Wow!!! First of all, glad you're ok too! Man that just made me think about life can just flash in front of you just like that. Thats a hard impact you had there. Keep up updated on your situation and hope you'll recover to 100% soon.
Unstoppable 80 meets immovable object (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter scottm
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When this happened, my wife and I were in Michigan on vacation. On the way to the hospital, I was able to piece together enough information to identify the crash scene so I stopped to record it with photos, video and measurements. I brought a tape measure and rain gear as it was a freezing rainy day.
Scott hit a construction crane parked a few feet off the freeway early in the predawn hours near Gary, IN in January. As close as it was to the roadway, there was little or no chance to brake before the impact. I think I remember the crane being 12 feet from the road or something. Based on marks from his Cruiser, the damage to the Cruiser, and the energy required to move the construction crane some 50 inches, the impact speed had to be 60 or better. He's alive because of:
1 God's Grace
2 The LandCruiser's strength
3 He's one tough SOB
I was alone when I arrived at the scene. The Cruiser had been removed, but I knew instantly I had found it when I saw easily identifiable Cruiser parts around and beyond the crane. A fender flare here, a headlamp bezel there - lots of parts. I broke down in tears immediately and just stood there in the ankle deep mud. I had not yet seen Scott's condition and little was known yet but the violence of the mangled parts hit me like a body blow. Not expecting this, I had not prepared myself for it. I walked back to my car and retrieved the cameras and tape measure, note pad, plastic bags and hat and started doing what I'd sought out the place for. As I did, the enormity of the impact began to unfold.
I found a timing gear stuck in the mud 78 feet past the crane. Wading around the scene, parts were crunching under my boots in the mud and standing water ran in rivulets topped with engine oil. Incredibly, I felt something underfoot and instinctively shoved my hand down into the mud and came up with Scott's airline tie with the logo tie tack still on it. I broke down again and leaned on the crane for a minute, now fully realizing that this could have been my little brother's death scene and overcome simultaneously by the randomness and yet the appropriateness of finding this highly personal item.
I could see that the impact point was directly on the crane's solid counterweight as the ruts from the front tires lead straight to it, then got at least twice as deep for several feet. From examining the 80 later, it was clear the truck was underriding the weight, which shoved the 80 down as the crane moved. It took me about 30 minutes to fill a few bags with little things, measure distances and photograph the scene. Scott still hasn't seen these, but I'll be getting him a disc soon.
The next day, the rest of the Miller lads converged on the tow lot where the 80 was being stored 3 of us, plus Dad. We were not supposed to be back in the holding area, but the owner relented when told we needed to find his flight bag, which held an ID that allows access to security areas of any US airport. I thought I was ready for anything after seeing the accident scene, but looking at the car I was incredulous at how much damage it had sustained. You'll see what I'm talking about with pictures, but I will also describe it a bit so you'll more fully comprehend.
The first photo is looking straight back from the driver's headlight. The
yellow tag near the photo center is on the ARB offroad bumper and started
that morning perfectly horizontal. It is now vertical and if you follow it
straight down you'll see the open square hole of the left frame member that
broke as it approached 90 degrees of bend. The other side did not fail and
is a near perfect 90 degree bend. The bumper is moved rearward 28 inches
(!) and upwards. Following the longitudinal frame members rearward, they
describe a series of waves with a peak in front of the firewall, a trough
under the driver's seat, and another peak under the middle row of seats.
Examine the front edge of the hood closely at photo center and you'll see a
slight upward notch exposing some crushed bare aluminum. This is the top of
the engine's timing cover and a broken gear is visible. This is where the
crane's massive counterweight (a slab of iron a foot thick and 8 feet
across) hit the engine and shoved it rearward so far that the transfer case hit the fuel tank. A factory fuel tank skidplate limited tank damage to a 10 in deep crush. The transfer case then hit the ground and is in fact pressed so hard against the ground that it's partly responsible for the rear end being up so high.
