Car Accident

Clocker

Clocker

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Joined
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A good frined of mine from work got in a car accident last week (wasn't his fault). It's amazing to me that his only injuries were a relatively minor left collar bone fracture (just a crack) and some scrapes. If you want to check out the pix, see the link below. It's just like the GP I used to have and miss greatly..... :(

http://www.wideopenwest.com/~kharper/cardinal/

C
 
Wow, that's terrible. Glad he is OK. Looks like those side impact beams did their job. Form the looks of the picture, was the car pushed into something else during the hit? Both doors are dented in...
 
Oops my bad. I thought one of the photos were of the passanger side door, but it wasn't.
 
No, you were right. He was struck on the driver side and pushed into another stationary vehicle (at a stop sign) causing the damage on the passenger side. In person, the car looks like an hour-glass.
 
The other driver had a blood alcohol level of 0.23 (at 3PM) so I guess that was it....

C
 
Looks rough... how fast was the other driver going?

<Remembers to tick the side airbags option on my next car>
 
NRG = mc² said:
Looks rough... how fast was the other driver going?

<Remembers to tick the side airbags option on my next car>
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Seriously though, if his head had hit the window, that would have been bad news... Damn drunk drivers... Lemme guess...the drunk driver was fine...
 
Handruin said:
Seriously though, if his head had hit the window, that would have been bad news... Damn drunk drivers... Lemme guess...the drunk driver was fine...
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I heard (or read) somewhere that many drunk drivers largely emerge unhurt from accidents because the alcohol relaxes their system so much that it somehow prevents injury. Perhaps one of our esteemed medical experts can address this issue?
 
The instructor I had for the FAA Powerplant license course explained this to the class one time. He spoke of less damage be inflicted on the body of a relaxed person than one who has all their muscles rigid for the same reason a cooked spaghetti noodle bends and an uncooked one breaks.

I'm not saying I completely believed it, but it was an interesting digression nonetheless.
 
I've also heard that in case you feel a crash is inevitable just to relax and take your hands off the wheel at the last moment, to stop you snapping your arms. As if anyone would think of that before smashing into something.
 
"Crash" and "relax"--not usually two words that work together, unless you are using "crash" as the slang reference to "relaxing." E.g. I'm going to go home and crash. Isn't english great! :D

Sorry, I'm in a strange mood today.
 
NRG = mc² said:
I've also heard that in case you feel a crash is inevitable just to relax and take your hands off the wheel at the last moment, to stop you snapping your arms. As if anyone would think of that before smashing into something.
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It becomes second nature after a while. I've long drilled into my head the idea of going limp whenever I fall off my bicycle. Although I haven't had a crash in something like seven years, the idea has served me well in the past. One time I hit a pothole doing 37 MPH. The front wheel bent and locked up, and I fell off the bike. I immediately went limp and simply waited until I stopped sliding along. I aided my deceleration a bit by pressing the toe of my sneakers into the ground, but other than that, I was completely relaxed, with my arms stretched forward. Outside of the expected scrapes on my knees and elbows, I was perfectly fine, and got up immediately to retrieve my bicycle, which had stopped about 100 feet before I did.

Since most people don't get into accidents often enough to practice relaxing, the next best thing is to visualize an accident scenario and see yourself going limp. Do this enough times and when an accident does occur you'll actually find that it's second nature. The only caveat is that I only go limp when the bike is already falling beyond any possible recovery. There have been times when I started falling but managed to react quickly enough to recover and prevent the fall, which is obviously a far more desirable outcome.
 
Dozer said:
I heard (or read) somewhere that many drunk drivers largely emerge unhurt from accidents because the alcohol relaxes their system so much that it somehow prevents injury.
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Alcohol can't prevent injuries. It can have pain-inhibiting effects for a short while but otherwise can't save them.
 
I've heard of a similar thing happening when babies are involved in accidents. An 18 month old child fell from a fourth storey window and was completely unharmed due to the fact that a child of that age has no sense of fear and therefore was completely relaxed at the moment of impact.
 
Babies are another issue. Let's not forget they have relatively large amounts of adipose tissue in respect to their total weight.

Don't get me wrong, I've heard these allegations too, but actually the internal damage to the body is worse if the muscles aren't rigid enough to absord some of the kinetic energy of the impact.

In general surgery we learnt that the worse hernias happen when the body is relaxed, where actually the abdominal [muscle] walls are more flexible. I don't see why it doesn't fit to falls, crashes or other blunt damages as well.
 
Prof.Wizard said:
Babies are another issue. Let's not forget they have relatively large amounts of adipose tissue in respect to their total weight.

Don't get me wrong, I've heard these allegations too, but actually the internal damage to the body is worse if the muscles aren't rigid enough to absord some of the kinetic energy of the impact.

In general surgery we learnt that the worse hernias happen when the body is relaxed, where actually the abdominal [muscle] walls are more flexible. I don't see why it doesn't fit to falls, crashes or other blunt damages as well.
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A hernia is a condition in which part of the intestine bulges through a weak area in muscles in the abdomen.

