ND Miata Rollover Results - Ugly

Snagged from a local fb group. I don’t know any back story, but I’ll update if I see anything. 

Ugh.  Nasty.  I truly hope there was only one occupant and that they got laid sideways in the accident.  I really hope the driver is still with us.

That's terrible.

Obviously not ever injury is preventable, but it makes you wonder why Mazda doesn't put a bit more effort into the the little roll hoops behind the driver.

Rolled or sandwiched (rearended & shoved into car ahead)? 

Notice that one of the factory feelgood roll hoops folded and the other broke clean off.

And to add insult to injury (or death), that ugly little screen is still standing.

Snrub said:

That's terrible.

Obviously not ever injury is preventable, but it makes you wonder why Mazda doesn't put a bit more effort into the the little roll hoops behind the driver.

Because there's always a bigger crash. 

This one must have been pretty bad. The windshield frames have always crushed in rolls, but this damage is greater than you usually see. Ouch. 

That front window frame looks brutal! I remember years ago I had a friend that was a Pontiac engineer working on the development of the Solstice.  During testing they had a problem with front end impacts where the hood would sheer off and come back into the driver's compartment and cut off the head of the dummy.

GameboyRMH said:

Notice that one of the factory feelgood roll hoops folded and the other broke clean off.

And to add insult to injury (or death), that ugly little screen is still standing.

reminds me of the time I rolled a snowmobile, the only thing that broke was the hoopty h4 lamp we affixed to the roof, it literally took the brunt of the crash. 

problem was it happened and night and I couldnt see E36 M3 after that. 

That looks odd to me. The windshield is folded back and the headrests are folded forward. Almost like something landed on the back end and pushed the car forward. 

Snrub said:

Obviously not ever injury is preventable, but it makes you wonder why Mazda doesn't put a bit more effort into the the little roll hoops behind the driver.

I'd rather have those than nothing at all like the Camaro and Mustang convertibles. I mean, everybody gets all up in arms about hoops with no rear bracing as being 'unsafe' based on the theory of it collapsing into the occupants, yet I have never seen a documented instance of that and most other real world evidence (rollover pics) I have seen indicates they're still probably substantially better than nothing at all.

That one looks like the impact may have been hard enough that I wonder just how much better a coupe would have actually fared either.

lateapexer said:

That looks odd to me. The windshield is folded back and the headrests are folded forward. Almost like something landed on the back end and pushed the car forward. 

 

the windhshield is angled toward the back like on most cars, in any kind of roll over it's going to fold down that way, the headrests are more-or-less vertical with a curve for the back of the seat so i'd think it's natural tendency would be to bend toward the front vs. the back. the picture is about what i would guess what would happen if you did just a straight drop with the car upside down.

I get that there's always a bigger crash and that may have been the case. eg. This is one with a MX-5 from earlier in the year.  Based on the positioning of the car, I don't think the occupants would have survived in any type of car. Seeing a static car at the wreckers, takes away a lot of context. https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1244428867589 

I remember a few years ago seeing a picture of a convertible mustang flipped at the track. My memory is foggy, but I think there was an aftermarket roll bar that did nothing and everything above (or under I suppose) the doors was pancaked.

In reply to Snrub :

It was a coupe.

fidelity101 said:

GameboyRMH said:

Notice that one of the factory feelgood roll hoops folded and the other broke clean off.

And to add insult to injury (or death), that ugly little screen is still standing.

reminds me of the time I rolled a snowmobile, the only thing that broke was the hoopty h4 lamp we affixed to the roof, it literally took the brunt of the crash. 

problem was it happened and night and I couldnt see E36 M3 after that. 

Your snowmobile had a roof?

I don’t think there is a good version of this story. Even if they survived, it’s gonna be a long road back. (I’ve seen miracles of the “they walked away!” variety however)

In reply to Driven5 :

I'm remembering the one with an aftermarket roll bar. On it's crushed roof. With the feet of the roll bar poking through the floor pan.

In reply to Ian F :

Same car, different orientation. And while the feet may have punched through the floor, the (bolt-in) 4pt roll bar also certainly still did more than nothing to prevent the roof from collapsing.  And yet between the two it was still not enough for the end result to physically fare all that much better than the ND Miata in the OP...Hopefully the outcome was similarly good for the occupant(s) of that Miata.

Snrub said:

 

I remember a few years ago seeing a picture of a convertible mustang flipped at the track. My memory is foggy, but I think there was an aftermarket roll bar that did nothing and everything above (or under I suppose) the doors was pancaked.

Like Driven5 said, it was a coupe, and it wasn't an issue with the roll bar itself that failed as much as it was the floor of the car where it was mounted

That is sobering.

I bet that Mustang crashed exceeded the limits of what appears to be a bolt-in 4pt or it was an improperly installed weld-in.

In reply to Ram50Ron :

Apparently my ninja editing skills were not fast enough today...It was a bolt-in 4pt.

Ram50Ron said:

I bet that Mustang crashed exceeded the limits of what appears to be a bolt-in 4pt or it was an improperly installed weld-in.

No, its just Autopower and their comically undersized plates.  IF you ever install one on anything, double or triple the size of the steel plates under them.

If you nose over and come down directly on top of the car it's a lot worse than a barrel roll. A lot of surviviability when a car goes over is dumb luck. 

It's pretty easy to armchair that Mustang and decide that a bolt in bar in a Mustang is useless. Then you consider that a bolt in bar lets you properly use a HANS and that helps a LOT in other crashes as well as providing additional occupant protection for a barrel roll. In the Miata's case the windshield and roll hoops may provide significant protection in crashes that aren't like this one. 

In reply to Stefan :

I'm not familiar with their products but that's good to know.  I was assuming that little to no anchoring plates were the failure mode from looking at the pictures.

In reply to Maxdeuce :

No disagreement there, 4pt bolt-ins have their advantages and a rollover crash at pace is going to look pretty close to that on anything short of a 10pt weld-in.  

I think part of the point of a bolt-in rollbar is that you can actually maneuver it inside the vehicle without cutting the roof off. Good luck with plates 3 times the size. I'm sure there is some improvement that's actually possible and practical and i'm not defending the company, but i think bolt-in rollbars of that sort are more of a 'compliance special' than anything. Hey, you need a tube-y thing for them rules people? Here's a tube-y thing, easy install $199. 

It looks like the seatbelt was cut to presumably extract the driver but it doesn’t look like there’s enough space between the A pillar and the bent forward seat to get them out. Also, there’s no blood so maybe (hopefully) this was just a vertical drop test…um, failed vertical drop test.