Prius Occupants Survive Horrific Crash

I don't think the Prius is the first application of that type of steel. But it is nice to have, definitely.

 

Thanks for posting a link to the article, Ian. Although that's not the one I recall seeing, it was nevertheless interesting.

 

Still think my BWM with its six air bags and lots of safety stuff plus the 4500 pounds of weight is safer than my Prius. But I agree the Prius is safer than the old 1965 buick I drove in highschool.

 

i think it is the first to use ultra high strength steel

 

The Porsche Boxster uses ultra-high strength steel on its side impact door beams and for the A-pillars going back to 1997. They also use boron steel for the rollbars.

Manufacturers for years have been touting the use of high-strength steel in certain areas of their cars.

IMO, the biggest safety advancement is not so much the materials, but the CAD designs of the cars with crumple zones and safety cages to protect the occupants, and side curtain airbags to keep people's bodies off the safety cage.

 

http://www.newstreet.it/home/article_Id_627.html

i just reread it, it looks like they use a stamping process on top of ultra-high strength steel which is unique

 

I would guess the article is probably accurate, it's just not specific enough. Perhaps Toyota's Ultra-high strength steel is a different alloy than what Porsche uses?

 

This is another reason why it's smart to buy a Prius - not just for the environmenal benefits, but for the safety features as well.

 

Come on guys (and gals) you cannot change the laws of physics - specificly conservation of momentum (mass times velocity). Sure a Prius may stand up well to a head on crash against a Camry or other small car. But you will be much safer in a larger vehicle with airbags and crumple zones. If you get hit in the Prius by a full size Lexus or BMW or heaven help you a big Hummer, who do you think is going to be better off?

 

Re: Here's the World Auto Steel article

'''''I just got my new Prius after driving a no-air-bag Toyota truck for 13 years. '''''

Ditto except it was 17 yrs and a 4x4 Toyota. We had friends in an Outback take a really serious front-side impact that destroyed the car. They walked away because all the bags deployed. That was much of the reason e insistend on Side bags.

 

My friend, who walked away from his accident, hit a tractor-trailer head-on on a two lane highway. His car was a two-door late model Acura probably about the same size as the Prius. The car was totally demolished but the energy absorbing crumple zones and the air bags had done their job. I would think that you couldn't get a much bigger mass differential between his car and the truck. Surely the survivability in a BWM, Camry or other modern mid-sized car like the Prius could not be that much different. Todays automotive engineers seemed to have done a pretty good job leveling the playing field.

Regards,

-- Ian

 

I was hit in the rear a number of years ago when driving Jeep Grand cherokee. The car that hit me was a Trans Am with a Tee Top. A panel truck loaded with heavy tools then smashed into him. His front went under my rear bumper and my trailer hitch hit the top of his engine. The truck crunched him into me and the Tee Tops exploded. They needed the jaws of life to cut the guy out. I had about $500 damage to the Jeep. The truck has about the same damage. The guy in the Trans AM spent 3 months in the hospital, was paralyzed and his car was totalled. I guess that sums it up.

 

I guess the point that I was trying to make here is that there have been some pretty significant advances in vehicle design and safety systems in the last decade. If the integrity of the passenger compartment can be maintained (e.g., with advances in frame design and new high strength steel and such) and you can keep the passengers for hitting the compartment's structures (e.g., with restraints and air bags), you've got a pretty good chance of surviving most accidents.

As for examples of older vehicles and older vehicle designs not being safe, well, that's why I stopped driving my 13 year old truck and bought the Prius.

I wouldn't have thought my friend could possibly have survived his head-on collision with a tractor-trailer before it happened either, yet he walked away and is still here today.

The point made earlier in this thread about the Prius and the Taurus both colliding with the trailer in a similar fashion seems to make the case that these newer designs are, anecdotally at least, more survivable.

Regards,

-- Ian