Remarkably, the front structure did as it was designed and
forced the engine downward and under the floor pan despite a level and speed
of force applied to it well beyond design parameters, though the firewall
and dash intruded approximately 10 inches into the front passenger space.
The driver's floor also has a roll of sheetmetal radiating from the
transmission tunnel that engulfed the edge of the floormat so firmly I could
not pull it out. I cannot speak to the front passenger's floor as the dash
intruded further on that side and there was no space between it and the seat
cushion. In fact, while retrieving my brother's personal belongings, we
snaked a foot long flexible light down there and discovered his flight gear
and had to kick and tear at the dash with tools to extract it as it contained the ID we were after. With me standing on the seat putting my shoulder to the roof and my brother pulling on the bag, we got enough space to pull the bag out - tearing it in the process.
This picture speaks for itself, showing how much the front structure
was crushed. It's worth noting that had the load not been shared by two
major points of near simultaneous contact (bumper/frame vs crane's frame and
engine/drivetrain/crossmembers vs crane's counterweight) the impact might
not have been survivable. By this I mean to say that a bumper/frame only
impact might have reduced the space my brother was cut out of to an
unsurvivable size. As it was, he was quite thoroughly trapped, so this
figured prominently into his relatively good shape (broken femur,cracked
pelvis, cracked hip etc).
It's hard to describe how effective the ARB bumper appears to have been in
controlling the front deformation. I studied this in particular for quite
some time. By tying the two front frame tips together far more stoutly than
the factory bumper, it appears to
have figured prominently. In fact, the ARB was so strong that it cut through one
of the crane's obviously heavy duty tires halfway across the tread, then
bent the lip of the heavily made rim and even spun the tire on the rim about
20 degrees - yet the bumper did not deform much at this point of contact
between the frame attachments as you can see in the first photo. The factory bumper would have simply caved
in and pulled the frame tips inward, instantly reducing their ability to
withstand longitudinal force of the coming impact peak. The strength of
this bumper also distributed impact forces all across its width by not
failing/caving, which reduced the depth of penetration at any single point
across its face. As only one benefit of this behavior, it prevented the
engine from receiving another rearward hit that may have shoved the
firewall/dash assembly in further. I'd like to have that bumper bronzed.
Other random observations from the vehicle:
The front edge of the roof hit the counterweight, indicating the vehicle's
rear wheels left the ground and it briefly had a tail up attitude of
possibly 30 degrees. I don't know how much of that was frame flex before it
rebounded and how much was actual air time.
The center seat backs are about 20 degrees forward from their original
position from floor pan deformation (they don't appear bent).
Out of curiousity, I pulled the cable release for the gas flap which was
buried in debris. Oddly it worked. The hood release did not (heh).
The entire moonroof assembly detached and separated from the vehicle.
No gasoline was found at the crash site, nor was any evident under the
vehicle after it was moved to the tow yard - outstanding performance.
The trim around the ignition key deformed rearward far enough to engulf the
remaining keys on the ring during the crash, then snapped back to pin all
the keys in the dash. I had to use pliers and a screwdriver to tear off the trim and retrieve his keys.
An ABS plastic toolbox was secured to the cargo floor with
double motorcycle straps of the ratchet style. Though it did not move much, it
evidently tried to so hard the sides of the box cracked. An excellent
reminder to secure your stuff as even an unsecured can of pop would kill at
this speed.
While the guy out front was preoccupied, we got all Scott's personal belongings out of the truck and quickly stripped anything that was removeable. I pulled the wheel caps, now on my new 97 (Thanks, Scott!), the tools, jack, emblems, and a few misc things. Given a couple hours, I'd have taken more but this was enough. Oh, his rear hatch inner lock button is now on my 93 (Sorry Scott, forgot about this - heh) since my 4 year old son discovered it unscrews in 3 seconds.
Hope those picture links work. If they don't can someone fix them? Thanks. Night all....
