Table of Contents
Advertisement
Frontal collisions and the laws of
physics
Please refer to
at the start of the chapter
on page 31.
Fig. 22 The vehicle was driven towards a brick wall
and none of the occupants were wearing seat belts
Fig. 23 The condition of a vehicle with unbelted oc-
cupants crashing into a brick wall
The physics of a head-on collision is fairly simple.
When a vehicle is in motion, both the vehicle and
the occupant
Fig. 22
have energy called "ki-
→
netic" energy.
The higher the speed and the greater the mass,
the more energy is released in the event of an
accident.
However, speed is the decisive factor. For exam-
ple, when speed increases from 25 km/h to 50
km/h, kinetic energy will increase four times.
The amount of kinetic energy depends on the
speed of the vehicle and the mass of the occu-
pants. The higher the speed and the greater the
mass, the more energy is released in the event of
an accident.
The driver and passenger who are not wearing
seat belts are not "integrated" with the vehicle.
When a frontal collision occurs, the vehicle slows
down, and the driver and passenger continue to
32
Owner's manual
move forward at the speed before the collision
until the movement is stopped by an object
blocking the vehicle. In this case, the driver and
passenger were not wearing seat belts and
would have absorbed all the kinetic energy re-
leased by the impact point
Even if the vehicle is travelling at 30km/h to
50km/h, the force acting on the human body in a
collision can easily exceed one ton (1,000kg). The
higher the speed, the greater the force acting on
the human body.
The physics of collision described in this example
applies not only to frontal vehicle crashes but al-
so to all other types of accidents and collisions.
Consequences of drivers and
passengers without seat belts
fastened
Please refer to
at the start of the chapter
on page 31.
Fig. 24 The driver, who was not wearing a seatbelt
at the time of the collision, was thrown violently for-
ward
Fig.
23.
→
Advertisement
Table of Contents
