jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^Obviously no one can know how fast that car was driving until the accident investigation is complete. However, I would say that based on the very little bit that we do know (car shoved into a ditch, jaws of life) it does sound like a higher than average chance that the driver of the BMW was going pretty fast.

I don't *know* that is true but I would really be surprised to find out that it wasn't true, kwim? But I've been surprised before so who knows.

Don't newer model, higher end vehicles like this BMW include onboard boxes that record metrics like speed and which can be examined after a crash? If so, investigators will know soon enough.

Yes, almost certainly the car is equipped with an event data recorder. The car might also have BMW assist which would provide data about the impact force and so on (similar to OnStar).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can they even put speed cameras on a road with a speed limit of 45 mph? I thought it had to be less or be a construction work zone.

They can drop the limit to 40 and set up cameras.

Anonymous wrote:

Electric car owner here. Wanted to chime in and give facts here that are being misreported. All electric cars like Leaf, Tesla, Volt (has gas back up engine, not a hybrid like a Prius) actually have faster 0-30mph acceleration that most has cars, even a BMW! Little known fact. Makes it really fun to drive in the city as they are super zippy under 30. I can beat any BMW in my Leaf going from red light to red light. Another fact, the 2016 Volt has 0-30 of 2.2 seconds which beats the average BMW of 2.7 and even the fast and expensive Tesla at 2.3 seconds.

Yeah, I drive a leaf too and I don't think the Volt is slower, from the one test drive I did. Unless it is slower on its gasoline engine? But even that--no. A volt is NOT a hybrid. It has an electric motor, and a gasoline generator for that motor for when it runs out of electric charge. It is possible that the driver overestimated the volt's zipping power, and thought he could make the turn--I know that I sometimes count on my leaf being able to outrun anything 0-30 for some of my driving decisions. Which I should stop doing, btw. If anything this horrible accident is a good reminder for us to be careful.

The thing I do think might be worth mentioning is, that the 2016 is a brand new redesign for the Volt. I don't even think they've been selling for more than a few months. They said they had a hard time getting anyone out of the car--I wonder if there are some issues there. There are special protocols for electric cars in accidents. Generally, they are very safe, but--

I am soberly reminded not to try and beat the light--or traffic. My hearts go out to the family.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess BMWs are pretty sturdy cars? It is amazing that the other driver wasn't more badly injured considering how devastating the impact was for the other car.

It's mostly related to direction of impact. The BMW likely hit head-on, so you have the entire front of the car to absorb the impact. The front is designed as a crumple zone for that purpose. Then on top of that, seatbelts and airbags are oriented towards a front-end collision.

On a side impact, there's much less "car" there to protect you. Just the doors, which do have side protection (typically beams) built in as it's required by federal law, but that's just a lot less mass and material compared to what's at the front of a car. The laws of physics come into play.

The other law of physics is the relative speed of the two vehicles. A Chevy Volt accelerates very slowly, so traveling ? less than 25 mph, perhaps much less. The BMW was in a 45 mph zone. So with that difference in speeds, the Volt would thrown farther. Think pool balls.

Interesting, I would think that a car being broadsided would travel further if it had some acceleration going on as opposed to barely moving or stationary at the time of impact.

NP here. Vector diagram -- it would depend on the direction and speed of the cars. There's no reason the broadsided car would go further in the direction it was hit if it were accelerating (as long as it wasn't in the direction of the force that hit it) vs. stationary. It might go further in the direction it was moving/accelerating already. But not along the direction of the force of impact.

Electric car owner here. Wanted to chime in and give facts here that are being misreported. All electric cars like Leaf, Tesla, Volt (has gas back up engine, not a hybrid like a Prius) actually have faster 0-30mph acceleration that most has cars, even a BMW! Little known fact. Makes it really fun to drive in the city as they are super zippy under 30. I can beat any BMW in my Leaf going from red light to red light. Another fact, the 2016 Volt has 0-30 of 2.2 seconds which beats the average BMW of 2.7 and even the fast and expensive Tesla at 2.3 seconds.

Anonymous wrote:Can they even put speed cameras on a road with a speed limit of 45 mph? I thought it had to be less or be a construction work zone.