DougM
Scott hit a construction crane parked a few feet off the freeway early in the predawn hours near Gary, IN in January. As close as it was to the roadway, there was little or no chance to brake before the impact. I think I remember the crane being 12 feet from the road or something. Based on marks from his Cruiser, the damage to the Cruiser, and the energy required to move the construction crane some 50 inches, the impact speed had to be 60 or better. He's alive because of:
1 God's Grace
2 The LandCruiser's strength
3 He's one tough SOB
I was alone when I arrived at the scene. The Cruiser had been removed, but I knew instantly I had found it when I saw easily identifiable Cruiser parts around and beyond the crane. A fender flare here, a headlamp bezel there - lots of parts. I broke down in tears immediately and just stood there in the ankle deep mud. I had not yet seen Scott's condition and little was known yet but the violence of the mangled parts hit me like a body blow. Not expecting this, I had not prepared myself for it. I walked back to my car and retrieved the cameras and tape measure, note pad, plastic bags and hat and started doing what I'd sought out the place for. As I did, the enormity of the impact began to unfold.
I found a timing gear stuck in the mud 78 feet past the crane. Wading around the scene, parts were crunching under my boots in the mud and standing water ran in rivulets topped with engine oil. Incredibly, I felt something underfoot and instinctively shoved my hand down into the mud and came up with Scott's airline tie with the logo tie tack still on it. I broke down again and leaned on the crane for a minute, now fully realizing that this could have been my little brother's death scene and overcome simultaneously by the randomness and yet the appropriateness of finding this highly personal item.
I could see that the impact point was directly on the crane's solid counterweight as the ruts from the front tires lead straight to it, then got at least twice as deep for several feet. From examining the 80 later, it was clear the truck was underriding the weight, which shoved the 80 down as the crane moved. It took me about 30 minutes to fill a few bags with little things, measure distances and photograph the scene. Scott still hasn't seen these, but I'll be getting him a disc soon.
The next day, the rest of the Miller lads converged on the tow lot where the 80 was being stored 3 of us, plus Dad. We were not supposed to be back in the holding area, but the owner relented when told we needed to find his flight bag, which held an ID that allows access to security areas of any US airport. I thought I was ready for anything after seeing the accident scene, but looking at the car I was incredulous at how much damage it had sustained. You'll see what I'm talking about with pictures, but I will also describe it a bit so you'll more fully comprehend.
The first photo is looking straight back from the driver's headlight. The
yellow tag near the photo center is on the ARB offroad bumper and started
that morning perfectly horizontal. It is now vertical and if you follow it
straight down you'll see the open square hole of the left frame member that
broke as it approached 90 degrees of bend. The other side did not fail and
is a near perfect 90 degree bend. The bumper is moved rearward 28 inches
(!) and upwards. Following the longitudinal frame members rearward, they
describe a series of waves with a peak in front of the firewall, a trough
under the driver's seat, and another peak under the middle row of seats.
Examine the front edge of the hood closely at photo center and you'll see a
slight upward notch exposing some crushed bare aluminum. This is the top of
the engine's timing cover and a broken gear is visible. This is where the
crane's massive counterweight (a slab of iron a foot thick and 8 feet
across) hit the engine and shoved it rearward so far that the transfer case hit the fuel tank. A factory fuel tank skidplate limited tank damage to a 10 in deep crush. The transfer case then hit the ground and is in fact pressed so hard against the ground that it's partly responsible for the rear end being up so high.
Remarkably, the front structure did as it was designed and
forced the engine downward and under the floor pan despite a level and speed
of force applied to it well beyond design parameters, though the firewall
and dash intruded approximately 10 inches into the front passenger space.
The driver's floor also has a roll of sheetmetal radiating from the
transmission tunnel that engulfed the edge of the floormat so firmly I could
not pull it out. I cannot speak to the front passenger's floor as the dash
intruded further on that side and there was no space between it and the seat
cushion. In fact, while retrieving my brother's personal belongings, we
snaked a foot long flexible light down there and discovered his flight gear
and had to kick and tear at the dash with tools to extract it as it contained the ID we were after. With me standing on the seat putting my shoulder to the roof and my brother pulling on the bag, we got enough space to pull the bag out - tearing it in the process.
