I found this message relating to a fatal crash interesting because it might have relevance to the accident described here earlier. I have seen side impact crashes with similar damage to the car before that were survivable and wondered if there were perhaps other reasons besides head trauma that could have caused the fatalities.
Because there is little crush space to be spared for a side impact Mercedes like other cars that limit side impact intrusion do so by building extremely rigid structures for protection after the limited crush/crumple zone is used up. Once the structure has crushed to its limit the remaining crash energy is translated into acceleration forces as the vehicle is pushed along by the vehicle that impacts it. The same acceleration forces that cause whiplash injuries are now acting on the occupants internal organs as their bodies are shoved sideways with great force.
Here is the message:
As a physician, I am very happy for your family.
It could have been much worse.
These days with people listening to loud music, eating, drinking (Yes I drink coffee in the car!), doing make-up and talking on cell phone, driving is no longer taken seriously, especially by teenagers...
I have seen all kinds of accidents with the most recent at the Iowa and Nebraska border. I looked after the lone survivor in this accident:
http://www.dailyiowan.com/media/sto....dailyiowan.com
A few college students returning back to U Iowa for schooling, at the Underwood Exit (10 miles east of IA-NE border), on an eastbound exit ramp stop sign, the driver inched the car forward, then out of nowhere a pickup truck came southbound (? 60-70 mph), T-boned the car, 2 students died instantly.
The driver survived but sustained massive injuries (air-lifted to our hospital).
He is a big kid (220 lbs) and broke a whole bunch of bones: the most amazing finding was the femur socket driven into the hip joint, missing the iliac artery by 5 mm!!!
It takes alot of force for that to happen! But also he lucked out because the femur head missed the major artery by a hair!
Their car flew 50 feet downstream.
The 2 students that died had the aorta sheared off (even if there is a hospital 10 feet away and a surgeon on standby, once the aorta is sheared off, only God can fix it...) and they died instantly....
A very sad scene.....
It appeared the other driver was on the cell phone......
Anyway, T-bone is bad because there is no "cushion" zone (like frontal crash with the engine compartment acting as a cushion; and rear-ending with the trunk acting as a cushion).
A side airbag can help but what saved your daughter is the fact that she was seated in the middle.
The statistics shows that the majority of accidents happen at intersection. Why?
- people try to beat a yellow light.
- people turn too early when driver from cross-traffic try to beat a red light...a classic T-bone.
At intersection:
I always look R and L before proceeding on green light, never know someone is in a hurry, or not looking, or on cell phone. I wait for cross traffic to come to a complete stop before proceeding.
I managed to avoid a few close calls!
Anyway, glad your family is OK. Car is always replaceable, not human lives.
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