Pete. (l33t FS) said:
Have never experienced 100% brake failure.
That was how I crashed an S-10 pickup into my bosses new snap-on toolbox. It was parked right in front of the bay door, I was told it had a blown brake line but I assumed it would have some brakes. Drove into the bay, hit the brakes and had absolutely no brakes. It actually felt like it accelerated, and slammed that toolbox right into the block wall. The box took it like a champ though, I just had to replace some aluminum trim on the edge. The truck bumper was borked.
It seems like this thread should be named "A Vivid Reminder To Not Be A Dumbass".
I'm curious if them wearing the full harnesses would have ended worse for them? Your body rolls in a 3 point (preferably in conjunction with an airbag crumple zone), your body halts in a 4/5/6 point (even with the built in stretch from the harness) - it's why you should never be without a HANs while tracking - the base of your neck is a bad pivot point when stopped abruptly. Obviously they had un-helmeted heads - so lighter - but still very kill-you-able.
They broke an arm and kissed the dashboard, but they also decelerated "relatively" slower than they would have assuming tightened harnesses.
accordionfolder said:
I'm curious if them wearing the full harnesses would have ended worse if they were wearing them? Your body rolls in a 3 point (preferably in conjunction with an airbag crumple zone), your body halts in a 4/5/6 point (even with the built in stretch from the harness) - it's why you should never be without a HANs while tracking - the base of your neck is a bad pivot point when halted abruptly. Obviously they had un-helmeted heads - so lighter - but still very kill-you-able.
They broke an arm and kissed the dashboard, but they also decelerated "relatively" slower than they would have assuming tightened harnesses.
There is probably some window of speed where the basular skull fracture from wearing the 4pt would be worse than ragdolling off the dash with the 2pt, but I'm pretty sure their impact speed was below it. It's true that there is a big risk to wearing a 4pt+ harness on the street with no HANS though - Noble makes their cars with a 3pt in addition to a 5pt+ harness for this reason, if you're on the street you can just wear the 3pt.
In reply to GameboyRMH :
Yeah, just more a musing of where the crossover is and what damage, if any, would have resulted if they were: loosely belted in the shoulders (as many folk are likely to do when "just driving around"), tightly belted in the shoulders, no belt in the shoulders-only lap.
Sucks for them, but could have been a lot worse. I hope the folks in the van were ok, I think a comment from the owner said they were.
GameboyRMH said:
accordionfolder said:
I'm curious if them wearing the full harnesses would have ended worse if they were wearing them? Your body rolls in a 3 point (preferably in conjunction with an airbag crumple zone), your body halts in a 4/5/6 point (even with the built in stretch from the harness) - it's why you should never be without a HANs while tracking - the base of your neck is a bad pivot point when halted abruptly. Obviously they had un-helmeted heads - so lighter - but still very kill-you-able.
They broke an arm and kissed the dashboard, but they also decelerated "relatively" slower than they would have assuming tightened harnesses.
There is probably some window of speed where the basular skull fracture from wearing the 4pt would be worse than ragdolling off the dash with the 2pt, but I'm pretty sure their impact speed was below it. It's true that there is a big risk to wearing a 4pt+ harness on the street with no HANS though - Noble makes their cars with a 3pt in addition to a 5pt+ harness for this reason, if you're on the street you can just wear the 3pt.
A lot of drivers ran into a lot of things while wearing 4 point harnesses without having basilar skull fracture before HANS devices were a thing. That's not to say that HANS devices aren't important, only that the conditions where they're effective aren't super common.
In reply to APEowner :
True enough, just thinking.
In reply to APEowner :
Though it's also note worthy that the crashes they're most effective - many times - don't look particularly bad. I think tumbling/redirecting/multiple hits - tend to slow you more gradually though they look much worse. I've seen a video of a ~30mph crash into a dip that abruptly halted a rally car - driver HANs, passenger no hans and the passenger too some very severe damage.
