JJB236

A few years back when I had the 996, I had a head-on collision with a pick-up truck, both at about 25 mph, and the front end of the 996 ended up in the truck's mid-engine area, totally killed the pick-up truck. I hear the 911 front round ends are very strong. I READ THE BELOW ARTICLE FROM A BENZ FORUM, and I wonder what would happen to the 997 under the same circumstances:

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(BELOW IS AN EXCERPT FROM A MERCDES FORUM, NOT MY CAR)
"Survival in my 400E"

"Last Month I was unhappy about spending in excess of $6400 on repairs to my 1993 400E. The engine was reworked, front end parts replaced and a general rebuilt of the entire car. With less than 500 miles on it since coming out of the shop I took off from Des Moines, Iowa last Tuesday night headed for Washington state. Outside of Omaha I slowed down for an accident but the semi in back of me failed to realize that I had slowed down. Right in front of the State Patrolman the semi barreled into the rear of my 400E going full bore. We (my 400E and me) were thrown across the road and into a ditch. After using the jaws of life, the rescue team pulled me from my faithful friend. The car collapsed as designed to do protecting the passenger compartment. The passenger compartment remainded intact, even the seats remained upright and complete. I thank God for the design and safety of my 400E. I will miss my friend but at the same time am so thankful to be alive. Needless to say, I will be purchasing a replacement MB. I will attach photos when I get them."

texas911

Damn, but I don't think the rear passengers would have done quite as well. The newer Benz's are even better.

Ucube

Assuming rear-ended while stationary, it's probably not much different from a front-engined sports car getting hit head-on.

On an unrelated note, didn't you recently sell your 996 (previously owned for 5+ years) which you represented as being perfect? Where exactly does the head-on collision fit in that assessment?

Edgy01

How about hitting a tree with your 996?

wetstuff

Ouch ...and Ouch! Jeezz! The guy in the MB is lucky he didn't have young kids with him. There was a truck-Honda-truck sandwich at a toll booth near Baltimore last year. Guess which had the kids...

JJB236

You have good memory. I must have made some type of an impression to have you remember my car ha ha. I see that you had a 996, so we might have met in the 996 forum. According to the dealer body shop, the damage that was done to my 996 was very minimal. Visually, it only had some scrapes.

JJB236

How would other 4 door sedans like the BMW's, Audi's, and Volvo's perform ? I think all German sedans should perform equally well, no? Or is Mercedes the top dog in the safety department?

Ucube

It's hard not to remember that avatar...

968PORSCHE

Ok, you did drive it home right? I see cars like that being driven as daily drivers here in LA all the time. They just put that red tape from Pep Boys over the broken lights, assuming they can find them.

waiting for PDK

Mercedes and Volvo used to have forensic teams that investigated local accidents involving their cars helping to make them safer in real world situations (i.e., not crashing straight into a flat wall at exactly 60 kph). I don't know if these teams are still around, but guess who seem to have invented most of the safety devices we see today...

JJB236

Man, that looks pretty bad.

Hey, Dan, how did you get your photo to be embedded instead of having it as an attachment?

richc

Here is a picture of my daughters 5 series BMW, hit head on by a Ford F350 truck at what the CHP estimated was a combined speed of 60 mph (she at 25, truck at 35 since it'd left 77 feet of skid marks before impact). The truck was on her side of the road. After cutting her out of the car, she was air lifted to a trauma center in San Jose and spent 25 hours in surgery and 3 months in the hospital. The uninsured truck driver had an injured little finger according to the police report, his truck was towed to his house because of some tie rod damage.

Deanski

OMG RichC

I do hope that all is now well.

That was just a terrible crash.

Deanski

johnag007

You did not tell us whether he was sent to jail, thank the Lord the car was solid, the front door is nearly level with the rear door C closing post. Is your daughter ok?

richc

I don't know what happened to the guy who hit her - they were neighbors of my daughters. Mom and son walked away from their house and she has no idea where they went, house went into foreclosure. He was cited for excessive speed and driving on the wrong side of the road. She's been concentrating on getting well, rather than retribution - doing things she can rather than stuff she can't. She's walking ok, she was a 10k runner prior to the accident- they've told her running is probably over. The day before the accident she'd been accepted to grad school (UCSC), that got put off for a year - she'll be starting this fall. She's taken the first responders and the CHP who helped her out to dinner, I thought that was a nice gesture. I got to know Los Gatos pretty well, they had her in a rest home for a couple of months there and I'd wheel her around town every day. Nice little town, I saw my first Carrera GT there when we were out on one of our walks - what a great sounding car. She replaced her 5 with a BMW X5 SUV. I might head down that way this fall for the ALMS race in Oct - she lives 25 mi. from Laguna Seca and has an apartment in her house I can stay in.

Me - I'm just happy she was driving that Beemer that day and not her Toyota Corolla.