Leaf Involved In Head-On Accident

rumpole · Sep 4, 2012

http://www.marysvilleglobe.com/news/168180566.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

43763arlingtonB-CarCrash.Aug30.Courtesy_web.jpg

The Marysville Globe, in Marysville, Washington, reports on a head-on accident between a red Mitsubishi and a black Nissan Leaf. Unfortunately, the Mitsubishi owner didn't survive. The four passengers in the Leaf survived with minor injuries. There is a pretty dramatic picture of the Leaf that accompanies the story. I found it notable, and not unexpected, that no mention was made about ev's, or special handling required because it was an ev. Emergency responders have been trained to safely handle ev accidents.

adric22 · Sep 4, 2012

Sounds like the driver of the mitsubishi might have been drunk. This is probably the most serious crash I've heard of involving a Leaf. I would imagine this vehicle will be totaled.

timhebb · Sep 4, 2012

It's worth noting that the original article mentions "a small fire" resulted from the damage to the Mitsubishi, and was quickly extinguished.

No such complications reported for the Leaf, fortunately. It would have been too convenient an opportunity for EV-bashers to revive and (almost literally) fan the flames of the Volt battery-fire controversy.

There seems to be little in this scenario to provide an opening for diehard gas-burning champions. The ICE driver was likely drunk and his vehicle failed to protect him from the consequences of his own folly; the innocent Leaf driver and three passengers seem to have emerged relatively unscathed. The Leaf's safety ratings have been impressive - this seems to give them more credibility.

Maybe EV's will save the world, after all...at least there's no way to distort and turn this incident against us.

garsh · Sep 4, 2012

Five different photos of the accident scene.

Looks like the worst type of accident for the drivers - offset frontal. The Leaf handled the crash much better, with very little intrusion into the cabin. I can't tell the year/model of the Mitsubishi, but I'd guess it is early 90s. The driver's-side cabin looks quite collapsed.

TonyWilliams · Sep 4, 2012

timhebb said:
the innocent Leaf driver... ...at least there's no way to distort and turn this incident against us.

I read on Faux Nooze that the LEAF driver wasn't innocent, and in fact was a dope smoking hippie who was targeting innocent (drunk) gas burning cars for collisions.

How'd I do?

thankyouOB · Sep 4, 2012

TonyWilliams said:
timhebb said:

the innocent Leaf driver... ...at least there's no way to distort and turn this incident against us.

Click to expand...

I read on Faux Nooze that the LEAF driver wasn't innocent, and in fact was a dope smoking hippie who was targeting innocent (drunk) gas burning cars for collisions.

How'd I do?

uh, black unmarried woman driving the new obama welfare cadillac.

Nubo · Sep 4, 2012

Congratulations Nissan for protecting the passengers.

And congratulations to several good citizens who helped to make this less tragic.

SanDust · Sep 4, 2012

Very sorry to hear about the death and the injuries to the Leaf driver and passengers. Car seats are good things. You can alos see from the photos that all airbags deployed. Fortunate that the car ahead of the Mitsubishi was able to get it to slow down. Otherwise we might be looking at more fatalities.

Does sound from the story that the driver of the Mitsubishi was impaired.

edatoakrun · Sep 4, 2012

Looks like a not-quite-head-on collision.

I wonder how much LEAF planners knew about, and how well the LEAF will do, on the new IIHS overlap crash test?

Only 3 of 11 midsize luxury and near-luxury cars evaluated earn good or acceptable ratings in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's new small overlap frontal crash test, the latest addition to a suite of tests designed to help consumers pick the safest vehicles.

The Acura TL and Volvo S60 earn good ratings, while the Infiniti G earns acceptable. The Acura TSX, BMW 3 series, Lincoln MKZ and Volkswagen CC earn marginal ratings. The Mercedes-Benz C-Class, Lexus IS 250/350, Audi A4 and Lexus ES 350 earn poor. All of these cars are 2012 models. See these ratings in table format.

In the test, 25 percent of a car's front end on the driver side strikes a 5-foot-tall rigid barrier at 40 mph. A 50th percentile male Hybrid III dummy is belted in the driver seat. The test is designed to replicate what happens when the front corner of a car collides with another vehicle or an object like a tree or utility pole. Outside of some automakers' proving grounds, such a test isn't currently conducted anywhere else in the United States or Europe.