This picture speaks for itself, showing how much the front structure
was crushed. It's worth noting that had the load not been shared by two
major points of near simultaneous contact (bumper/frame vs crane's frame and
engine/drivetrain/crossmembers vs crane's counterweight) the impact might
not have been survivable. By this I mean to say that a bumper/frame only
impact might have reduced the space my brother was cut out of to an
unsurvivable size. As it was, he was quite thoroughly trapped, so this
figured prominently into his relatively good shape (broken femur,cracked
pelvis, cracked hip etc).
It's hard to describe how effective the ARB bumper appears to have been in
controlling the front deformation. I studied this in particular for quite
some time. By tying the two front frame tips together far more stoutly than
the factory bumper, it appears to
have figured prominently. In fact, the ARB was so strong that it cut through one
of the crane's obviously heavy duty tires halfway across the tread, then
bent the lip of the heavily made rim and even spun the tire on the rim about
20 degrees - yet the bumper did not deform much at this point of contact
between the frame attachments as you can see in the first photo. The factory bumper would have simply caved
in and pulled the frame tips inward, instantly reducing their ability to
withstand longitudinal force of the coming impact peak. The strength of
this bumper also distributed impact forces all across its width by not
failing/caving, which reduced the depth of penetration at any single point
across its face. As only one benefit of this behavior, it prevented the
engine from receiving another rearward hit that may have shoved the
firewall/dash assembly in further. I'd like to have that bumper bronzed.
Other random observations from the vehicle:
The front edge of the roof hit the counterweight, indicating the vehicle's
rear wheels left the ground and it briefly had a tail up attitude of
possibly 30 degrees. I don't know how much of that was frame flex before it
rebounded and how much was actual air time.
The center seat backs are about 20 degrees forward from their original
position from floor pan deformation (they don't appear bent).
Out of curiousity, I pulled the cable release for the gas flap which was
buried in debris. Oddly it worked. The hood release did not (heh).
The entire moonroof assembly detached and separated from the vehicle.
No gasoline was found at the crash site, nor was any evident under the
vehicle after it was moved to the tow yard - outstanding performance.
The trim around the ignition key deformed rearward far enough to engulf the
remaining keys on the ring during the crash, then snapped back to pin all
the keys in the dash. I had to use pliers and a screwdriver to tear off the trim and retrieve his keys.
An ABS plastic toolbox was secured to the cargo floor with
double motorcycle straps of the ratchet style. Though it did not move much, it
evidently tried to so hard the sides of the box cracked. An excellent
reminder to secure your stuff as even an unsecured can of pop would kill at
this speed.
While the guy out front was preoccupied, we got all Scott's personal belongings out of the truck and quickly stripped anything that was removeable. I pulled the wheel caps, now on my new 97 (Thanks, Scott!), the tools, jack, emblems, and a few misc things. Given a couple hours, I'd have taken more but this was enough. Oh, his rear hatch inner lock button is now on my 93 (Sorry Scott, forgot about this - heh) since my 4 year old son discovered it unscrews in 3 seconds.
Hope those picture links work. If they don't can someone fix them? Thanks. Night all....
DougM
Incredible Doug. I'll add my best wishes for Scott. I am in awe that he came out of that relatively unscathed, simply amazed.
Your vivid descriptions will be with me as I drive, probably for the next year! What a endorsement of the 80, ARB bullbars and tie down straps!
Just out of curiosity, I was not clear was part of the crane in the roadway or did Scott hit it avoiding something?
Your vivid descriptions will be with me as I drive, probably for the next year! What a endorsement of the 80, ARB bullbars and tie down straps!
Just out of curiosity, I was not clear was part of the crane in the roadway or did Scott hit it avoiding something?
