The amount of texting & driving out there is making me nervous

[Frank Lee]

You need to plaster your vehicle with that reflective tape that semi-trailers and R.R. trucks have plastered all over... or is there a back route?

P.S. Put a lightweight, blaze orange aero trailer or boat tail filled with empty pop cans behind the Insight for a nice crush zone and an economical commute.

[War_Wagon]

Frank_Lee, I wish it was that easy. Word on the street is the DB9 was doing 200 km/h (120 MPH) when it hit. Stupidity in the general populace and physics are two things I have total faith in. Stupidity tells me that I could be lit up like the 4th of July and these morons still wouldn't have seen me, and at those speeds it wouldn't matter. And physics tells me that a 3900 pound DB9 moving at those speeds has to expel all of that impact energy somewhere. My 1800 pound plastic Insight won't soak that up. They'd have to use dental records to identify what was left of me. Silvia on the other hand, I'd walk away. Full frame, 5000+ pounds of '90s GM steel. As much as I hate her, for the 5 mile commute I have to the office, and the 7 mile commute to the auction, I have to say I am willing to fork out the gas money to feed the 454. Most people use the eco car to get to work and have the big fancy car to use for everything else. They don't live in Richmond lol. Here, you take the urban assault vehicle to the office, and the Insight if you are going out of town!

[Frank Lee]

Silvia on the other hand, I'd walk away. Full frame, 5000+ pounds of '90s GM steel.

I respectfully disagree.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/03/au...rash.html?_r=0

Yeah it's a few years old. But it's only tested at 20 mph and still it's not that great.

[War_Wagon]

Fair enough. I am no expert, but the guy in the Escape walked away. I just got my parents a 2010 Escape, so I drove it for a few days and checked it out. They are a sturdy little truck. And I have driven a few Pacificas. They are not small. I am not saying that a large vehicle makes you immune. Only that given the likeliness of an impact in the area I have to travel through, and even as much as I love my Insight, man I'd be dead if anything that I see being driven poorly around here hit me. Sure the fiberglass soaks up a hit better than my Civic would. But when it comes down to it, if I am in something that weighs 2000-2800 pounds, made of metal or fiberglass, and I get smacked by someone in a 3500 pound, 2013 Lexus that is not paying attention while texting, or even the other trend I have spotted - the person in the passenger seat is trying to hold the phone to the driver's ear (I guess a hands free device isn't fashionable?) then I will put my money on Silvia in that situation. Accidents are terrible things, and I hope no one here ever has to deal with them. I have lost very dear friends to them, so I do not speak about them lightly. But at the end of the day, if some jackass is going to run into me at high speed due to something out of my control, then I'd take Silvia over any other option.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by War_Wagon

Stupidity tells me that I could be lit up like the 4th of July and these morons still wouldn't have seen me, and at those speeds it wouldn't matter.

Stupidity talks to you? Just kidding!

People rear-end buses. I heard about someone driving into the light rail out here.

How do you not see something one or two hundred feet long?

Originally Posted by War_Wagon

the person in the passenger seat is trying to hold the phone to the driver's ear

If I could afford to have someone answer my cell phone, they would do more than hold it, they would talk on it!

Why not get your own The Stig and talk on your own phone?

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by War_Wagon

And physics tells me that a 3900 pound DB9 moving at those speeds has to expel all of that impact energy somewhere. My 1800 pound plastic Insight won't soak that up.

I'm sorry, but physics doesn't tell you that. In a simple rear-end crash, if you're hit from behind in a lightweight vehicle, it's going to take off like a ping-pong ball. You may have a serious case of whiplash, but that's about it.

As for having lots of steel around you making you safer, try a simple experiment. Take one of those small home safes. Lots of steel, right? Whack it with a sledgehammer, you probably won't even dent it. Must be safe, right? Now put an egg inside, drop it a foot or two (lots less force than the sledgehammer attack), open it up, and see what happened to the egg.


As for the idiots who give their kids cars like that, without proper training... Well, I don't know Canadian law, but I would bet that in the US you could hit them for really massive liability, if not criminal charges.

[user removed]

Ever seen a car hit by another car going 120 MPH? I remember a Road Runner (stolen) that was in a head on at 120 combined. The whole inside of the car was full of shredded body parts. I did recognize a couple of teeth and a section of jawbone. The stench (summertime) would make you puke within 40 feet of that wreck.

regards
Mech

[Xist]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

Ever seen a car hit by another car going 120 MPH? I remember a Road Runner (stolen) that was in a head on at 120 combined. The whole inside of the car was full of shredded body parts. I did recognize a couple of teeth and a section of jawbone. The stench (summertime) would make you puke within 40 feet of that wreck.

regards
Mech

Oh good. If I did not just need to worry about that in Afghanistan.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

Ever seen a car hit by another car going 120 MPH? I remember a Road Runner (stolen) that was in a head on at 120 combined.

Physics again. Head on subjects the passengers to different forces than being hit from behind. In a front end, the car(s) stop, but the passengers keep going until they strike dash, windshield, etc. (That's why seat belts & air bags.) In a rear-ender, you are (with luck) pressed back into your fairly form-fitting, supportive bucket seat by an acceleration of several dozen G, which is quite survivable.

Should be fairly easy to think of "egg in a box" experiments which demonstrate this. After all, why are eggs sold in flimsy cardboard cartons which cushion each individual egg, instead of loose inside strong metal boxes?

[gone-ot]

Uh, so we should all wrap ourselves in egg cartons and forego seat belts (wink,wink)?