4 ms·

First I have seen of this, so I have no idea of the various theories. As I understand it, the car crashed at the front and blew up? Correct? If so... I find it

by alan_cx 13y ago

First I have seen of this, so I have no idea of the various theories. As I understand it, the car crashed at the front and blew up? Correct? If so... I find it very, very hard to believe a modern Mercedes would do that. Merc are very safety conscious, they sell to well off people who expect not to blow up, and that is on top of strict EU safety rules and testing. I assume the US also has it's standards to comply with too. This is a luxury car manufacturer which prides its self on safety above and beyond legislation or international standards, and sells to customer who fully expect that. So, is there no public Merc statement or full on internal investigation? A Merc blowing up like that publicly should be a massive PR disaster for them. Who wants a luxury car that blows up in a front impact? If it is as simple as a front impact causing the car to blow up, I would have thought Merc would be very, publicly, concerned about that. If I were some one interested in investigating this, I'd be perusing Mercedes to see what they have to say.

yaix 13y ago
Yeah well, the hole in the Pentagon on 9/11 was too small for the airplace too, and the engines magically disappeared. Regardless, today's "truth" is the official version.
tptacek 13y ago
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/car-experts-michael-hastings-crash-572699 http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/car-experts-michael-ha... “It wouldn’t be an underestimation to say that every day, a lawsuit is filed over a car fire right after an accident. There are every year 300,000 vehicle fires and a couple hundred deaths and a couple thousand injuries.”
Steko 13y ago
"I find it very, very hard to believe a modern Mercedes would do that. " Mercedes cars are not immune to the rules of physics. Gasoline is flammable. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/car-experts-michael-hastings-crash-572699 http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/car-experts-michael-ha... But post-crash fires are, in fact, depressingly typical, especially in high-speed scenarios, says Philadelphia attorney Max Kennerly, whose firm represents plaintiffs in car fires. “If someone is driving at high speed and hits a very solid object, yeah, you’ll get a fire out of that,” Kennerly says. “It wouldn’t be an underestimation to say that every day, a lawsuit is filed over a car fire right after an accident. There are every year 300,000 vehicle fires...” Frank Markus, technical director of Motor Trend, points out that “any impact at speeds high enough to rip the drive train out of a car is highly likely to force some object to rupture the fuel tank. There is a lot of potential chemical energy in a gas tank that's even a quarter full... So while the casual evidence might suggest otherwise, the prosaic reality is that cars involved in high-speed crashes often go up in flames edit: boo, beaten to the punch by 2 minutes with the same cite.
- wavefunction 13y ago
  Gas is indeed flammable, but only under specific circumstances. And citing hollywoodreporter.com? Thanks but I think I'll rely on more reputable sources: http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/videos/crash-and-burn.htm http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/videos/crash-a...
  - tptacek 13y ago
    That's not original reporting from THR, it's an aggregation of other stories, written by THR. Here, maybe you'll trust NFPA instead: http://www.nfpa.org/itemDetail.asp?categoryID=953&itemID=29658 http://www.nfpa.org/itemDetail.asp?categoryID=953&itemID=296...
    - wavefunction 13y ago
      I'll just say that you, Steko and jlgreco seem pretty invested in presenting the same case, ad nauseum. With that, I have some projects to head off to work on. Cheers
      - jlgreco 13y ago
        Curiously, if you read our histories you will see that tptacek and I could not possibly disagree more on most of the other aspects of this continuum of stories. But hey, if I were a government shill in Virginia I wouldn't want to make it too obvious right? Gotta keep it mixed up a bit.
        wavefunction 13y ago
        Who said you were a government shill? dun dun dun...
        jlgreco 13y ago
        Oh crimey, I've been had!

by alan_cx 13y ago

yaix 13y ago

Yeah well, the hole in the Pentagon on 9/11 was too small for the airplace too, and the engines magically disappeared. Regardless, today's "truth" is the official version.

tptacek 13y ago

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/car-experts-michael-hastings-crash-572699 http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/car-experts-michael-ha... “It wouldn’t be an underestimation to say that every day, a lawsuit is filed over a car fire right after an accident. There are every year 300,000 vehicle fires and a couple hundred deaths and a couple thousand injuries.”

Steko 13y ago

"I find it very, very hard to believe a modern Mercedes would do that. " Mercedes cars are not immune to the rules of physics. Gasoline is flammable. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/car-experts-michael-hastings-crash-572699 http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/car-experts-michael-ha... But post-crash fires are, in fact, depressingly typical, especially in high-speed scenarios, says Philadelphia attorney Max Kennerly, whose firm represents plaintiffs in car fires. “If someone is driving at high speed and hits a very solid object, yeah, you’ll get a fire out of that,” Kennerly says. “It wouldn’t be an underestimation to say that every day, a lawsuit is filed over a car fire right after an accident. There are every year 300,000 vehicle fires...” Frank Markus, technical director of Motor Trend, points out that “any impact at speeds high enough to rip the drive train out of a car is highly likely to force some object to rupture the fuel tank. There is a lot of potential chemical energy in a gas tank that's even a quarter full... So while the casual evidence might suggest otherwise, the prosaic reality is that cars involved in high-speed crashes often go up in flames edit: boo, beaten to the punch by 2 minutes with the same cite.

wavefunction 13y ago
Gas is indeed flammable, but only under specific circumstances. And citing hollywoodreporter.com? Thanks but I think I'll rely on more reputable sources: http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/videos/crash-and-burn.htm http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/videos/crash-a...
- tptacek 13y ago
  That's not original reporting from THR, it's an aggregation of other stories, written by THR. Here, maybe you'll trust NFPA instead: http://www.nfpa.org/itemDetail.asp?categoryID=953&itemID=29658 http://www.nfpa.org/itemDetail.asp?categoryID=953&itemID=296...
  - wavefunction 13y ago
    I'll just say that you, Steko and jlgreco seem pretty invested in presenting the same case, ad nauseum. With that, I have some projects to head off to work on. Cheers
    - jlgreco 13y ago
      Curiously, if you read our histories you will see that tptacek and I could not possibly disagree more on most of the other aspects of this continuum of stories. But hey, if I were a government shill in Virginia I wouldn't want to make it too obvious right? Gotta keep it mixed up a bit.
      - wavefunction 13y ago
        Who said you were a government shill? dun dun dun...
        jlgreco 13y ago
        Oh crimey, I've been had!