Got rear ended today on 71 northbound near Pomona

I wonder if in a situation like this (where you know you will be rear ended) how much it might help to actually get your front bumper in contact with the car in front of you - that way your car will have the help of the car in front of you to avoid as much of the sudden forward acceleration when hit. Of course, this will increase the amount of energy that your car has to absorb (since not as much of it will be converted to forward motion).

Downside is that this will increase the force on the car that is rear ending you as well as the car in front of you...

From a pure physics point of view, you will always experience less whiplash in a heavier vehicle (all else being equal).

Anyway - glad you guys came out OK.

 

Hey, what is wrong with spiderman?

 

The doc changed his mind because he/she was afraid of getting clobbered by a malpractice ding.
Don't sweat the CT scan. They do them on kids all the time.

There's a lot of data out there on Newtonian Physics in car crashes. Unfortunately, most of it is tilted so badly one way or another it makes FOX and NPR look...uh...balanced. I'd say your Prius acquitted itself rather well in the crash, but if you're considering up-armoring you'll have to roll those dice for yourself. I'm certainly no Prius cheerleader in a demolition derby!
You have to sweat the roll-over thing in an SUV, which can ruin your day just as fast as loosing the F=MA battle in a micro-car....and your necks and backs might have been rattled about just about as badly in a squishy CrownVic, if the photos aren't lying.

Merry CHRISTMAS!

Seriously...don't sweat the CT.

 

I see the Ford has a lot more damage than the Toyota. That's to be expected.

Larger vehicles do not do better in accidents. Many of them have inferior safety ratings to the Prius. Often, they fit the "truck" category, and are exempt from safety feature requirements! :gasp:

You might look at a Toyota Hybrid Highlander, if you want something Toyota safe, reliable, and with better MPGs than the usual run of "bigger" vehicles.

I'm glad you are all relatively unhurt. Be sure to get checked out by a doctor, a chiropractor, and/or a doctor of osteopathy. You might just have some pulled muscles, it happens in accidents.

 

Don't sweat it. Seriously. Larger cars are not always safer. In college I was driving a 1975 Peugeot 504 and was t-boned by a 1978 Pontiac Gran Prix. While my drivers door was just past the center of the steering wheel, the front end of the other car was just as bad. That was 22 years ago and I'm still here though I was in bad shape. I hurt for almost a year.

Cars are designed, no matter how big or small to do a job, and that job is to protect the occupants of the vehicle. The Prius did that just fine. You may be sore but that is to be expected.

I'm an ex-mechanic and I have seen a lot of wrecked cars, most of which people walked away from.

If the pain continues for more than a week (or simply as a doctor) go see a doctor again, it's covered by no-fault insurance. You do have the right to make sure YOU are OK. They will not deny you that.

 

They are tested now. I'm not sure if they are only tested at the manufacturer's request or not, but you can view ratings on the IIHS website.

IIHS vehicle ratings

 

Why?

The physical damage to the vehicle doesn't have the meaning you seem to be assigning to it. Ever see a race car in a wreck? They practically disintegrate...by your logic here then they are incredibly unsafe. The reason they disintegrate is because the energy from the crash is being transferred away from the driver by the bending and shredding of the car's outer shell. In short...its designed to disintegrate.

As are the crumple zones in a vehicle, so seeing one vehicle as more "damaged" to the other doesn't mean much.

For instance, if a Ford Expedition had hit him...the Prius would be much more damaged than the Expedition...and you imply here that the Expedition would be more safe because its less damaged...yet you say later that its not safe because its a light truck...the logic doesn't work.

Anyways that Ford is at least 15 years older than the Prius, so of course the Prius would fare better in an accident...as would a 2010 Ford Taurus. Lots of improvements in passenger safety over the last 15 years.

Again...not really. If you are looking at something like a Expedition, Tahoe or Suburban then sure. However, those old truck based SUVs make up a smaller and smaller percentage of the market.

