[subego]

A friend of mine was about to get mowed down by someone who ran a stop sign, and then after seeing my friend, accidentally hit the gas instead of the brake.

My friend says the car was coming at about 30 mph. Since people are bad at estimating this kind of thing, I'd guess it was closer to 20. Still fast enough to kill you messily.

He said, in the split second he had to think, he said to himself "I'm not going under that car", and leapt at it.

He said when the car hit him he tried to push off as hard as he could.

He was thrown a great distance. All the witnesses said they assumed he had to be dead.

By dumb luck, he landed on his side, which distributed the impact. He didn't hit his head.

He went into shock, but after the ambulance came he was able to get up on his own. His leg has some bad abrasions, but the jeans he was wearing helped a lot.

I told my GF this and she said she had a friend who survived an accident doing the same thing.

Weird.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

I've always wondered, out of mild curiousity, what would happen if you jumped up on the hood of an oncoming car and hit the windshield. Do you think you'd just bounce off and be thrown up in the air even farther? Or might it crack inwards and absorb some of the blow before you were thrown?

These things concern me.

greg

[MaxPower2k3]

you'd probably be more likely to go through the windshield, especially if you don't hit it flat across the front (which, i imagine, would be very hard to do if you start out standing on the street and end up horizontal across the windshield)

I don't think going through it would be a fun time for you. or the people in the car. but especially you.

[Kerrigan]

Once I was in a plane crash. One half second before the plane hit the ground, I jumped out of the emergency exit. I landed lightly on the ground as if I had only jumped a foot or two, while the rest of the plane was destroyed. (._.)

[The Windozer]

Hmmm... I can see how it might be a good idea to try and position oneself so that less important or more durable parts of the body absorb most of the blow. Like one's legs, for instance. It would be the same as keeping your feet between yourself and the ground when landing on the ground. Pushing towards the oncoming car with your legs would stiffen your legs, making sure they didn't buckle in under you so easily. So you'd absorb more of the push in your legs and less in your spine, head andsoforth. Of course, the forces exerted on you from the car would be somewhat greater, but the difference would be minimal compared to what the car is already doing to you. So it would be worth the tradeoff, I'm guessing.

Also, I doubt windshields are completely elastic, so they would absorb some of the blow, assuming you could hit it. It might not do you any good, though, except possibly leaving your corpse a bit less mutilated. Well, of course there are the glass splinters to take into consideration...

[ghporter]

Some car companies, such as Honda, are designing their cars so that when (not if) one of their buyers actually hits someone, the impact will be distributed as safely as possible.


Going OVER the hood is much preferable to going under the car-how much ground clearance does a modern car have, anyway? But you don't want to be bounced off the hood, because you tend to bounce UP and that's bad. What goes up MUST come down, and that will be where the majority of the injuries occur.

If the car is designed to let the hood flex enough to let the victim roll instead of bounce, the victim is more likely to roll over the top of the car, avoid the majority of the energy of the impact, and roll off the back (hopefully not being run over by the next car in the process).

[mdc]

let's hope that honda doesn't go this route with their spoilers

otherwise i'd rather go under the car

[- - e r i k - -]

Originally Posted by Kerrigan

Once I was in a plane crash. One half second before the plane hit the ground, I jumped out of the emergency exit. I landed lightly on the ground as if I had only jumped a foot or two, while the rest of the plane was destroyed. (._.)

Yeah, once I was in a falling elevator. Just before impact I jumped UP in the air and landed safely.

[Cadaver]

Originally Posted by subego

A friend of mine was about to get mowed down by someone who ran a stop sign, and then after seeing my friend, accidentally hit the gas instead of the brake.

Yeah, sure he "accidentally" hit the gas. I just think he didn't want any witnesses

[MaxPower2k3]

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - -

Yeah, once I was in a falling elevator. Just before impact I jumped UP in the air and landed safely.

really? they disproved that on an episode of mythbusters, and the physics would agree with that. if you're falling at 30 mph, and you jump up, then you're still falling at, what, 25-27mph? it's not gonna make a whole lot of difference.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Originally Posted by ghporter

If the car is designed to let the hood flex enough to let the victim roll instead of bounce, the victim is more likely to roll over the top of the car, avoid the majority of the energy of the impact, and roll off the back (hopefully not being run over by the next car in the process).

That doesn't make much sense. If they're going any speed at all, you're gonna roll up the hood, up the windshield, and essentially hit a lovely jump that'll throw you 20 feet in the air.

greg

[Cadaver]

Originally Posted by MaxPower2k3

really? they disproved that on an episode of mythbusters, and the physics would agree with that. if you're falling at 30 mph, and you jump up, then you're still falling at, what, 25-27mph? it's not gonna make a whole lot of difference.

[MaxPower2k3]

Originally Posted by Cadaver

did i miss something obvious? i'm tired and not exactly sober so it's entirely possible

[besson3c]

This reminds me of Gonzo from the Great Muppet Caper, and his technique of getting taxis to stop for him... hehehe!

