New shaped cars
Posted: 19 Feb 2011
The front ends of modern cars all tend to be of a similar shape these days. This, I'm told, is to be pedestrian friendly, being higher it throws the body away from the car by hitting it over a greater surface area, therefore causing less damage than if it continued upwards hitting the screen.
Tonight, I unfortunately witnessed this first hand. I had been on my afternoon march and was almost home , there was a bunch of kids (13 to 16) generally messing around and shouting at each other, when all of a sudden, this lad about 15, comes from behind me across in front of me and tries to run between a slow moving line of cars on the opposite carriage way.
Unfortunately he didn't see the car on our side going about 20+mph. The driver had no chance even to brake until she had hit him.
True it stops the body hitting the screen but even at that relatively low speed, the impact threw him about 10 feet at chest height like a rag doll. He landed on his shoulder and was out for a minute but seemed Relatively ok. I asked his name and he told me so I told him to keep dead still and phoned an ambulance. Couple of guys appeared one had a big reflective jacket and covered him up and a woman brought a cushion to put under his head.
A paramedic arrived after about 10 minutes and took over. She stuck a neck thingy on him and checked him over and outwardly he seemed ok. I got the woman driver to move her car into the side street next to us. She was in a right state. I calmed her down and told her there were about 4 witnesses and she could not have avoided what happened. This settled her down a bit so I went back to the lad just as plod arrived ....all 8 of them. 2 lads had been directing traffic very well till they turned up and fucked the traffic up altogether with 4 cars just stopped anywhere. I gave my details and a short statement. 40 mins the kid was lying in the road before the ambulance turned up. Not really acceptable so I told the traffic bloke to report it. wether he will or not I don't know, but I certainly will, if it had been more serious he would have been dead.
Getting back to car shapes.... Not sure it makes much difference whether you hit a windscreen at 20 mph or are thrown 10 ft to the road at the same speed. It's gotta hurt either way.
Tonight, I unfortunately witnessed this first hand. I had been on my afternoon march and was almost home , there was a bunch of kids (13 to 16) generally messing around and shouting at each other, when all of a sudden, this lad about 15, comes from behind me across in front of me and tries to run between a slow moving line of cars on the opposite carriage way.
Unfortunately he didn't see the car on our side going about 20+mph. The driver had no chance even to brake until she had hit him.
True it stops the body hitting the screen but even at that relatively low speed, the impact threw him about 10 feet at chest height like a rag doll. He landed on his shoulder and was out for a minute but seemed Relatively ok. I asked his name and he told me so I told him to keep dead still and phoned an ambulance. Couple of guys appeared one had a big reflective jacket and covered him up and a woman brought a cushion to put under his head.
A paramedic arrived after about 10 minutes and took over. She stuck a neck thingy on him and checked him over and outwardly he seemed ok. I got the woman driver to move her car into the side street next to us. She was in a right state. I calmed her down and told her there were about 4 witnesses and she could not have avoided what happened. This settled her down a bit so I went back to the lad just as plod arrived ....all 8 of them. 2 lads had been directing traffic very well till they turned up and fucked the traffic up altogether with 4 cars just stopped anywhere. I gave my details and a short statement. 40 mins the kid was lying in the road before the ambulance turned up. Not really acceptable so I told the traffic bloke to report it. wether he will or not I don't know, but I certainly will, if it had been more serious he would have been dead.
Getting back to car shapes.... Not sure it makes much difference whether you hit a windscreen at 20 mph or are thrown 10 ft to the road at the same speed. It's gotta hurt either way.