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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