Wee Rup crash | Koo Wee Rup smash | Herald Sun

 

[Cruisin']

He should have had one of my bumpers on there. Would have been able to drive it away after (except for the rock to the head injury

 

[canucksafari]

The pics in the link show very little intrusion of the engine into the passenger compartment. I was amazed at that given the damage to the pole. These things slice vehicles in half. So what if the 100 has a crappy front diff. It's got some other good structural design going on there.

 

[sailor]

That is quite the shunt. Agreed the structure did a fine job there...

 

[wrongway around]

wow. more hats off to the thin wall pole engineering.cannot believe he did not get zapped .probably lucky the transformer blew up and the disconnects were right there. must have been not so fast cause the reinforcing alone would have lite up the change that was in his pants.lucky for sure .

 

[canucksafari]

Nope, the wires were live and on the Land Cruiser until hydro was able to shut off the power.

 

[wrongway around]

buy a lotto ticket . i have seen first hand what happens when you get to close to power it is not very for giving to say the least . almost unbelievable on all accounts.

 

[Wheelingnoob]

I would have thought having a stouter bumper on there like Jason said may have in fact done more harm than good. With the stock bumper and everything on there it helped to absorb the impact of the collision and therefore reducing the overall G forces exerted on the drivers body app on collision.

 

[Cruisin']

A good point. In my opinion (just an opinion, no actual research or anything to back this up) in lower speed collisions having a big stout bumper will probably result in what feels like a harder hit because it won't deflect like the stock tin and tupperware stuff. Though the vehicle will more likely still be drivable. In a higher speed hit like the one in this thread I'm thinking its such a hard impact that stuff is going to give, like the frame and everything. Newer vehicles than the 80s (probably the 100 series would count as newer here) have some crumple zone even built into the front of the frame in the form of strategically placed "wrinkles" where the frame would start to deform in the event of a hard enough hit. This design would be more effective at absorbing crash energy even with a big hunk of steel bolted on in front of it.

But what do I know. I'm a welder, not an engineer.