Thats because big trucks typically use the "crumple zone" of something
else (i.e. whatever they hit), and have a lot more "stuff" in front to
absorb energy than a car (just check the overall length of a truck some
time). This is back to my prev. point about the thing with the most mass
typically wins in a crash. I've seen more than a few truck crashes where
the driver didn't "walk away" when he hit a fixed object (like a bridge
embankment). If you'd like to prove this to yourself, put an egg in a
steel box, and drop it onto a cement floor. The egg breaks. Now take a
egg, and pack it in a cardboard box surounded by foam and repeat.
Doesn't break. So, what protects better, hard "steel", or something with
crumble zones (cardboard box and foam)?
Craig
> -----Original Message-----
> From: DakotaTMan [SMTP:DakotaTMan@AOL.COM]
> Sent: Sunday, March 01, 1998 1:16 PM
> To: dakota-truck@buffnet.net
> Subject: DML: RE:Safety BS
>
> Okay, to me that argument doesn't hold water, if you notice something
> all
> truck drivers are strapped in a steel box with no airbag and no
> crumple
> zones, yet they always walk away from an accident, I've only heard of
> one
> truck driver being killed in my entire life, and he was killed when he
> swerved to miss a kid and drove off a bridge andlanded on the
> interstate
> below, every othe wreck I've heard of the trucker walked away with
> only a
> scratch, so personally I'll take the steel box anyday....
>
> Bruce
> I will second that, I was sitting in the suicide side of a Ferd Pickup
> when It
> was hit head on buy a drunk Buick. The Ferd was totaled and on Its
> roof but I
> crawled out the windshield alive. (Kind of dazed though, I started to
> light a
> cigarette while standing in a pool of gas) That truck protected me so
> well the
> ambulance guys did not want to take me to the hospital with my brother
> in law
> because they did not believe I was in the accident. (The glass
> imbedded in my
> arm finally convinced them)
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