Accident - May 16th - A23

Twas Mon, 17 May 2004 12:22:07 +0000 (UTC) when "Mark Solesbury" put finger to keyboard producing:

No you can't ever do that, but if you feel there is information that would affect their decisions on keeping it, then you could maybe share it? As far as I knew it's as safe as it's peers. if it was particularly unsafe it would not be on the road.

Depending on the crash that you saw photo's of, how would another similar size/weight vehicle have coped?

Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)

->From the look of it, it has disintegrated upon impact.

I doubt any vehicle will stand up well to what must have been at least a 140mph impact.

"Three other people in the Freelander - including a two-year-old child - were seriously injured."

I'd say the Freelander did it's job, wouldn't you? The BMW lost *all* it's occupants. My thoughts are with everyone involved....

Neil

Having now seen some details on the BBC website, I'd say it's remarkable that 3 out of 4 people survived in the Freelander. Even train drivers can be killed when involved in 140mph impacts, and they have a lot more steel around them than a Freelander. A Range Rover may have been better but we can't all drive around in Range Rovers. Personally, I'd stick to the Freelander.

David

I think you have to take the pictures with a pinch of salt. In cases like this often more damage is done to the vehicle by Fire & Rescue cutting the vehicle up to extract injured people without further injury. It's not uncommon to see a "reasonable" car totally wrecked after the firemen have cut off all the roof and doors, and dissasembled the footwells to free trapped legs etc etc.

Alex

...and let's face it cars today are designed to protect the contents by absorbing energy and crumpling

Mac

Having seen the mirror, they mentioned no speed at all.

From the information i now have, like you say Niel, the freelander did its job.

Just goes to show that speed kills. Whatever vehicle your in.

Mark.

Or that veering across a central reservation kills.

We need less focus on outright speed and more on sensible, skilful driving.

I totally agree; incidentally I am sitting here typing this whilst on TV is Men & Motors talking about 175 mph Lotus Espirit .... ironic

"PDannyD"

If you ever spend any time at breakers yards hunting for bits for your Motor ( landy included) you'll soon realise that they are far from invinceable thing that we may feel they are when we drive them!

Jinx

On or around Mon, 17 May 2004 14:52:41 +0100, Geoff enlightened us thusly:

which seems to be in several pieces...

the freelander appears to have collapsed much as modern vehicles are intended to do.

There are some impacts which are unsurvivable. as a case in point: Ayrton Senna was in a state-of-the art racing car cockpit, which can protect the driver at speeds far higher than any normal road impact, with full harness and helmet, yet he was killed.

->There are some impacts which are unsurvivable. as a case in point: Ayrton

->Senna was in a state-of-the art racing car cockpit, which can protect the

->driver at speeds far higher than any normal road impact, with full harness

->and helmet, yet he was killed.

Not sure you can compare the the incidents, Senna's fatal injury was caused by a small object piercing his helmet, not as a result of the impact with the wall.

I think that's Austin's point. A while back a local woman was killed when she left the road and went through a fence. The car was only lightly damaged, but the fence rail went through the front and rear windscreens and everything in between. An unsurviveable accident.

If two cars hit head on then you have impact speeds up to 150mph. There is no way to decelerate two objects 3-4 metres long from that without serious injury. Even with an infinitely strong safety cell that didn't deform, the deceleration on the body would cause internal injuries, broken bones etc.

I recently did a defensive driving course. One exercise involved an emergency stop from 60kph. We were stood alongside the vehicle as each person did the exercise, and all were horrified at how fast that is in real terms. Perception is hugely distorted by the calm, quiet efficiency of a modern car.

This accident happened right outside my house. I heard the BMW coming down the road like a jet aircraft, probably in excess of 100 mph. The freelander would have been doing 70 to 80 mph as it had just come down a hill and from local knowledge this is the speed that they would be travelling. So you have a combined impact of in excess of 170mph. At least the Freelander was still recognisable, the BMW was a pile of scrap.

Unfortunately this accident was caused by yet another idiot in a BMW driving to fast on a busy road without consideration of what could happen or indeed what did happen.

Chris.

Button bashing in practice for another round of Daley Thompson's Decathlon, Austin Shackles left Shakespeare to the monkeys by typing...

Ayrton died when his fbw throttle (same as td5) failed ("unsafe" - "full-on") - This harks back to my "in gear, handbrake on" (or rather "out of gear, out of other gears" post). The massive deceleration over an extremely short distance - 30deg angle to a cementocrete wall with NO 'give' caused the accident which killed him - modern cars have deformable safety zones (deceleration areas built into car) whereas Senna's car (I delayed my honeymoon to make sure I didn't miss him racing - Happy anniversary!)) was a safety cage with wheels and no crumple zones. BMW's most common accident-caused injury is to the lower leg.

->Unfortunately this accident was caused by yet another idiot in a BMW driving

->to fast on a busy road without consideration of what could happen or indeed

->what did happen.

:(

Being an owner of a Freelander, and having two very young children, I can't even think to imagine what must be going through the mind of the remaining passenger :( However, I still maintain the Freelander survived frightening odds to have protected the occupants from death at the impact.

It is a sad fact that on the roads today, you need to worry more about the vehicles around you because they are the ones that will at worst kill you, and at best write off your lovingly restored/built/modified creation :(

-- Nelly

Actually, it was a suspension strut through the head which killed him...