Nissan rear ends Acura at ~45mph. Nissan driver dies??

[mrbrian200]

Seriously: the driver of the Nissan died from head trauma. The total destruction of the front third of the Nissan VS the Acura where it's obvious that the chassis/structural integrity held up *excellent* sort of like and egg crashing into a brick wall. I've never seen a more obvious example of 'decent build quality vs NOT'
I know that stretch of road (600 W North Ave in Chicago) , the Nissan would have been traveling around 40-45 mph. As far as I am concerned there should be no accident scenario between 2 passenger vehicles at that speed that should result in critical injury, much less death --whatsoever.



https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/1 ... 64021.html

[oragex]

Could well be an airbag malfunction, if the airbag doesn't deploy or if it deploys late. Maybe the car was crashed in past and badly repaired. There was also an airbag recall for many brands. With that mind, some cars simply have a poorly designed SRS system, engineers are not always good

For example this Honda Pilot

[93Regina]

3:33 a.m...head trauma

No seat belt, and car hit held brake pedal firmly

[Rattnalle]

3:33 a.m...head trauma

No seat belt, and car hit held brake pedal firmly

Sounds quite probable. Even without the driver in front holding the brakes.

Regarding structural integrity. The front of the car is a crumple zone. It's supposed to be crushed. The cabin doesn't look to be deformed, also as intended. The fact that the car in front looks OK will if anything increase the chance of whiplash of it's occupants since it doesn't seem to have much of a rear crumple zone.

[June]

Doesn't surprise me. Father lost a good friend earlier this year when he was t-boned in his Nissan Altima. Had Dr. White been in a Volvo he would have been just fine. He was crushed in his seat... June

[mrbrian200]

Doesn't surprise me. Father lost a good friend earlier this year when he was t-boned in his Nissan Altima. Had Dr. White been in a Volvo he would have been just fine. He was crushed in his seat... June

I remember you mentioning that, June. Very sad. You tried to steer him into a Volvo if I recall.

With regard to previous entries, Yes I do realize the front is a crumple zone. Putting aside whether the Acura has a crumple zone in the back, with or without a seatbelt the driver of the Nissan should have survived. There are no windows broken (they weren't ejected). In a couple of Altima crash videos I looked at earlier today, during the slo-mo it looked to me like the bag might be deploying too early to where the driver might still end with their head bouncing off the steering wheel underneath. I think those were older model years I noticed that with. The bag deployment timing in the newer '15 or '16 looked much better.

[Rattnalle]

Doesn't surprise me. Father lost a good friend earlier this year when he was t-boned in his Nissan Altima. Had Dr. White been in a Volvo he would have been just fine. He was crushed in his seat... June

I remember you mentioning that, June. Very sad. You tried to steer him into a Volvo if I recall.

With regard to previous entries, Yes I do realize the front is a crumple zone. Putting aside whether the Acura has a crumple zone in the back, with or without a seatbelt the driver of the Nissan should have survived. There are no windows broken (they weren't ejected). In a couple of Altima crash videos I looked at earlier today, during the slo-mo it looked to me like the bag might be deploying too early to where the driver might still end with their head bouncing off the steering wheel underneath. I think those were older model years I noticed that with. The bag deployment timing in the newer '15 or '16 looked much better.

A crash like that without a belt, no it's actually not very likely you'll survive.

And air bags are designed for belted occupants. They can actually cause more damage if you're not where you're supposed to be in the car.

[Rattnalle]

But also, IF the driver wasn't wearing a belt. If the belt was on then I agree it should not have been a fatal crash.

[June]

My dear mother refuses to this day to wear her seatbelt. She is 84 now and quite frail. She got confused and got on the beltway heading the wrong way in her 1999 Toyota Celica GT convertible hitting the first car head on not wearing a seatbelt. Both cars were totaled and the Celica was nearly 20 years old. Amazingly a couple cracked ribs is all a quite elderly woman with osteoarthritis sustained. That was in a crapbox Toyota, not a safe Volvo and a head on collision.

It might surprise you that the early GM produced airbag cars had only lapbelts throughout the car. Yes no shoulder straps. The dual airbags in front were thought not to need 3 point seatbelts. Both mid 70s Buick Electra cars my father owned did not have shoulder straps new from the factory.

If the Nissan bag deployed late, and the occupant was not belted in, I would think death would be possible from the impact of the deploying bag. June

[mrbrian200]

Why aren't steering wheels in the modern air bag era designed so that the center of the wheel is fixed (where the airbag is)? That would free up bag design so that it didn't need to be symmetrical/doughnut shaped. ie, if it doesn't rotate with the steering wheel it's shape when inflated could be tailored to better cover the a-pillar area or even sort of a wrap around shape like an inverted cow catcher. Seems to me it would be much better at catching the 'unbelted' and probably dramatically better during partial overlap collisions where forces (and occupants momentum) isn't straight ahead.

It's during partial overlap collisions where some vehicles front bags 'get into trouble' as momentum carries the driver more to the side with the front and side bags essentially 'funneling' your head right into the hard A-pillar.

In this newest era of electronic steering/steer by wire, it would seem somewhat easier to incorporate such designs as the heavy duty linkages extending down to the rack, which might have in the past presented some design constraints in this regard, are no longer present.