Dramatic video shows what happens to a car sandwiched between two trucks

Kamil Kaluski

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We all have heard of the scary accidents when a truck rear-ends a car and sends it forward into the truck in front it. It’s never pretty and the car occupants never come out well.

A German safety company created this video showing just what happens in such an accidents, as if we couldn’t imagine it. A truck rear-ending a stopped car and sending into the back of a stopped tractor-trailer in front it. The crazy parts of this is that the second truck was traveling at only 27MPH (43km/h).

Despite their smaller appearance, European trucks have a very similar maximum weight capacity to ‘Murican rigs, so that aspect does not change. Perhaps mandating the active safety technologies seen in many modern cars on heavy trucks isn’t a bad idea?

Source: autokult.pl

About

Kamil Kaluski

Kamil Kaluski

East Coast Editor. Races crappy cars and has an unhealthy obsession with Eastern Bloc cars. Current fleet: 4Runner, Integra, Regal, Lada

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10 responses to “Dramatic video shows what happens to a car sandwiched between two trucks”

  1. Maymar Avatar
    Maymar

    The more shocking thing is how little good the relatively low hanging bumper does on the car in front.

    More callous, but how many accidents with a heavy truck rear-ending a car are the fault of the professional driver versus the civilian motorist who maybe has a shaky handle on physics? I know over-tired truck drivers trying to make excessively tight schedules is a problem, but as much as people who pull in front of transports like they don’t exist?

    Reply
    1. Kamil K Avatar
      Kamil K

      I’d say many accidents as shown above, where the passenger vehicle is already in the lane, would be more of the lorry (lorry = truck, my friends, I’m just being fancy) driver fault – tired or distracted. I recall one in England recently and one of the G. Washington Bridge in NYC/NJ some decades back.

      Reply
    2. njhoon Avatar
      njhoon

      Getting to this a little late but a good friend of mine was an Over The Road truck driver (Long distances) for a while. One of the major reasons he left the job was the “impending accident”. He stated that every day someone would race in front of hm then hard break to the point he would almost have to lock up his breaks to stop. He pulled doubles and at 85K lbs it took 300 ft to stop from 65 mph so it was a matter of time before he just ran a car over.

      Reply
  2. salguod Avatar
    salguod

    Video is missing and seems to be from the source site too.

    Reply
  3. Sjalabais Avatar
    Sjalabais

    Impossible to beat basic physics – that Škoda is a reasonably well-built, Golf-based vehicle, but crumbles like a paper car… Things like this happen with some regularity where I come from, often inside local fog banks. Cautious drivers decelerate, dumb drivers don’t, and there’s not much vision nor space to make up the difference. A true nightmare.

    Reply
  4. outback_ute Avatar
    outback_ute

    There was a big one in Melbourne on Friday, 2 trucks and seven cars. Luckily only 3 people taken to hospital with minor injuries, due to lower speeds in the heavy traffic, but the car on the left had the cabin squashed to half its width.

    Reply
    1. outback_ute Avatar
      outback_ute

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/addbad09ef2f509bfa70333fa8b84965ff7b47ab310f04c373448afb2dce6abd.jpg

      Reply
  5. Papa Van Twee Avatar
    Papa Van Twee

    I saw this happen in my rear view once. It was downtown Indianapolis, and it was I65/I70 south/west, and traffic was stop and go. One truck went, but forgot to stop. A lady in an S10 paid the ultimate price. There was a Buick wedged between the truck in front of the S10 and another truck in front of them, but it wasn’t as deformed. I avoided downtown during rush for months after that.

    Reply
  6. Professor BanannersHot Avatar
    Professor BanannersHot

    And yet…I want to see how, say, a Chevy Tahoe would fare in the same test.
    Would a BOF SUV meet the same end, since its frame would underride the trailer?
    What does an additional 3,000 pounds of weight and several more feet of length do to protect you in this situation?

    Reply
    1. Vairship Avatar
      Vairship

      My guess would be that it is the frame that is designed to withstand the crashing forces in a crash test, and the body is simply bolted on. So in the unfortunate situation you describe, the crash-resistant SUV frame would remain pristine below the big truck, while the SUV body would be scraped from the frame and crumpled up like aluminum foil.
      That’s just my guess of course, and things like the SUV frame hitting the big truck differential/axles etcetera would likely cause a real-world ending slightly less extreme.

      Reply