Speed doesn't kill, it's the stopping that does!

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The airbags went off.

We mustn't jest, clearly nobody survived that and the video shows the cofin to prove it.

Unfortunatly, steaming into an oil tanker does that.
 
The point was how many times have people said that speeding has little relation to the outcome of accidents. I would beg to differ, it may not cause accidents directly but plays a big part in the outcome and severity.

Clearly the driver was going way too fast. The impact was at 130mph, presumably that's after slowing somewhat.
 
It looks clear weather so you'd hope the driver had already slowed, but maybe not. Distraction, lane change etc etc.
 
It's been a while since German A Level, but I'll have a stab at a translation:

The firefighter explains that they're having difficulties freeing the car from under the lorry.

The police officer says:
Obviously the car was travelling at extremely high speed in the right-hand lane and drove into the lorry. We don't know much more than that yet. We understand that the lorry was travelling at about 80 [km/h], and according to a breathalyser test the driver was perfectly sober. I think the chances of surviving an accident like this are nil.
 
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Very sad but this is what speeding nevertheless can do... The front alloy wheel even disintegrated from the impact.

Its is scary when trying to stop after reaching high speeds. I have experienced it in the past and all you can do is press on the brake pedal and hope that brake assist will do its bit to stop the car in time and luckily I was very fortunate.
 
Dieselman said:
The point was how many times have people said that speeding has little relation to the outcome of accidents. I would beg to differ, it may not cause accidents directly but plays a big part in the outcome and severity.

Clearly the driver was going way too fast. The impact was at 130mph, presumably that's after slowing somewhat.
I am one of those that continually harps on about the proliferation of speed cameras and the small return they have given regarding the saving of lives.

I hate to say this but PERHAPS and it is perhaps........ Could it be that this incident occured on an autobahn where there is no speed limit? Of course if the car was not moving then the driver would not have died. Speed was without a doubt a major major factor in this tragic incident, but was the driver exceeding the speed limit?

What a terrible piece of footage.

Regards,
John
 
I know it was a fatal crash :( But TBH, The condition of that car for say 120Mph or whatever is good. - Wasnt a fireball ether.
 
KillerHERTZ said:
I know it was a fatal crash :( But TBH, The condition of that car for say 120Mph or whatever is good. - Wasnt a fireball ether.

The truck was moving in the same direction so the way the momentum and energy was transferred is quite a bit different from an impact with a brick wall.

The truck will have had a safety bar to stop the car going under. In this case the speed of impact probably destroyed it allowing the car to go under.

The upper part of the car has absorbed much the impact as the car went under while the truck has probably pitched forward and up before coming back down on the car.

The alloy at the front has probably been damaged by the impact and being crushed and dragged along as the truck braked after the impact.

Horrible.
 
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i agree with the comments given, but he crashed at 130+. if you drove into the back of the tanker at say 60... i doubt you would come out of it.

not think?
 
Dryce said:
The truck was moving in the same direction so the way the momentum and energy was transferred is quite a bit different from an impact with a brick wall.
Hi Dryce,
Unfortunately I cannot understand German, but are you sure the tanker was actually moving? I ask because the vehicle is close to the nearside armco, with a very thick solid white line to its offside?? :eek: :eek:

Regards,
John
 
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Pure Detail said:
i agree with the comments given, but he crashed at 130+. if you drove into the back of the tanker at say 60... i doubt you would come out of it.

not think?

The tanker was doing 80km/h and the car (at the time of impact) 210km/h, a speed differential of 130km/h (roughly 81mile/h). You could transfer it to this country and say that this is about what you would get if you ran into the back of such a tanker parked on the hard shoulder while you were travelling at 80mile/h.

Like probably most members of this forum, I don't see 80mile/h as excessively fast but something like this makes you think.

We will never know if the driver of the E55 was going faster than 210km/h or whether he looked down at the COMAND screeen or was otherwise distracted. He's certainly paid a very high price for whatever mistake he made.
 
glojo said:
Hi Dryce,
Unfortunately I cannot understand German, but are you sure the tanker was actually moving? I ask because the vehicle is close to the nearside armco, with a very thick solid white line to its offside. This incident has the hallmarks of the car driver perhaps nodding off, and drifting onto the hard shoulder? Is it right to try to guess the cause?? :eek: :eek:

Regards,
John

John, if you look at LastMinute's post you will see that the police said that the lorry was moving at 80km/h.
 
DieselE said:
John, if you look at LastMinute's post you will see that the police said that the lorry was moving at 80km/h.
Thanks very much, I'm not very with it at the moment and missed that post :eek: :eek:

LastMinute
Was there any mention of skidmarks, and what is that very thick white line marking to the offside of the tanker?

Thanks for the update
John
 
glojo said:
Hi Dryce,
Unfortunately I cannot understand German, but are you sure the tanker was actually moving? I ask because the vehicle is close to the nearside armco, with a very thick solid white line to its offside?? :eek: :eek:

The truck looks mobile and I'm assuming that the driver slowed and pulled over after the collision with the car attached underneath the rear.
 
glojo said:
Was there any mention of skidmarks
No.

glojo said:
what is that very thick white line marking to the offside of the tanker?
Edge of the hard shoulder, I think. As Dryce suggested, I suspect the lorry driver pulled over and stopped after he'd been hit.
 
The white line shows that the truck is on the hard shoulder: either he pulled onto it, or was pushed onto it - even if he was running at 44 tonnes, a rear-end impact like that could do this, and the driver would have had considerable whiplash. Hope he was wearing his seatbelt. I also see that it came to rest next to the 300-metre countdown sign for an exit - either a parkplatz or a junction. Since the truck was travelling at 80kph, and they are limited to 90kph, he may have been slowing for the exit (depending on the gradient). I saw many horrific sights like this when truck driving in Germany. All as a result of excessive speed, which some German drivers regard as their birthright. Judging by the damage, I wouldn't be surprised if the actual speed was a lot higher than the 230kph the speedo appears to have stuck at. The cause of this 'accident' is clearly speed - the guy was driving so fast, at night, that he failed to see the rear end of the truck. What was he doing in the right-hand lane at this speed? Did he fall asleep? Lose control through a blowout and wander over to the right? Had he been doing a more sensible 130kph, the outcome would have been different, judging by the W211 crash test videos.
 
Dave Lewis said:
The white line shows that the truck is on the hard shoulder: either he pulled onto it, or was pushed onto it - even if he was running at 44 tonnes, a rear-end impact like that could do this, and the driver would have had considerable whiplash. Hope he was wearing his seatbelt. I also see that it came to rest next to the 300-metre countdown sign for an exit - either a parkplatz or a junction. Since the truck was travelling at 80kph, and they are limited to 90kph, he may have been slowing for the exit (depending on the gradient). I saw many horrific sights like this when truck driving in Germany. All as a result of excessive speed, which some German drivers regard as their birthright. Judging by the damage, I wouldn't be surprised if the actual speed was a lot higher than the 230kph the speedo appears to have stuck at. The cause of this 'accident' is clearly speed - the guy was driving so fast, at night, that he failed to see the rear end of the truck. What was he doing in the right-hand lane at this speed? Did he fall asleep? Lose control through a blowout and wander over to the right? Had he been doing a more sensible 130kph, the outcome would have been different, judging by the W211 crash test videos.
Good comment Dave.
In my experience the tanker drivers are some of the most careful on the road and the odds are that he was well positioned, signalling clearly and at the appropriate speed. A common practice here and in Germany is to attempt to shoot from the fast lane straight into the exit lane between vehicles. It is an act of foolhardy trust. However at 200 kph exiting the autobahn was probably not his intention.
 

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