Quote:
Originally Posted by JacobAziza
This stands to reason, since impact force is a factor of the vectors of each vehicle involved - for head-on collisions, the speed of each car is additive: 2 cars hit head on at 65mph is equivalent to hitting a concrete wall at 130mph.
Even with airbags, 130mph = instant death.
However, in a rear-end collision the speed of the lead car is subtracted from the striking car's speed. If traffic is going 75 and you are only going 65, and some idiot plows into you without slowing down, that is equivalent to a 10mph crash.
10mph crash = Big friggin deal.
In other words, by matching the flow of traffic when everyone is speeding you are decreasing your chance of a fender bender while increasing your chance of a fatal accident.
Worth it?
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Some of this is incorrect, some of it is stupid.
Lets start with the 2 vehicles hitting head on is additive.
Wrong.
It is true if one vehicle is a geo and the other is a fully loaded semi. But, if the vehicles are of comparable size, a head on collision means you go from your initial speed to zero in stantly. So it is comparable to hitting a concrete wall or big oak tree. Mythbusters recently did a test on this to prove it.
Now for the second part, concerning fender benders at speed. You conveniently leave out the fact that they are still traveling at a high speed. Someone bumping you from behind at V+10 mph could upset you car to the point where it spins. Spinning at high speeds is a bad thing as it can result in barrel rolling at high speeds which tends to not work out too well for those in the vehicle.
So, the bottom line here is that 2 vehicles rolling along at comparable speeds, even if they are a little over the limit is a safer situation that one traveling at the limit and one traveling 10 over. Not that it's a horrible situation. It's not, assuming folks use a little sense and lane discipline. Trouble is, many don't have that common sense as they roll along on the highway sending text messages.