Originally Posted by Greg_Canada

Take a piece, such as the emblem, off the truck for him before the insurance totals it.
Good luck finding another one!
Hope he recovers fully, is that me or does my eye spy an fj40 in the background of those pics?

Originally Posted by MvCrash

Greetings,
I read this post with great interest and see that there are still some myths about belts and bags. There also seems to be some bad information about the physics of a collision.
First a tractor semi-trailers energy while moving is measured in Millions of Pounds. Even if it were on its side, sliding down the highway on its side, it would still have millions of pounds of energy to dissipate. A car or pick-up or any other type of passenger vehicles energy, depending on speed is measured in thousands of pounds. There is a tremendous difference in weight which causes the energy differences. Getting involved in crash with a tractor trailer is never good and almost always the passenger vehicle will sustain a great amount of damage.

As far as Belts and bags are concerned. People seem to think that the bags deploy according to the speed of the crash. This is only partially true. The sensor in the vehicle deploys the air bags after a certain set of rules are met. Basically there is a very complicated mathematical model that has to be met. It involves the change in time and velocity along the longitudinal axis of the vehicle. Most times, people who are injured by deploying air bags would have sustained much worse injuries than if they had no airbags. You may be injured by an airbag deployment in a vehicle crash with a change of velocity of 30mph. You WILL Certainly be injured if you have no airbags and no seatbelts when you upper torso strikes the steering wheel. Lets not forget that seatbelts stretch as much as 15 inches during a serious collision. Seatbelts and airbags are a system to help prevent very serious injuries, not ALL Injuries. If you sustain serious injures in a frontal collision while wearing seatbelts and having airbags, your chances of survival without them would be minimal. Another myth is that seatbelts don't leave injuries. They most certainly do and even have their own name. Those that investigate car crashes call them "witness marks." In a "who dunnit" type investigation the belt marks left on people a lot of time indicate who was driving.

There are also injuries that occur just from a rapid deceleration. I have seen folks succumb to injuries that were created from the rapid speed loss, not impact. These cannot be avoided and are not as rare as some think. A change in velocity starting at about 40 MPH can cause these injuries. 99% of the time they are Non-survivable.

From what little information I have, it would be impossible to say the occupant of the vehicle in question was not properly restrained. There are several ways these type injuries could be sustained by an occupant who was properly restrained. I think it is short sited to make a judgement of this type without more information.

I have recently reviewed crash tests that indicate that full frame pick-up, even a small Toyota has a better survivability than a large sedan.

I hope this helped and please..WEAR YOUR SEAT BELTS PROPERLY..Sit down buckle up and give a yank on the upper belt so its snug.

MY BEST TO YOUR DAD I'M GLAD HE WILL BE OK.................

Originally Posted by Flamedx4

All good info. He had severe bruising from the seatbelt, including a broken collar bone. Don't even want to imagine what would have have happened if he wasn't belted. He's still in the trauma unit, 5 weeks now. But he's getting better.