A good friend of mine was turning into her home street a couple of nights ago, checked exit and pulled out and was hit by a car, drivers door, going "over 60mph". This is a suburban street 30mph!

She needed to be cut out by the fire bigrade and, thankfully, despite bruising she is OK and so is the 4 month pregnancy she is carrying, although she is having difficulty walking. Fortunately her neighbour, who is a doctor saw the whole thing and sat with her through ordeal.

Police at the scene said that if she hadn't been in her Audi A4 she would have been dead.

Now, maybe she should have been more observant but you cannot condone going at over 60mph on a residential road.[img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Gave me real food for thought!

My question is, how safe would the scooby (MY00 wagon) be in the same situation? Side impact of 60 mph into the drivers door ... would I or my family have been so lucky????

Be careful out there,

Mike

[Edited by mikefyfe - 12/24/2003 11:07:20 AM]

 

Not sure how the scooby would fare, but as my missus's 106 Gti is going this weekend, i'd say an Audi S4 is an ideal replacement

 

It depends, the older ones were a lot weaker but still had a very good reputation for being safe. Much of the weight in the new models went into crash protection so I think you stand as good a chance as any.

 

She was very lucky, I don't wish to disagree but, a side impact from a car supposed to be doing 60mph would have caused massive intrusion into the passenger saftey cell. Causing far more injuries than you state. From a lower speed, the side impact protection system which is designed for a side impact of 30mph, would have performed as designed and prevented intrusion. The main cause of injury from this type of accident, is severe neck trauma, and the head connecting with the B post causing head injury. The neck is not designed to travel a great distance side to side, and it is this that cause the damage. I think she can count her self vey lucky and I hope she doesn't suffer long term.
dave

 

thought the newer scoobs had sips

 

She carn't have checked too good ... good job she was in the A4!

 

I agree with misty 60 mph would do a lot of damage

where did you get that figure from ?

 

Pug & Misty,

I wasn't there myself, only heard from her husband. Impact could well have been on the front wing but could still have trapped her.

Not the best of Xmas presents !

"There but for the grace of God, go we"

Mike

 

I'm pleased your friend got out relatively okay.

However, it raises a good point as my 98 Type R got a hit up the backside a few weeks ago as I was stationary at traffic lights.

The vehicle that hit me had been stationary behind me before he decided to pull away with the filter traffic that was to the side of us.

The speed of the impact therefore couldn't have been more than 5 or 6mph (it was a transit van and we were on a slight hill) yet the damage it did was pretty bad - needs new rear bumper, bootlid, locks, bumper support panel and the boot floor needs pulling back slightly. Not terrible damage but nevertheless still a couple of grands worth and more than you'd expect from a relatively gentle knock. The transit didn't even have a scratch on it.

My point is therefore this - if I had been in the same car in a 'head on', even at 30mph I don't honestly know if the car would have survived (and therefore protected me). I have stone chips that have literally dented the bodywork and the metal is unbelievably thin.

That said, 'we' don't necessarily buy these cars for safety reasons as if we did then we'd all be driving Volvo's etc. The extent of the 'ease' of damage to mine has worried me but I still wouldn't swap the Scoob for anything. I just hope the loons that drive through towns and villages at 60mph (or whatever) would do us all a favour and grow up.

 

Russ, Cars are designed to crumple in the event of a head on crash. It is the deforming of the shell that prevents passenger cell intrusion, as the shell deforms, the energy from the impact decreases inverseley to the time the impact takes to fully deform the shell, this according to theory, should prevent intrusion into the passenger cell, and therefore injury. All cars built in the last 10 years would have passed a test at 30mph. Injuries have over the last 10-15 years got steadily less serious in that "standard" test, the problem has been that as car safety increases so do speeds of impact as people "feel" safer due to P.S.Cs, A.B.S, S.R.S, S.I.P.S. etc. So we end up back at square one!
dave

 

RUSSBOY
The weakest point on a car is the rear end as all crash testing is carried out for frontal and side impacts, apparently the safety people are looking at testing for rear impacts due to the increase in rear crashes, this should then lead to stronger rear ends on cars (well this is what they said on "crash test dummies" on men & motors). Was the cost of the repairs what the bodyshop said it would cost if going through insurance, as repair shops replace alot of things that would probably just be repaired if you paid for it out of your own pocket, they seem to think of insurance jobs as a blank cheque.

 

Misty, fair point about the crumple zones - just hope I never have to find out if the Scoob is up to scratch on this front!

I think it's more having seen what a little tap can do than the fear of a full frontal that worries me more. Of course, the cost of parts has exasparated the repair of my Type R against say a similar whack in a Mondeo or similar where parts are more freely available and cost less.

I think the Scoob is one of the best cars I've ever driven and certainly the best I've ever owned, I just don't think I'd like to be in a smack at 60mph in the side, that's all...

 

Don't know about older scooby but the 03 model got the highest marks in the European and American crash tests. This must make it one of the safest cars in the word.

 

a mate of mine his wife lost control of his UK300 at about 60mph on the way to grantham just b4 u get to the A1. she hit a lamp post on the near side passanger door and she and her son both walked away. i have seen the pic`s and belive me it was a bad crash. she had flatend the lamp post. very lucky indeed.
mick

 

I'd be very suprised if the car she got hit my was doing 60mph+ That is an extremely high velocity and would more than likely lead to very severe injuries if not fatal (just watch some of the NCAP crash tests to see what damage is done to cars at 40mph).

One the subject of Scooby strength I was always under the impression that both classic and new-age are strong cars. Do a search form some of the accidents posted on this site and people do seem to walk away from very big accidents when you expect otherwise.

And, in contrast to Russ Boy, I was hit up the back in my RB5 by some dozy bint in a Toyota Previa (5-10mph) and I suffered a chipped bumper only.