... and also that the spring was not motionless at the time of impact. If you can find the video, it turns out that the car that lost the spring isn't even in

... and also that the spring was not motionless at the time of impact. If you can find the video, it turns out that the car that lost the spring isn't even in sight, so the spring has had some time to decelerate. Still, it is clearly still moving (bouncing). To calculate the impact energy, you need to know the relative velocity between the spring and Massa. Also, once the back of his helmet hit the headrest, the helmet would absorb energy until it cracked, which it appeared it did not. My guess is that more damage was done by the head-on collision with the wall than by the errant spring. These cars have cockpits specifically designed for safety, but without an airbag there isn't much to help the driver in a head on collision with no deflection. The tire wall seems to have absorbed a lot of the energy, but as the car actually penetrated the wall it may have defeated the primary head on collision safety feature, the crumple zone.