"Doug Miller" wrote in message
...
In article ,
lid wrote:

Close, but no cigar, since you assumed vehicles of equal mass. If you
have a Chebby Geo meet a Suburban, it will be closer to 75mph Geo vs
25mph Suburban. The doubled mass of the heavier vehicle will keep
pushing until it shoves the Geo a wee bit more. You'd definitely
rather be an occupant in the larger, heavier vehicle.

That's not the only, or even most important, factor...

Years ago, there was a fatal collision on the state highway about a mile
from
our house. A Chevette crossed the yellow line and collided head-on with a
full-size pickup truck, each going some 50mph. The **seat belted** driver
of
the Chevette had a broken ankle. The **unbelted** driver of the truck and
his
unbelted passenger died at the scene.

That sounds like my collision in January, 1971. I was in a '67 Bronco, with
seatbelt (but there was no shoulder harness in the car). The other car was a
Pontiac Tempest with a man and his young daughter in the front seat, no
seatbelts.

We collided head-on at around 40 mph (me) and maybe 30 mph (them). The girl
required extensive surgery to her face. The man had a ruptured spleen but he
lived. I hit the steering wheel and twisted it into a pretzel, but I just
wound up with a cut on my chin and bled all over my new Abercrombie & Fitch
sheepskin coat. I was able to jump out, check on them, and run to a nearby
house to call the ambulance.

--
Ed Huntress