Not My Crash, But It Sure Felt Like It...

I recently had the opportunity to enjoy some of the benefits of the work that
automotive engineers do.

I was in my SUV traveling north on I275, heading for home after work. I noticed the car ahead of me had stopped and I was able to get my car stopped just in time. The truck behind me didn’t stop! He rammed into me and I in turn into the car ahead of me and so on for a total of four vehicles.

By a miracle, no one was seriously injured and this is where the engineering comes in. Due to improvements in seat attachments to the floor and strengthening seat back, I was able to get out unharmed. Of course, air bag systems which can decide in 20 milliseconds whether to deploy or not and seat belt/shoulder harnesses which are standard on most, if not all vehicles played a part also.

My car was a total loss due to frame damage. The car ahead of me caught fire and burned up completely and there was minor damage to the other vehicles. Had I been in my 1989 vehicle the Signal might have been a little late…