[- - e r i k - -]

Originally Posted by MaxPower2k3

did i miss something obvious? i'm tired and not exactly sober so it's entirely possible

Yes. The joke.

[d.fine]

I wonder why people don't consider jumping to the side, out of the way, instead of on the hood, towards the car... if you have the time to think and decide, then why not decide to jump forward away from the car? I agree jumping up and toward the car is the safest option if there is no other, but still...

[brutal]

Wouldn't it be possible to just jump over the car entirely? I remember seeing Dolph Lundgren doing this in a movie.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by ShortcutToMoncton

That doesn't make much sense. If they're going any speed at all, you're gonna roll up the hood, up the windshield, and essentially hit a lovely jump that'll throw you 20 feet in the air.

greg

That's the point of Honda's work on impact-absorbing hoods and fenders. The hood would absorb much of the impact and reduce the amount of impact energy in the victim's body, slowing their roll-particularly over the windshield-and reducing their injuries.

Look here at Honda's safety information.

[Goldfinger]

Originally Posted by ghporter

That's the point of Honda's work on impact-absorbing hoods and fenders. The hood would absorb much of the impact and reduce the amount of impact energy in the victim's body, slowing their roll-particularly over the windshield-and reducing their injuries.

Look here at Honda's safety information.

Everybody is working on that. After a certain year (can't remeber which. 20xx..) all cars sold in Europe need to comply to new pedestrian impact safty rules...things...stuff

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - -

Yes. The joke.

I don't get it either... what's the joke again?!?

[tooki]

What everyone here seems to be forgetting is that "getting run over" by a car practically never happens, basically. The term should be "getting run under", because that's what almost always happens. No amount of jumping is going to make any significant difference when a 3000-4000lb machine going at 30mph hits you.

You could get actually run over by a truck, but again, no amount of jumping up will save you then.

tooki

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by tooki

No amount of jumping is going to make any significant difference when a 3000-4000lb machine going at 30mph hits you.

If you manage to jump in a way so that you land more or less flat on the hood of the car, you're less likely to suffer severe damage to your head, at least, which is generally a good thing. We had a professional stuntman give a small lecture-thingy at our high school, I remember, as part of one of those 'be safe in traffic' campaigns. He talked about how to best protect yourself if you got hit, or if you were in an accident in general. His advice was that the most important thing to do if a car was about to hit you was to get your feet off the road, and see how horizontally you can hit the hood.

[tooki]

Well that does make sense. My real point was that it's not going to change whether you get run over or under: the design of the vehicle and the velocity decide that.

tooki

[wallinbl]

I've always figured that I would jump at the hood/windshield and attempt to jump again from there, absorbing as much of the impact as I could with my legs. I realize that it's likely that I would still be injured, but it seems plausible.

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by wallinbl

I've always figured that I would jump at the hood/windshield and attempt to jump again from there, absorbing as much of the impact as I could with my legs. I realize that it's likely that I would still be injured, but it seems plausible.

Nope, bad idea. Your legs would cave in at the impact, and you'd thrown off in a way that would increase the risk of hitting the ground head first. And that's assuming you'd even be able to jump high enough to reach the hood properly, which is very unlikely. If a car is about to hit you, you don't have time to get a good start, and you'd most likely either end up having the bumper of the car hit your shins/knees, knocking the upper part of your body into the hood of car, or you'd land on the ground again before being hit altogether.

[IFLY2HIGH]

Opps, maybee he needed to jump...

[ghporter]

YOW! It looks like the driver isn't even aware the guy was there, let alone that he just hit him! Did the Mercedes jump the light, or was the driver trying to beat it?

[Kerrigan]

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - -

Yeah, once I was in a falling elevator. Just before impact I jumped UP in the air and landed safely.

That happened to me too. In fact, it happened while I was in the airport elevator on the way to the plane which I mentioned.

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by IFLY2HIGH

Opps, maybee he needed to jump...

Where the hell is the guy's head? Is it that thing lying on the ground?

[Albert Pujols]

Originally Posted by Oisín

Where the hell is the guy's head? Is it that thing lying on the ground?

its at the bottom right of the windsheild.. its still on his body.

[Oisín]

Originally Posted by Albert Pujols

its at the bottom right of the windsheild.. its still on his body.

Oh, that's his head? Heh, I saw it as the wing mirror at first

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by wallinbl

I've always figured that I would jump at the hood/windshield and attempt to jump again from there, absorbing as much of the impact as I could with my legs. I realize that it's likely that I would still be injured, but it seems plausible.

http://www.mrandmrswheatley.co.uk/cunningstunt.html

[nredman]

i hope i never have to make that decision.

[bstone]

Originally Posted by subego

He went into shock, but after the ambulance came he was able to get up on his own.

Very interesting. One correction- he did not go into shock. He may have been shocked, but shock is a state of great blood loss due to either internal or external injuries.