This Is What A Car Crash At Nearly 200mph Looks Like

[Are_grits_groceries]

This crash occurred at a Nov. 10 meet of the El Mirage 200 MPH club, when driver Brian Gillespie lost control of his car at speeds somewhere between 180 and 190 MPH. Gillespie was airlifted to the hospital, but was largely and remarkably unharmed.

The vehicle's safety equipment worked exactly as planned. Gillespie suffered a collapsed lung and some cuts and bruises, an amazingly short laundry list for someone who just rolled his car a billion times. He was released from the hospital a week after his crash.
http://deadspin.com/this-is-what-a-car-crash-at-nearly-200-mph-looks-like-1468559616

When these cars roll like this, the force of the crash is released in an extended period. The cage and other safety features do a good job of protecting a driver.
When there is a crash with the same amount of force that occurs bluntly like running into a wall, it's released in a short time. That can cause more serious injuries.

[JI7]

1. and that's why just because racers can survive

doesn't mean some random idiot driving in public streets should try the same as they will most likely hit something or even worse someone else and kill them.

[liberal N proud]

2. But everyone these days thinks they are driving a NASCAR vehicle

A few years ago, the car I was given at the rental agency was a Monte Carlo. At the time that was one of the models mimicked by NASCAR and I was in North Carolina. When I returned the car, the attendant that checks your vehicle in asked me what it was like driving a NASCAR. Really? NASCAR, what I have seen on TeeVee doesn't look much like that car.

Although the modern Uni-body construction was designed to absorb the impact of a collision or rolling the car, it does not offer the protection that cars with roll cages and frames designed for racing have.

[Major Nikon]

7. Here in Texas they even put numbers on their vehicles

[A HERETIC I AM]

18. Not unique to Texas. n/t

[hobbit709]

3. If the average car had the same features built into it, it would cost $200K also.

[trumad]

4. Try it running into a tree

or a concrete telephone poll.

[Are_grits_groceries]

5. And you mean what by this post? Seriously asking. nt

[trumad]

12. I'm saying most people die on the highway when they hit something....

Not trying to be snarky.

[Are_grits_groceries]

13. That's why I asked.

I didn't think you were being snarky, but it's hard to tell.

Hitting a tree or whatever is like hitting the wall in racing. It's much better to roll.

When Dale Earnhardt went into turn 3 and got jammed, he hit the wall head-on. It looked like a simple wreck.
I was watching and I knew something more was up by the tone of Darrell Waltrip's voice. He was very upset by what he saw.

[Boom Sound 416]

6. Why did he try to turn?

[Are_grits_groceries]

8. Here is a more detailed account of that moment:

<snip>
You’ll see Honda making some really big speed through the first 20 seconds of the video or so and then it all goes horribly, awfully wrong. You can start to see the car get sideways and despite the best efforts of Gillespie to get it back in line, it refuses to comply.

As the car starts to rotate on the silt floor of El Mirage the dust cloud gets pretty big but true disaster strikes when the car turns its tail to the wind and the most intense series of snap and barrel rolls we have ever seen follows. Hyperbole aside, you’ll be gobsmacked when you see how violently this car spins, flips, and rolls. We have never seen anything like it.
<snip>
http://bangshift.com/blog/watch-the-most-violent-land-speed-racing-crash-we-have-ever-seen-driver-ok-180-mph-wreck.html

Once that car started to go sideways on that silt floor he was in big trouble. At that speed, trying to make an exact correction would be difficult. You see this in NASCAR races all the time. Some can recover from moving sideways, but many times they can't.

[In_The_Wind]

9. He was smiling on GMA this morning thanks to the special roll cage.

[X_Digger]

10. I wouldn't call a collapsed lung 'remarkably unharmed', personally. n/t

[Are_grits_groceries]

25. It's not a minor injury.

However, after viewing that rollover, 'remarkably unharmed' is an apt description IMO.
Even with a roll cage and other safety features, there is no guarantee that someone will be in a fairly decent condition.
It's all relative.

[Javaman]

11. Flat road under controlled circumstances...

try this on a street with people other cars and various traffic obstacles.

once upon a time, in my primordial days, I was a volunteer fireman. Part of the job was attending to wrecked vehicles.