Relaxed muscles would certainly allow intestines to bulge through more easily.

I am of the opinion that the conservation of damage in relation to staying relaxed in a crash would be centered on cartilage, tendon and muscle damage and possibly ankles, wrists, finders and toes. Abrasion and contusion damage is almost certain to be more due to flailing.
 
Cliptin said:
A hernia is a condition in which part of the intestine bulges through a weak area in muscles in the abdomen.
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Only to be technically correct. Hernias can happen to other organs as well, not only intestine.
I am of the opinion that the conservation of damage in relation to staying relaxed in a crash would be centered on cartilage, tendon and muscle damage and possibly ankles, wrists, finders and toes. Abrasion and contusion damage is almost certain to be more due to flailing.
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Yep.
 
Cliptin said:
I am of the opinion that the conservation of damage in relation to staying relaxed in a crash would be centered on cartilage, tendon and muscle damage and possibly ankles, wrists, finders and toes. Abrasion and contusion damage is almost certain to be more due to flailing.
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I think being relaxed during the crash would also help to prevent breakages of bones as there is no opposing force being exerted on the bones by tense muscles and therefore the limb in question can absorb most of the impact.
 
slo crostic said:
Cliptin said:
I am of the opinion that the conservation of damage in relation to staying relaxed in a crash would be centered on cartilage, tendon and muscle damage and possibly ankles, wrists, finders and toes. Abrasion and contusion damage is almost certain to be more due to flailing.
Click to expand...

I think being relaxed during the crash would also help to prevent breakages of bones as there is no opposing force being exerted on the bones by tense muscles and therefore the limb in question can absorb most of the impact.
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What about when you smack against a seatbelt or airbag? These things are quite rigid and can easily break bones. (Especially seat belts.)
 
I would think in a scenario like that bones are going to break regardless. What I'm refering to is other types of stress i.e; trying to hold onto the steering wheel during a head on accident.
 
I have been in a 40MPH wreck with a seatbelt and airbag. I was in no danger of breaking anything on the airbag. Besides, I would think it takes quite a bit to fracture a facial bone.

If the seat belt is tightened properly I don't see how you could impact the seatbelt. Even then, the nylon webbing is designed to "give" a certain amount. Like climbing rope.
 
slo crostic said:
I would think in a scenario like that bones are going to break regardless. What I'm refering to is other types of stress i.e; trying to hold onto the steering wheel during a head on accident.
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In the wreck I alluded to before, I puposefully relaxed at the last moment. I used to drive that car in such a way that both my thumbs should be been dislocated. I chalk it up to relaxing. Dunno really.

All in all the wreck bent the frame on the other vehicle (an F250) and nearly totaled the Volvo I had borrowed. I ended up with only minor facial cuts (airbag smashed glasses into face) and arm burns and abrasions. The abrasions were wrist to elbow on both arms and were from the airbag fabric as it deployed. The burns were directly on top of the second joint of my thumbs and from the gas that blows the air bag up. In order to release the gas and cushion the blow there were 4 holes in the underside of the bag. 2 holes were positioned on top of my thumbs.
 
Cliptin,
you relaxed certain muscles. However you knew of the imminent impact, didn't you? I'm sure you didn't relax abdominal or vertebral muscles.

I even know of people who release brakes just before a front-to-back impact because they don't want to ruin the car's headlights. :-?
 
timwhit said:
slo crostic said:
Cliptin said:
I am of the opinion that the conservation of damage in relation to staying relaxed in a crash would be centered on cartilage, tendon and muscle damage and possibly ankles, wrists, finders and toes. Abrasion and contusion damage is almost certain to be more due to flailing.
Click to expand...

I think being relaxed during the crash would also help to prevent breakages of bones as there is no opposing force being exerted on the bones by tense muscles and therefore the limb in question can absorb most of the impact.
Click to expand...

What about when you smack against a seatbelt or airbag? These things are quite rigid and can easily break bones. (Especially seat belts.)
Click to expand...

Well the idea of the seatbelt is to increase the amount of time over which the body decelerates, thereby reducing the forces applied to the unfortunate individual. i.e. car hits power pole, and stops in 0.01 secs. Very large force. Individual stops in 0.1 secs, much less force. Well you get the idea. The airbags are there to stop you hitting the nasty steering wheel or front dash. Sides to stop you hitting the window or pillars. The more modern seatbelts have pretensioners that sense an impact and wind the belts in, reducing any slack. And then ease out the belt to avoid the bone breaking you talk of. I knew a guy who was a passenger in a car crash, he ended up with all his guts pushed into his chest area by the force of the lap section of the belt. He had to have surgery to get them all back down. But he fared much better than the driver who was killed.
 
Prof.Wizard said:
Cliptin,
you relaxed certain muscles. However you knew of the imminent impact, didn't you? I'm sure you didn't relax abdominal or vertebral muscles.

I even know of people who release brakes just before a front-to-back impact because they don't want to ruin the car's headlights. :-?
Click to expand...

Correct. In particular legs, arms and shoulders. I went limp as best I could. I released brakes when crash was iminent.
 
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