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All this talk about defensive driving is fine and good, and I have been - and continue to be - a strong proponent of teaching driving skills + driving something that gives you a fighting chance to avoid having the accident in the first place. But sometimes stuff just happens.
Like what happened to my friends/neighbors. They pulled onto a two-lane road, began heading towards their destination, and over the crest of a curve came a pickup on their side of the road. Nobody was speeding, in fact my friends/neighbors were not even up to speed yet. The other driver was sleepy and crossed the center line.
Not all accidents can be avoided.
I still maintain that their Hyundai failed them. It wasn't purely because of the weight difference between vehicles because at some point vehicles carom away from one another (except perhaps in a dead-straight head-on collision which is actually pretty rare). By the time that happened in their case the energy of impact had already folded the driver's door and footwell into the (former) passenger space. I believe that a better designed crumple zone would have sent more of the energy around them. They were both trapped in the vehicle until they were cut out by rescue team folks.
For what its worth they bought an Outback. May they never find out how well it protects them in frontal impacts.
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