There is one I will never ever forget.

It's estimated that this one particular car, we believe it was an old monte carlo (I never saw the police report identifying the car), had hit speeds of over 110 miles an hour on this particular drag in my home down.

Anyway, it lost control, hit a fire hydrant, went airborne, hit a telephone phone and split it, then, we believe, pinwheeled across the intersection, throwing it's occupant from the vehicle then finally coming to rest against a shed in a parking lot. The vehicle, with all the obstacles it hit traveled almost a quarter mile. The engine block traveled an additional 100 yards beyond.

fortunately, this all occurred at roughly 3 am in the morning in the midweek. No one else was hurt.

When we rolled up, we set up for a washdown, while our LT chatted with the police. As we worked, a buddy of mine noticed some guy watching all of us from the curb. He just sat that taking it all in.

My friend walks over to him and asked, "did you see it happen?"

And the guy responds, "see it happen? I was in it".

No seatbelt, high as a kite.

The police eventually took him in.

Yeah, he survived, as many I have seen due to the effects of being drunk or high.

No, I'm not at all advocating drinking/drugs and driving. Far from it.

My point is, this fool was lucky.

There have been many wrecks that I had to attend to and witness it's former occupants poured into a body bags.

Just because this one guy who drove in this one car, at such a high rate of speed survived, doesn't mean a damn thing.

That's all I'm saying.

[haele]

16. Back in the 70's, I was training to be a paramedic (went into the military instead)

In our ride-along week, we took a highway call where a Porche had been weaving through fairly light traffic at "high speeds" according to witnesses and ended up under the back-bumper of an 18-wheeler that had stopped at a 4-way light. What we came up on looked like an explosion crammed up against the back of the truck.

The guy wasn't wearing a seatbelt. I found a foot about 100 yards away from the side of the road, and one of the fireman found the head about 200 yards in the other direction. Most of the body was in the highway alongside the truck.

This sort of thing was not uncommon along the back roads and county highways. They'd come across this sort of accident at least once a year. One of the reasons I didn't become a paramedic. I couldn't handle the nightmares afterwards. (Still have problems, but they're not that often.)

Haele

[Are_grits_groceries]

17. A lot of people who hit deer on those country roads

end up with serious injuries and/or totaled cars.
My cousin totaled her car. Her brother picked her up and then came back and picked up the deer for the meat.

[Javaman]

22. I hated those...

at times we would have to repond to wrecks on the LIE and the Northern State Parkway.

I hated those.

I still get nightmares from a few of those.

[Blue_Tires]

14. My bigger surprise is that someone got 200 mph out of a Honda Insight...

[Octafish]

15. It's like a plug.

Marketing.

[The Straight Story]

19. We should ban cars that go over 75

And ban all fully automatic cars, make folks use standards - makes it harder to text and such (does anyone really need a fully automatic car???). Oh, and ban spoilers and things that make cars look faster (and paint jobs with flames).

These people are car humpers - NO ONE needs a car that goes faster than what the government allows on it's roads. Tinkering with cars should be illegal (oh, they will say these cars are just for special things - but they will make it to the street, I don't have a car that does this, so no one else should need one either).

[IdaBriggs]

20. Oddly enough, I kind of agree with this post.

Keep in mind I am one of those people who think cars are tools to be used to get from place to place.

What is the point of a car being able to go over 90 miles per hour if it is intended to be used on the public roads for normal transportation? We don't have anyplace that I am aware that allows speeds of more than 90 miles per hour - what gives?

[Comrade Grumpy]

21. Speed limit on Utah interstates is 80 mph.

I'll tell you what: You drive what you want, and I'll drive what I want.

[frylock]

24. how about we just test people before they get behind the wheel..

and issue them some sort of license in order to operate these vehicles on the roadways. this "license" would require a renewal at specific intervals. perhaps maintain some sort of database of car owners, make them purchase insurance, and regulate what type of vehicles are allowed on the streets? oh wait, we already do all that? nevermind.

[Orrex]

23. That'll buff right out.