Anonymous wrote:Can they even put speed cameras on a road with a speed limit of 45 mph? I thought it had to be less or be a construction work zone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess BMWs are pretty sturdy cars? It is amazing that the other driver wasn't more badly injured considering how devastating the impact was for the other car.

It's mostly related to direction of impact. The BMW likely hit head-on, so you have the entire front of the car to absorb the impact. The front is designed as a crumple zone for that purpose. Then on top of that, seatbelts and airbags are oriented towards a front-end collision.

On a side impact, there's much less "car" there to protect you. Just the doors, which do have side protection (typically beams) built in as it's required by federal law, but that's just a lot less mass and material compared to what's at the front of a car. The laws of physics come into play.

The other law of physics is the relative speed of the two vehicles. A Chevy Volt accelerates very slowly, so traveling ? less than 25 mph, perhaps much less. The BMW was in a 45 mph zone. So with that difference in speeds, the Volt would thrown farther. Think pool balls.

Interesting, I would think that a car being broadsided would travel further if it had some acceleration going on as opposed to barely moving or stationary at the time of impact.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess BMWs are pretty sturdy cars? It is amazing that the other driver wasn't more badly injured considering how devastating the impact was for the other car.

It's mostly related to direction of impact. The BMW likely hit head-on, so you have the entire front of the car to absorb the impact. The front is designed as a crumple zone for that purpose. Then on top of that, seatbelts and airbags are oriented towards a front-end collision.

On a side impact, there's much less "car" there to protect you. Just the doors, which do have side protection (typically beams) built in as it's required by federal law, but that's just a lot less mass and material compared to what's at the front of a car. The laws of physics come into play.

The other law of physics is the relative speed of the two vehicles. A Chevy Volt accelerates very slowly, so traveling ? less than 25 mph, perhaps much less. The BMW was in a 45 mph zone. So with that difference in speeds, the Volt would thrown farther. Think pool balls.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope it wasn't teenagers..

Sadly, it was. I spoke with someone who spoke to a witness at the scene who saw it all happen. Car full of 4 young people on River Road inbound (to DC) in the lane to make a left turn. The car sat there even though there was room to make the left, then finally when teh car DID make the left, it was directly in front of an oncoming vehicle. Speculation is that the 4 young people were headed to the play at Whitman tonight.

I don't know if the 3 fatalities were in that car, but the information I have is the car ended up in the ditch, all airbags deployed, and people on the scene (before EMS arrived) were unable to get the passengers out. The jaws of life were used to finally extricate them.

Stop spreading gossip.

You may correct anything you want.

"4 young people"

See my 02/28/2016 21:43 post where I provided a follow-up on the veracity of the report, and also why the "young people" part may have been inaccurate.

I don't understand why you wrote the first time. You heard something third person. You just couldn't wait to post. Sad.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess BMWs are pretty sturdy cars? It is amazing that the other driver wasn't more badly injured considering how devastating the impact was for the other car.

It's mostly related to direction of impact. The BMW likely hit head-on, so you have the entire front of the car to absorb the impact. The front is designed as a crumple zone for that purpose. Then on top of that, seatbelts and airbags are oriented towards a front-end collision.

On a side impact, there's much less "car" there to protect you. Just the doors, which do have side protection (typically beams) built in as it's required by federal law, but that's just a lot less mass and material compared to what's at the front of a car. The laws of physics come into play.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope it wasn't teenagers..

Sadly, it was. I spoke with someone who spoke to a witness at the scene who saw it all happen. Car full of 4 young people on River Road inbound (to DC) in the lane to make a left turn. The car sat there even though there was room to make the left, then finally when teh car DID make the left, it was directly in front of an oncoming vehicle. Speculation is that the 4 young people were headed to the play at Whitman tonight.

I don't know if the 3 fatalities were in that car, but the information I have is the car ended up in the ditch, all airbags deployed, and people on the scene (before EMS arrived) were unable to get the passengers out. The jaws of life were used to finally extricate them.

Stop spreading gossip.

You may correct anything you want.

"4 young people"

See my 02/28/2016 21:43 post where I provided a follow-up on the veracity of the report, and also why the "young people" part may have been inaccurate.

I don't understand why you wrote the first time. You heard something third person. You just couldn't wait to post. Sad.