In this case the Durango also had the advantage of being the higher car.
It hit the Mercedes on a point that is to high for the safety construction to be effective.
I remember an experiment on an english website. They took two identical vehicles, both Ford Mondeo's. The loaded one with the maximum allowable weight so that it was lowered on it's suspension. The other one was empty except the driver. They crashed those cars head-on at moderate speeds.
One would expect the heavier car to rip through the lighter car. But no....
The lighter car was more then a inch higher then the heavy car and hit above the safety construction. The lighter car crashed through the heavier one and was in better shape afterwards.
Between the Durango and the MB the difference in height is more then one inch. Poor people in the MB never had a chance. This is one of the reasons why governments (at least ours) is trying to restrict SUV's.
In the early days of SRS, they concentrated on frontal impacts but in todays world (thanks to companies like Volvo) we see the true risk to life and limb come from side impacts. But they cannot (at least at this stage) build in crush protection for side impacts and until the can find a way this sad story will be repeated many times. My heart goes out to the family of this tragic accident.
It also appears they cut the car apart with the jaws of life to get to the occupants. So it looks far worse than it probably did. Still, major ouch there! I wonder how my 84 300D would've faired?
i was flipping through this thread to see if anyone had mentioned that...the damage is probably way worse than it was because the firemen had to cut away much of the car to get to the occupants. obviously it was still bad, but not as bad in the picture.
and like some mentioned, the durango is an SUV, the c class is one of the smallest models offered by mercedes...there's only so much any car can do against that.
o my, that c class at least protected some of the people in that car. it did its best from what i can tell and i hope my car would at least give that effort, however in a situation like that i would expect to die. that did happen to me once, a minivan came across an intersection when i had the green, and i hit her in my Audi 90CS, she was at fault and right as i was saying to myself, im going to die, the airbag activated. im very happy that it did, walked away with minor injuries; and it was also a good thing it happend right in front of the fire dpt. and the hospital was only two blocks down the street. Very sorry to hear about the loss of life.
That's why SUV's are the safest choice. The high bumpers and heavy weight are double protection against the pocket rockets out there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by deheld
In this case the Durango also had the advantage of being the higher car.
It hit the Mercedes on a point that is to high for the safety construction to be effective.
I remember an experiment on an english website. They took two identical vehicles, both Ford Mondeo's. The loaded one with the maximum allowable weight so that it was lowered on it's suspension. The other one was empty except the driver. They crashed those cars head-on at moderate speeds.
One would expect the heavier car to rip through the lighter car. But no....
The lighter car was more then a inch higher then the heavy car and hit above the safety construction. The lighter car crashed through the heavier one and was in better shape afterwards.
Between the Durango and the MB the difference in height is more then one inch. Poor people in the MB never had a chance. This is one of the reasons why governments (at least ours) is trying to restrict SUV's.
by the looks of that... i would make the judgement that if it were 3 series sedan (06+) that the front passenger would have made it alive (if the car is left hand drive)... the driver would def. be raped, no matter what car. back passengers... i dont know. i would think at least one would survive. thats why i tell all my passengers in the back to wear their seatbelts. what do you guys think?
by the looks of that... i would make the judgement that if it were 3 series sedan (06+) that the front passenger would have made it alive (if the car is left hand drive)... the driver would def. be raped, no matter what car. back passengers... i dont know. i would think at least one would survive. thats why i tell all my passengers in the back to wear their seatbelts. what do you guys think?
it goes without saying that you must always wear your belt. but the fatalities in this Mercedes did not occur through rapid deceleration (as you'd experience in a head on), but more likely through excessive crushing as the safety cage collapsed in on the occupants. In this case, it would have made no odds to the chance of survival whether the occupants were buckled up or not.
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