Crossover SUVs....Highlander...Pilot...the new Jeeps...the new Ford Explorer...etc etc are not considered light trucks and are not exempt from any passenger safety feature requirements.

 

That's an old Taurus, and the weight might not be that much more than the Prius, which I belive is about 3300 lbs. So it's probably a "fair fight" except the Prius has many more safety features. Which protect the occupants of the Prius w/o doing so at the expense of the occupants of other cars.

I grow tired of the "logic" that gigantic FUVs are "safe;" sure, you may crush the other car to smithereens, but may very well roll over and die yourself seconds later. I know a lot of people who say, more or less, 'that's their problem--I drive carefully and won't have an accident'--as if they're superhuman or just better drivers. I usually respond by suggesting that they inform their insurance company that, since they don't intend to cause an accident, they demand a deep discount on their liability coverage. It stops the conversation posthaste. Never mind the arrogance in the attitude that 'my life is more valuable than yours...

To the OP--sorry this happend, and glad everyone seems to be OK (and that wish extends to the Taurus occupants as well). But take no chances and get everyone checked out, and don't assume that since you feel OK now, you're cleared. One last piece of advice--you might want to be judicious about what you post on this forum; as the saying goes, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law... Not fun, but that's the way it is. As others have said, try to forget about it for now and enoy the holidays. Good luck to all.
~T

 

That sucks. It's good that everyone is seemingly OK but as others stated, if the back/neck pain persists, you'll need further checks.

There's a reasonable to good chance the car is totaled. I would push the insurance company to total it. They are required to fix the car to its original condition before the accident, I don't know if it's possible in that case.

I'm probably in the minority here, I believe bigger cars are safer. If it had been a big SUV or truck that hit you, the consequences could have been much worse. I was a little hesitant when we bought the Prius during the cash for clunkers program. It was going to be my wife's car. I convinced myself that the safety features on newer cars make up for smaller size. I hope we never have to test that.

If you decide you want to go bigger and stay with a hybrid, the Highlander Hybrid or Lexus RX450h are excellent choices. But they're both a lot more expensive than a Prius. Our other hybrid is a 2008 RX400h, a very nice vehicle.

 

I was watching a TV show one time a few years ago (Don't remember the name or station) that was associated with driver training, etc. They stated something around 80-90% of drivers say they're better than the average driver. Everyone (generally speaking) thinks they're a better driver than everyone else. Unfortunately, some think that no matter how good you are, or think you are, you can compensate for anything. No matter how good you are, you can't guarantee you'll always compensate for the unexpected maneuvers of a distracted, drunk, etc driver on the road.

 

Glad to hear your reasonably ok. I have to echo not signing anything and getting a lawyer. My wife and I were rear ended in an Infinity G20 years ago. She had significant neck and back pain. Took 3 months of chiropractor to help her. Then a year later she suddenly got dizzy and couldn't stand up for like a week. Turned out to be a dural tear (leaking spinal fluid). We settled for what we thought was a reasonable amount. Wound spending almost double in eventual medical costs.

 

1) I'm glad to hear that there wasn't major injuries (although the discomfort you are in probably isn't pleasant).

2) Was any reason given by the driver behind you as to why they plastered you like they did?

 

This is ridiculous! The CT gives not so banal radiation exposure and babies are very sensitive to it. Whose idea was it?

 

The Attorney...

 

I think you should just leave the decisions about his and his family's medical treatment to him and their doctors.

Seriously...you have no idea the situation and its really inappropriate of you to cast judgement and scare him from your computer when you have very little backstory to go on.

 

I put my statement based on this piece of info supplied by OP:

"just to be sure that he's okay"

If there is more to that, then my comment doesn't apply.

One more thing. The medical community at large does recognize the problem of overuse of CT scans and its danger in young children. More medical care is not always better care. Believe me I see it daily.

 

Well this is a Prius forum, not a forum for the medical community, and this thread is about his accident...not his or his doctor's decision to do a CT on his baby.