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UPDATE – there is also another one, but not as bad.

Ouch.

This wreck is for sale by auction in Florida. I don’t know who’s it is, but the passenger compartment looks reasonably solid so I hope the owner’s OK.

More pics after the jump….. and thanks to Bart for the tip.

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If you were told that this truck crashed into a car “at a high rate of speed”, you’d fear for the welfare of the car’s occupants.

From the Denver Post.

The crash triggered a fire in the semi, which accounts for most of the damage you see there, but any semi hitting a car at high speed is a recipe for potential disaster.

The car was a Saab (model unknown) and thankfully, the mother, infant and toddler who were in the Saab all escaped the incident with just minor bumps and bruises. The driver of the semi was also uninjured.

“Seatbelts and the proper use of child seats definitely saved some lives tonight,” said Summit County Deputy Chief Jeff Berino.

I wouldn’t mind adding in a healthy dose of safety engineering, too.

Thanks to Tim and Ted for the links.

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It’s always a case of mixed feelings when covering crash stories.

It’s good to talk about Saab’s built-in safety technology because the company has worked hard at it over a 60+ year history. The Saab safety philosophy has saved thousands of lives over a number of decades and many of them well before safety became a fashionable element of automotive design.

There are no safe crash situations, however. Despite all the advantages a Saab gives its occupants, there will always be situations where the physics overcome the best efforts of the engineers. For every story like the one above, you have to acknowledge that there are some drivers or passengers who didn’t make it.

No car can guarantee your absolute safety in any given situation, but a Saab gives you as good a safety cell as any, and much better than most.

That said, it’s wonderful that this young family survived….

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JeffP pointed out some great safety advertising by Mercedes Benz a few days ago. He’s right.

MB have filmed some testimonials from accident survivors, which they have posted on their US website. Watch one or two of these and you can’t help being moved by the stories told. (Watch for or five like I did and the sight of women crying becomes a bit cheezy, but that’s the old hard-ass cynic in me coming out).

Bottom line, what these people went through is very real and it’s been handled very tastefully by Mercedes Benz.

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This one got passed on to me via email.

Apparently the car’s owner is an expat Kiwi, living and working as an architect in Dubai. I don’t know if they have a lottery in Dubai, but I’d suggest this guy might have bought a few tickets if they do.

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I’m happy to be alive today, alhamdulillah!! and thanks to my Saab!

Last night I took a different route home to avoid a traffic jam on Abu Dhabi Corniche. Approaching the Maqta bridge in fairly heavy traffic, I was in the right hand lane travelling about 80kph, ready to exit on the other side of the bridge, when a huge cement truck-&-trailer next to me moved right, into my lane, apparently without seeing me. I edged over onto the shoulder just as the shoulder was ended by the concrete barrier moving left to meet the bridge. I was caught between the barrier and the trailer, and dragged about 30m.

The front wheels of the trailer, as high as my head, were grinding away at the driver’s side of the car, as the right-hand front corner was grinding against the concrete barrier. As the truck wheels pulled ahead of me, the bonnet was folded up and the edge of the truck tray assaulted the roof of my car, which held firm and prevented me from going under the truck. The rear trailer wheels came by next, grinding along the driver’s side again, and as the trailer started to pass by, my car jack-knifed around the rear corner, pivoting by its nose against the concrete barrier. I saw the structural steel frame on the rear of the truck coming at me, and then as it tore the front door away, the RSC’s actually folded under and away from me. The passenger cage of my car didn’t deform, and I was left untouched. The car came to rest with its nose against the concrete barrier and perpindicular to the traffic following me.

Surely if the t&t hadn’t have been empty, even my Saab would not have held up.

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I’m certainly glad this guy’s lived to tell the tale.

Drive Safe.

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