Saw a horrible crash on the way home from work. The 202 freeway was all backed up and I guess they closed it behind us. After being bumper to bumper for about 3 miles we came upon the scene. A Miata with no front bumper left was sitting on the shoulder, and the right lane was blocked by a pewter color '02 or '03 X on it's top. The A pillars were flat and the roof caved in really bad. A door was cut off when I got there. Typically they'll only close the freeway if it's a fatality. I saw no people, but the carnage was bad.

Not sure what happened. I'm guessing the Miata clipped the X, or the X cut off the Miata...either way, the X flipped at least a couple times at full freeway speed and it was demolished.

I had a long, crappy day at work yesterday as it was. I didn't need to see that on the way home.


1998 Frontier 4x4 with ALL the goodies!
2002 Xterra 4x4 still stock
Stop urban sprawl and advocate multi-use of public lands! It's YOUR pastime; get active and help save it!

I saw a smashed up X on the way to SC today. The front was pretty squished.

These things are supposed to be safe, right?

Mr. Will

Give me ambiguity or give me something else.

In theory, the front should be "squished", as there are crumple zones all over the place to help dissipate the energy from the impact, as well as force the engine underneath the vehicle, rather than thru it.

Still, a terrible scene to see, none-the-less.

I see that there's a CC at the SLR website that has an internal roll bar. Was thinking that might not be a bad mod, to assist with roll overs. Not sure how expensive/difficult it would be to do.

Speaking of crumple zones, I noticed that people cut their front bumper crumple zones off when fabbing up their own bumpers? Seems like the extra approach angle you might gain wouldn't be worth the safety issue? Thoughts on this?

Regards, and have a safe 4th weekend!

-matt



'00 CC 4x4 XE

quote:

---

Speaking of crumple zones, I noticed that people cut their front bumper crumple zones off when fabbing up their own bumpers? Seems like the extra approach angle you might gain wouldn't be worth the safety issue? Thoughts on this?

---

Well, same idea on the ARB and TJM buimbers as well as the Steel rear bumpers. It is made to take hits, and remain sturdy and in tact, not crumple. You do sacrifice safety, but you also sacrifice it with offroad tires (increased breaking distance), lifts (higher COG, more likely to roll) etc. It is kinda part of modifying a vehicle IMO.

Orange, yeah, you bring up a good point. I had aftermarket steel rear bumpers on two other trucks, and was rear-ended once in each truck.

Both times, the bumper never budged significantly, but the cars had to be towed due to serious front end damage.

In the front end, with the other zones and a STURDY bumper in front of it all, seems like that might actually be safer than the wimpy bumpers they put on the front today.

Regards,

-matt



'00 CC 4x4 XE

My main thing was that I wanted my truck to remain driveable if something did happen.. especially offroad. With a crumple zones and a frame thats designed to bend, it wouldnt take much to really throw things out or make the truck undriveable.

That, and having just recovered from a rather serious accident, I was a little paranoid about being in another.. so I put the ARB on the truck and built sliders and a rear bumper. I'm gettin better though. Not too worried about that anymore.


BEEFYJames Fabrication - Custom Fabricated for Use and Abuse
Nissan Terrano .. "Take a grip of Steering!"

I'm sure in a bad accident, the steel bumpers could cause a lot more damage to the other vehicle, as the other vehicle is forced to absorb a lot of that energy, but I'm not sure if that is a bad thing.

There is a pic of a couple land cruisers that John posted a while back. One with an ARB rear ended the other. The whole cargo area on the front vehicle lookd like a pop can while the other one looked pretty good and completely driveable. I personally would rather the another car crumple, or my truck bounce of a rock than make my vehicle undriveable.

Man, where is that pic?

It was from the russian nissan club site.. cant remember where exactly.


BEEFYJames Fabrication - Custom Fabricated for Use and Abuse
Nissan Terrano .. "Take a grip of Steering!"

http://www.nissan-4x4.ru/ways/ways-2001-11-15.htm

And of course there's the wicked yellow Lada Niva on ballon tires to be found there too

Brent

I wonder if Oleg is a member, hehe.


Heavily Modified 2001 SE
6cyl 5spd 4x4 Solar Yellow

skid plates lower COG everytime