Glad to see that he was in a LC instead of any other vehicle...looks like the LC did what it was intended in a crash...even though it was with a crane. Unbelieveable damage to the LC, but only suffered a few broken bones. Hope the recovery will be smoot the rest of the way.
Good Lord! I wouldn't have thought it by the description, but I am glad I can say get well soon! I'm sure parts of your recovery have been difficult, and we wish you the best. You, Doug and your Family are certainly in our prayers!
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MaddBaggins
Remember the KnightRider!
I've been in 2 horrible car accidents in my life and was told both times I should be dead. It makes you realize that there must be a purpose to your life when this happens. I'm glad you are OK. Reading this and seeing the pictures brought a teers to my eyes. Thanks to the powers that be that you are recovering! I wish you and your family well 
I wish I could think of better words than "I am glad to hear you made it thruogh". God's spead on your recovery.
My wife is pregnant and this is the exact reason I will happily give her the Cruiser to drive and I'll take her economy model.
Buck
My wife is pregnant and this is the exact reason I will happily give her the Cruiser to drive and I'll take her economy model.
Buck
What amazes me is that ARB claims the bar is NOT air bag compatible......obviously that's not true. You can see the airbag deployed.
airlaird
airlaird
ryanjl
SILVER Star
airlaird said:
I think they make that claim because they never did any official crash tests with the bullbar mounted. Gets them out of legal problems.
Glad you'll be OK, Scott. Hope you are running soon!
airlaird said:
The issue is with response timing of deployment. At the force of impact where the frame is that distorted the airbag would deploy reguardless of what you had in front. It's about whether or not the bar delayed the deployment which could result in greater injury.
makes me glad I drive one of these things. Can't imagine what an explorer would look like under the same conditions.
Glad to hear you are doing OK, and hope for a fast recovery.
On another semi-comical note, Did you have any C pillar cracking before the accident? If you did or didn't, how bout now? Any change in that. I would think with all the stress in a wreck like that, that crack may spread some. If not, then I guess none of use have much to worry about, other than preventing rust.
Again, I'm glad you can share an experience like that with us. It helps us all realize what we paying for with a vehicle like the 80, great engineering and safety.
-Gary
On another semi-comical note, Did you have any C pillar cracking before the accident? If you did or didn't, how bout now? Any change in that. I would think with all the stress in a wreck like that, that crack may spread some. If not, then I guess none of use have much to worry about, other than preventing rust.
Again, I'm glad you can share an experience like that with us. It helps us all realize what we paying for with a vehicle like the 80, great engineering and safety.
-Gary
I'm so sorry to hear about your accident, but so glad that it came out as well as it did. Really puts the trivial problems discussed here into perspective. Thanks for taking the time to share this experience with everyone here, and I wish you a very speedy recovery.
Incredible pictures, good luck on your recovery.
ouch passenger side did not fair as well as the drives side, Thanks for the description and pics, makes that arb sound very inexpensive.
Two things ran through my mind as I read this thread and looked at the pictures:
1. Thank you Lord, for your care and mercy.
2. Might want to get an ARB.
1. Thank you Lord, for your care and mercy.
2. Might want to get an ARB.
Doug,
Do you have any observations or opinions on the effectiveness of the airbag? Were both bags deployed?
You've made past mention on the 80's front door design and that it has a lip designed to help in the event of this type of crash. Can you elaborate on what you saw with regard to the front and rear doors?
-B-
Do you have any observations or opinions on the effectiveness of the airbag? Were both bags deployed?
You've made past mention on the 80's front door design and that it has a lip designed to help in the event of this type of crash. Can you elaborate on what you saw with regard to the front and rear doors?
-B-
Scott--Glad you made it out and are doing well. The pictures are pretty scary---makes me want to get another one with airbags. Did this cruiser have the OME lift on it?--I have always wondered what the effect would be in a crash for good or bad.
Also after seeing this Doug what do you think about sliders in a crash like this?
Also after seeing this Doug what do you think about sliders in a crash like this?
