2 ms·
> The majority of serious injuries happen not upon collision with the vehicle, but when hitting the ground afterwards. That claim right there is begging for a
by SketchySeaBeast 4y ago
> The majority of serious injuries happen not upon collision with the vehicle, but when hitting the ground afterwards.
That claim right there is begging for a source. It's hard to imagine landing from a person's height is worse than hitting a brick wall moving 40 km/h, unless that brick wall also threw you more than 6 meters up into the air, which point at which you'd be moving faster than 40km/h when you hit the ground.
- InitialLastName 4y agoA few months ago, I saw a pedestrian get hit by an SUV going ~40mph (64km/h). He flew far enough that when he came to a stop he was a good ways down the road. If you made it through the sudden acceleration to 40mph, I could also see "the road braking you from 40mph to zero" doing some damage. As another example, here's a locally-high-profile crash [0] (the driver, a city councilwoman and the daughter of the county commissioner, left the scene and didn't report the crash for hours). Red lights and sightlines aside, even though not much momentum is imparted to the cyclist, the crash was enough to flip him over and knock him into the air, which changes all of the calculus for landing damage from what normally happens when you fall off a bicycle. If you land straight down on your head, it might be worse for you than getting hit in the torso at a higher speed. [0] Content warning: this is a video of someone getting hit by a car https://youtu.be/X7V_H9bADDM?t=54 https://youtu.be/X7V_H9bADDM?t=54