ANOTHER 2016 Prius Pearl bites the dust I SURVIVED!

I figured it was something like that. I thought it was either that or Orange County has changed more than I thought it has since I left and everyone is being chauffeured around now in Escalades. Which wouldn't be surprising considering the housing prices there.

 

He was stopped, behind the front Escalade, traffic at standstill. Rear Escalade inattentive.

 

Rear Escalade was VERY attentive. Most likely, ... TO HIS CELL PHONE!!

 

Probably explains why no airbags.

 

I just noticed something scary. The front bumper of the prius is too low for the rear bumper of that escalade. If the collision was at much higher speed, I do not even want to imagine the outcome. I think it is worth exploring why the front end of the prius went under the rear of the escalade. I know these cars are good and crashworthy but they are only good when the bumper is being crashed into.

Glad there was no intrusion through the front windscreen.

 

(1) When the Prius was struck from behind, that probably lifted its tail and buried its nose. Hard pre-impact braking does the same thing. BTDT in a previous car, crushed the headlights/radiator/hood without even scratching the front bumper beneath an Explorer's rear bumper. Would not have under-ridden the bumper of a conforming passenger car.

(2) This is a long standing issue with vehicles that are exempt from passenger car safety standards, including crash compatibility between vehicles. Because pickup trucks and SUVs originally were niche vehicles sold in comparatively low volumes, they could not economically be forced to conform to the stricter safety standard imposed on the much higher volume passenger car category. Thus, they were exempted from passenger car standards.

When SUV popularity took off in the 1990s, this safety exemption helped make this category very profitable, because they could be built cheaper than equivalent cars that had to meet tougher standards. Unfortunately, this exemption also led to an additional 2000 fatalities per year, compared to similar crashes between conforming passenger cars that had to meet tougher standards. And many customers were bamboozled by the myth that SUVs were safer, when in fact they were deadlier, especially to non-occupants (e.g. to the occupants of the cars they hit).

The gap in safety standards has since been narrowed, but only slowly due to lobbying by the vehicle makers trying to protect their higher profit margins. But I don't believe the safety standard gap has been eliminated. And even conforming passenger cars have needed to be reinforced (at increased cost) specifically to protect against collisions with today's vastly more common 'exempt' vehicles, no longer a true niche.

 

While both cars were stationary, the Escalade could have had the tail raised as a result of sudden braking, similarly with the dipping of the nose of the PRIUS. This is fairly common - as, even if bumper height is identical, it changes according to loading, braking, acceleration, incline of the road - just some randoms from GOOGLE:

 

See my previous post in the thread. My wife's 1989 Acura Integra, with a low, sloped hood, was impacted from behind, while stopped behind a Nissan pickup truck. The Ford Aerostar van didn't see her stopped vehicle and plowed into her, driving her car under the bed of the pickup. The pickup's rear axle was above the front doors of her car.

It was very fortunate that the car was able to dissipate much of the collision energy with the front impact by wedging under the light rear end of the empty pickup's bed. If the car had been driven straight into the rear of the vehicle in front, a lot more damage and energy transfer would've occurred into her vehicle.

She did suffer from "whiplash, or a cervical strain injury" that required many weeks of rehabilitation. Yet, to this day, 20 years later, she still suffers periodic neck pain.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I remember another reason why they were exempt is because they were considered "utility" vehicles meaning used on a farm, at a factory etc. where they would not normally be used out on the highway. Even that was bogus because of course most of them did wind up on the highway quite a lot of the time, especially when people started buying pickup trucks and using them as cars. Those my age or older probably remember how common it was for people (especially children) to ride in the back of pickup trucks even on a highway. I remember doing that a few times when I was a kid, it was fun, but you shudder to think back now how dangerous that was. Then like you said the SUV craze came along but they were still treated as utility vehicles which was ridiculous. I don't remember all the differences, most of which you couldn't see, I just remember you could always tell an exempt vehicle from the outside because there was no third brake light, even several years after they were required on cars.

 

Hope the OP and everyone is OK.
But that photo is nearly iconic.
A white Prius, sandwiched and smashed between two opposing gas guzzlers.

 

Get off my road!!
I paid for it with my gas taxes!

 

The Escalades look drivable, certainly not totaled. I shall mount spikes on my car to prevent such an injustice .

 

Ah, yes! The new spear (nuclear) deterrent.