The combined zones of two vehicles will not prevent serious injury, or death, if the terminal speed of the collision is too high.
As one who designed crumple zone in the automotive industry, I can assure you properly belted passenger, riding is a vehicle in which the passenger compartment was no intruded upon, can and do die if the terminal speed of the 'third collision,' where one organs strike the skeleton, is too high.
mike
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>>
>> jim beam wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> indeed - you want the extremities to deform and absorb shock, and the
>>> passenger shell to be uncrushable.
>>
>> For clarification for the benefit of the unconvinced, the slow >> deformation of the
>> crush/crumple zones provides relatively gentle deceleration compared to a >> vehicle
>> that doesn't bend much.
>>
>> The crumpled metal may be what saved your life ! It's like they act as a >> cushion
>> in an accident whereas in stiff vehicle it's like hitting a brick wall >> because
>> there's no 'give'.
>
> True, but if I'm driving a stiff vehicle with no give, but I crash into
> one that has plenty then I'm still protected, like hitting a barricade
> that crumples on impact. If I hit a rock wall or some other object with no
> give then I better hope I'm not going very fast. The crush zones of both
> vehicles together matters more than which vehicle crushes, unless you're
> donating your passenger compartment as part of that crush zone.
>
>>
>> Graham
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