>>>>Here's something to make you think about speeding.
>>>>
>>>>120mph crash test
>>>>
>>>>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dI5ewOmHPQ&feature=player_embedded#!>>>
>>>Their logic seems a bit wonky. One car hitting a wall at 120 is not the same as two cars hitting each other head on at 120. Wouldn't the car have to do 240 to simulate that ?
>>
>>No. 1 car hitting an immovable object at 120 takes the full force, however, 2 cars travelling at 120 (assuming similar mass) would disperse the force equally between them, thus they would both take the equilivent of hitting the wall at 120 not 240.
>
>Of course, As I would have realized if I'd spent more than zero seconds thinking about it :-}
>
>>>In practice I'd guess a combined impact speed of 120 is *very* rare. Usually one or both drivers has braked pretty hard before the impact - the 40 mph test is probably a truer reflection of what happens in reality....
Funnily I saw a crash (or aftermath) this morning as a cycled into London.
Driver 1 (in a vanity pickup. Chrome wheels, smoked windows, no sign of anything even remotely dirty ever being in the back)
had lightly rear ended a people carrier at some lights.
Driver 2 (Audi sport car convertible. strange how often these are badly driven )
had driven at high speed into the back of the pickup.Front crumple zone completely smashed. I imagine the driver had been looking for that elusive toffee