Two trees and a Mercedes

Looks like a oak to me.

W210. Look at head lamps.

Reg: Harri

>

How could anyone have been hurt they were only doing about 70 mph and the air bags worked. ;-)

Kinda shows you how frail man and his toys are when mother nature, aka physics, is involved.

"James O'Riley"

What a mess. Where is the speed given? All it says is "volle snelheid" (full speed).

In NL the limit is quite low, but that doesn't mean the crashed vehicle was going slowly. Still, it looks like it was in the suburbs of a town.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

You're right. I got the speed from another newsgroup, it's not in the web article. Could well be false.

The limit is probably either 50 or 80 km, I guess, depending on which side of the city town limits it was.

Ximinez

This is another article about the crash. It mentions a 'likely' speed of

140 km/h, the driver not doing any braking and a speed limit of 80 km/h. The people living along the road see this accident as an indication that the maximum speed should be reduced to 8 km/h. As if that would have deterred the driver...

"Valthe- De mensen die aan de langgerekte Weerdingerweg in Valthe wonen weten één ding zeker: de toegestane snelheid van 80 kilometer in het uur op de smalle, zich door het landschap slingerende weg moet worden teruggebracht tot 60 kilometer in het uur. Door het ongeluk met dodelijke afloop van zaterdagmiddag is de discussie over dit onderwerp opnieuw actueel.

Tegen vier uur reed een personenauto met hoge snelheid, waarschijnlijk 140 kilometer in het uur, over de Weerdingerweg. Komend vanuit Weerdinge passeerde de chauffeur tijdens zijn roekeloze tocht een andere auto. In een flauwe bocht verloor hij de controle over zijn voertuig. De man kwam met een voorwiel in de linkerberm. Zijn daarop volgende stuurcorrectie was onvoldoende: zonder te remmen kwam hij aan de rechterkant van de weg tot stilstand tegen twee bomen. De drie inzittenden, die uit Slowakije afkomstig zijn, waren op slag dood.

Een tegenligger zag even daarvoor de scheurende bolide recht op zich afkomen. Als door een wonder wist hij met een rap uitgevoerde manoeuvre zijn bestelwagen precies op tijd in de rechterberm tot stilstand te brengen. Daarna hoorde hij een huiveringwekkende klap. Een kwartier na de crash stond hij nog te beven als een rietje, in het ontluikende besef dat hij aan een wisse dood was ontsnapt.

Politiewoordvoerder Roel Hallink laat weten dat in het technisch onderzoek naar de oorzaak van de catastrofe alle van belang zijnde verkeersaspecten worden meegenomen."

Ximinez

Pardon my ignorance but I've always figured conversion from kmh to mph is about half for easy conversions. Thus 80 kmh would be only 40 mph which is only high speed for a bicycle! The figure of 8 kmh would be a slow trot for a dog.

Could, would, someone please correct me if I'm wrong. Looking at the pictures in the article, the MB torn in half, would indicate to me a speed of over 200 kmh.

James

Indeed! Halving the number of kilometers is a bit too 'easy' for me, but I haven't a clue where I got the '8' from. The real figure was 60 km or

37.28 miles.

I think the driver should feinitely be fined ;)

Ximinez

80 km/h = 49,7 mph = rounded 50 mph

It's not that simple, angle of impact plays a major role - and so it could indeed be that the speed was 140 km/h (87 mph).

Juergen

Pre-MOPF. Look at the front skirt and the rear lights.

Juergen

Yes. 140 km is speculation and the call is to reduce the limit from 80 km/h to 60 km/h.

I think the absolute speed here is not as important as the speed appropriate for the conditions. Even at 80 there could have been a nasty crash in the 'right' circumstances.

In the UK there is always someone calling for speed reduction, even on sections of motorway (where we already have an incrediby low 70 mph limit), totally ignoring the fact that the motorways are the safest roads.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

You're pardoned...

The conversion factor is 1.6 which, I trust, you worked out from Juergen's answer.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

No it was an approximation I've used for many years; there are so many inaccuracies in measurements that unless you use a laser you can't tell the difference. It's really 62.5/100 according to my speedometer. ;-)

Thanks for the pardon. :-D

Dori A Schmetterl> You're pardoned...

I looked at some of photos and thought back of those sort of collision with trees in East Germany. During the frosty days of Cold War, the communists lined many roads with trees as to shroud them from spy satellite or surveillance. Unfortunately, they also provide lot of hazard for vehicles. I've seen some of collisions that actually split the vehicles in half or crush them greatly, especially when smashing sideways into the immobile and solid object at high speed.

I speculated that the W210 might have lost control due to the surface irregularity on street (those little bumps and dips or like). It smashed into the tree after skidding or 'flying' (due to bumps at high speed) with its left side smashing into the tree.

That's about the same thing happening with Ferrari Enzo in Southern California last February. The Swede lost the control of his Ferrari over the bump and left a long trail of 'spare parts' after smashing sideways into the telephone pole.

I recalled a skidd>

>

:-)

2 is not a good approximation. 1.6 IS a good approximation.

The UK Dept of Transport's maths is worse at times. Near the Channel ports the speed limit of 70 mph is in some places shown as 110 km/h...(should be

112 km/h).

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling

To nutpick: The conversion factor is 1.609344, which results in 112.65408 km/h. So rounded up it would be 113 km/h - any YES, I know, it is always stated as 112 km/h.

Juergen - W123 240D 72 PS sedan auto top speed 138 km/h = 85,749 mph The slower the car the more important are the figures behind the comma ;-))

Probably so that a speed greater than 70 mph is not officially recommended! That would be an odd legal situation.

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling