'08 Accord Coupe of TOV member is hit by F-150 traveling 100+mph,

[Gurkha]

Good show of safety by the Accord. The car flipped over about four times and the guy walked away.

http://www.vtec.net/news/news-item?news_item_id=802711

I was driving home from Thanksgiving dinner and was hit from behind on the interstate by a truck traveling in excess of 100mph. I was going about 74 from what I remember. I wanted to share these pictures with you of the wreck. I flipped over 4 times according to police.

[Dee8go]

I was thinking of a Ferrari. Is there an F 150 Ferrari?

[diametricalbenz]

I thought those things were governor limited to 95....

[Dee8go]

Wow! I just looked at the pics on the link. That's amazing. I can't believe the F-150 could keep on going, having hit the Honda that hard.

[DeliveryValve]

Originally Posted by Dee8go

Wow! I just looked at the pics on the link. That's amazing. I can't believe the F-150 could keep on going, having hit the Honda that hard.

Actually I don't think the impact is as hard as it may seem. The Accord was traveling about 74 mph and the F150 was traveling about 100 mph. So my guess the impact speed was about 25 mph. Not hard enough to seriously damage a F150 that size, but enough to take out the lighter Accord.

[KarTek]

Originally Posted by DeliveryValve

Actually I don't think the impact is as hard as it may seem. The Accord was traveling about 74 mph and the F150 was traveling about 100 mph. So my guess the impact speed was about 25 mph. Not hard enough to seriously damage a F150 that size, but enough to take out the lighter Accord.

Exactly. Also, I don't know how the speed of the truck was estimated. People are historically poor at speed estimation and tend to think speeds are much greater than they actually are.

Plus, much of the damage to the accord was due to flipping several times. When a vehicle is traveling at highway speed, virtually any hit from behind is sufficient to disrupt is stability and send it right off of the road. It takes lightning reactions to maintain control and that's if you're expecting the hit. I expect that not too many people would be ready for this kind of impact when they're just cruising down the interstate.

Still, glad the guy wasn't hurt and the car did hold together pretty well. I like all the popped air bags...

[diametricalbenz]

Looking at the pictures again those side curtain airbags probably helped the head trauma on the rollover part of the ride.

[jlomon]

Originally Posted by DeliveryValve

Actually I don't think the impact is as hard as it may seem. The Accord was traveling about 74 mph and the F150 was traveling about 100 mph. So my guess the impact speed was about 25 mph. Not hard enough to seriously damage a F150 that size, but enough to take out the lighter Accord.

Yes, you're correct that the speed differential would have been about 25 mph but that damage was likely caused by the car rolling 4 times. It would have still been traveling at 74 mph when it started to lose control, and would have had a massive amount of kinetic energy to disperse as it crashed and came to a halt. I think the Honda looks pretty damn good, considering that.

[jcyuhn]

The Accord doesn't look like it got hit in the trunk all that hard - there's just not that much of the crumple zone used up. It kinda looks like the truck hit it at an angle, probably while trying to swerve around it. That spun the Accord, causing it to roll, which caused all the damage. It must have decent roof crush strength.

I wonder how common these accidents are. A few decades ago my folks were hit in the same manner. Driving down an empty freeway on new years morning they got smacked square in the back by a sedan running well over the limit. The old station wagon (some huge Detroit iron) was totalled. The offending car drove off, but didn't make it far. Folks got a bit of whiplash, but were otherwise OK.

Pickups are limited to 95 or 98MPH, so doubtful it was going faster than that.

[Stoney]

Originally Posted by jcyuhn

The Accord doesn't look like it got hit in the trunk all that hard - there's just not that much of the crumple zone used up. It kinda looks like the truck hit it at an angle, probably while trying to swerve around it. That spun the Accord, causing it to roll, which caused all the damage. It must have decent roof crush strength.

I wonder how common these accidents are. A few decades ago my folks were hit in the same manner. Driving down an empty freeway on new years morning they got smacked square in the back by a sedan running well over the limit. The old station wagon (some huge Detroit iron) was totalled. The offending car drove off, but didn't make it far. Folks got a bit of whiplash, but were otherwise OK.

Pickups are limited to 95 or 98MPH, so doubtful it was going faster than that.

Several of the available programming boxes for the F-150 series can be "modded" to override the electronic govorner or they could have a custom computer installed in place of the original, for inspection they just swap the original; back in -clear the codes and swap back to the custom box and go back on the road.

There is a guy I see daily that has a F-150 Lightning that is Supercharged, 4 in dual exhausts, N02, etc that has a complete custom chip box and has turned 130 plus at Englishtown, NJ dragstrip after being street driven to the track. the guy has the printout in the cab that he likes to show.

Probably had the original steering wheel removed so no air bag to deploy as well.

[MBlovr]

Bravo to Honda for building a car that protected its pasanger that well. The gap is closing on the safety front.

[dkveuro]

Not to steal your thunder but...

A local police officers daughter bought my 1984 Audi 5000S sedan a while ago.....about 8 years ago IIRC....she was entering the interstate in heavy rain and slowed to 15mph or less to roll down the window and look for a gap in traffic.

Another customer of mine in a Chebbie 2500 was following about 300 yards behind her and failed to see she had slowed because he was looking back for a gap too. He admitted to running 70+ mph at the time.

He rear ended the Audi square on with a closing speed of +55mph.
The officer was called to attended the wreck not knowing his daughter was one of the RTA victims.

She was okay and out of the car with no visible signs of injury but the Chebbie driver broke his leg at the hip and had to be extracted from the cab..

They towed both vehicles back to my shop. The Audi rear trunk lock was level with the rear door latches with nothing any further back.

The Audi used to be 3' 8" longer. We measured it. The Chebbie was totaled too.
Police officer was so thankful his daughter was driving that car...it had just been fully gassed too and did not spill a drop.

He was amazed at how the Audi took the hit without hurting is girl although anyone sitting in the back seat would have been an amputee.

I used to have pictures, but they seem to have disappeared.

[jcyuhn]

Originally Posted by Stoney

Several of the available programming boxes for the F-150 series can be "modded" to override the electronic govorner or they could have a custom computer installed in place of the original, for inspection they just swap the original; back in -clear the codes and swap back to the custom box and go back on the road.

There is a guy I see daily that has a F-150 Lightning that is Supercharged, 4 in dual exhausts, N02, etc that has a complete custom chip box and has turned 130 plus at Englishtown, NJ dragstrip after being street driven to the track. the guy has the printout in the cab that he likes to show.

Probably had the original steering wheel removed so no air bag to deploy as well.

All very possible. But didn't the writeup say it was a crew cab? Couldn't be a lightning then, could it? Just a plain old Ford pickup seem most likely. What percentage of pickups have a modded ECU? I gotta think it's way under 1%. Most probably the pickup was going less than 95MPH. The relatively light hit on the Accord and that the pickup was lightly damaged enough to drive away would seem to indicate the actual collision wasn't all that severe. It was the spin and subsequent rollover(s) that really did in the Accord.

[LUVMBDiesels]

It does not take much of a hit at highway speed to mess up your day. I was driving my now ex-wife's 1985 Escort with two passengers on a rainy night when I was tapped by a Chevy Malibu who had stared to hydroplane and slipped from his lane into mine. The tap corrected his slip and he went on. The Escort did two 360's hit the right side guardrail and then bounced back into traffic. I had to gun it back into the guardrail and out of the way of a line of cars. Lucky for us all the damage was to the car, right front fender and door had to be replaced. the impact with the Chevy was marked by a very small blue spot where he rubbed against the left 1/4 panel.