Car impaled on steel guard rail

[Porsche]

This was a Honda that was street racing. Apparently the driver and passengers lived, but the guard rail took a chunk out of his right arm. The rail went right through the whole car.

[Leland Pate]

HOLY GEEZ!

[ipapilot]

Unbelievable!

[vash]

i dont get it. where is the beginning of the metal beam guard rail? i looks like it went a significant distance.

[3.2 CAB]

I hate it when that happens!

[BlkBird]

Brembo brakes are what this guy needed.

And maybe a few more brain cells that were sober?

[Moses]

Darwin thwarted.

[masraum]

Yikes, That's no good. Reminds me of the old Evil Knievel toys when I was a kid, you pull the cord through them to wind them up, except in this case it's a guard rail

[Zeke]

There's no way he lived thru that. Or he ducked awfully quick. I say there's no way. It almost looks staged.

[echrisconnor]

At least his airbag deployed. Tha's what must have saved him!

[Overpaid Slacker]

There was an interesting program on one of the History Channel/Discovery/A&E type networks in the last month or so about traffic barrier technology. Evidently, the Texas Dept. of Highways (or whatever their official name is) is a world-leader in highway safety devices and re-engineered the guard rail terminations to prevent just this kind of thing from happening. They look like large square bumpers at the ends of the rail, so if you hit it, the rail peels away from the car rather than impaling it. It looks very clunky and low-tech, I guess more often than not the simple solution will be the best. The type of damage depicted above evidently happens "all the time" w/o the right guard rail terminations.

They had some really gruesome footage of the severe damage these safety devices (and stuff like roadside signs and improperly designed mailboxes) can cause.

JP

[stevef]

It looks like this car slide along the rail knocking out the support posts as it went. I don't understand, unless the barrier is supposed to do that. This car must have had alot of momentum to do that, unless the pic has been doctored?

[masraum]

I can tell you that while in traffic I notice stuff like that and we do have lots of stuff at the ends of guard rails, concrete dividers, etc... I have driven places often weekend mornings and seen guard rails that look like slinkies with 30-50 feet of guard rail folded up like a paper fan or spread out all over the place, and yes, the wooden posts are made to break away in an accident, they are often cut halfway through at the base.

[Jack Olsen]

I can see this as a new street racing trend.

"Threading the needle."

This picture might be doctored, too.

[Superman]

Darwin was often thwarted when I was young, too. Don't know why I'm still here.

[OldTee]

The bill of chances came due.

[vash]

what kinda car is it? a honda?

[Scooter]

Guard rail ripped right through that Honda like tin foil. Wait a minute, what is a Honda made out of anyway?

[svandamme]

if a gardrail impales like this
i would assume that it's because there wasn't a good starting end on it
aren't those supposed to be burried for safety, so if you do hit the end, you slide over it instead of beeing impaled???
or at lease make a spectacular flip if you're at high speed?

[nostatic]

so that's what people mean when they say their car handles like it's "riding on rails".

Seems to me that isn't necessarily a good thing...