"Nearly every new car performs well in other frontal crash tests conducted by the Institute and the federal government, but we still see more than 10,000 deaths in frontal crashes each year," Institute President Adrian Lund says. "Small overlap crashes are a major source of these fatalities. This new test program is based on years of analyzing real-world frontal crashes and then replicating them in our crash test facility to determine how people are being seriously injured and how cars can be designed to protect them better. We think this is the next step in improving frontal crash protection."...

http://www.iihs.org/news/rss/pr081412.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

TomT · Sep 4, 2012

Actually, there are so many variables in such a collision that you can't draw any conclusions about crashworthness or the like from the results. If the angle or offset had been slightly different, for example, the outcomes could have been just the opposite.

timhebb said:
There seems to be little in this scenario to provide an opening for diehard gas-burning champions. The ICE driver was likely drunk and his vehicle failed to protect him from the consequences of his own folly; the innocent Leaf driver and three passengers seem to have emerged relatively unscathed. The Leaf's safety ratings have been impressive - this seems to give them more credibility.

ksnogas2112 · Sep 4, 2012

rumpole said:
Emergency responders have been trained to safely handle ev accidents.

Yes, one of the dads in my sons' Scout troop is a fire captain here. Because of the number of different cars and variables on where to cut and what to cut they have hundreds of pages in multiple books. Since that's a cumbersome way to find the information quickly, there's a gent on the web who put all this on a web site for instant access from a smart phone. Or as he puts it, a dumb guy with a smart phone. I was somewhat concerned about that when I was shopping and saw the first responder pdf was larger than the service manual so talked to him about it. They've got a problem with some cars in that the a-post is now stronger than the jaws of life equipment they have for accidents.

KillaWhat · Sep 4, 2012

Since that's a cumbersome way to find the information quickly, there's a gent on the web who put all this on a web site for instant access from a smart phone.

Is there any way you could tell me how to find this information?

Thanks

ksnogas2112 · Sep 5, 2012

If I can get the link I'll post it.

DaveinOlyWA · Sep 5, 2012

SanDust said:
Very sorry to hear about the death and the injuries to the Leaf driver and passengers. Car seats are good things. You can alos see from the photos that all airbags deployed. Fortunate that the car ahead of the Mitsubishi was able to get it to slow down. Otherwise we might be looking at more fatalities.

Does sound from the story that the driver of the Mitsubishi was impaired.

that is one way to look at it, however its my opinion that the 911 caller by getting involved, may have been the chief reason the accident happened. her slowing down, caused the drunk to perform an ill advised passing maneuver which probably led to the accident.

the 911 caller if they were so inclined to be a good citizen, should have trailed the the driver instead of getting in his way.

ztanos · Sep 5, 2012

and if frogs had wings they wouldn't bump their butts... coulda shoulda wouldas.

Msquared · Sep 7, 2012

Very sad accident. Glad the Leaf did well in this case; it is generally known that newer cars' safety technology in crash situations is superior to that of older cars, but again there are many variables at play.

It is noteworthy to mention that, if the Mitsu driver was indeed impaired, that oftentimes said driver is the one who survives because they are more "floppy" than those who are not impaired. I suppose that wasn't the case here. :|

garsh · Sep 8, 2012

DaveinOlyWA said:
that is one way to look at it, however its my opinion that the 911 caller by getting involved, may have been the chief reason the accident happened. her slowing down, caused the drunk to perform an ill advised passing maneuver which probably led to the accident.

According to the articles that I have read, several people called in to report that driver crossing the center line multiple times. So most likely it was just the driver's inability to keep his vehicle in the lane.

EnergyNovice · Oct 25, 2012

thankyouOB said:
TonyWilliams said:

timhebb said:

the innocent Leaf driver... ...at least there's no way to distort and turn this incident against us.

Click to expand...

I read on Faux Nooze that the LEAF driver wasn't innocent, and in fact was a dope smoking hippie who was targeting innocent (drunk) gas burning cars for collisions.

How'd I do?

Click to expand...

uh, black unmarried woman driving the new obama welfare cadillac.

Wow, a couple of this comments are sophomoric!

GaslessInSeattle · Oct 25, 2012

I would agree except that Faux news is really "almost" literally that bad!!

EnergyNovice said:
Wow, a couple of this comments are sophomoric!

mkjayakumar · Oct 25, 2012

You could post that 'Faux news' reporting on a message board, and I am sure a good number might not even realize that it is just being sarcastic. Somehow that narrative matches Fox reporting very well, many would think it is true..

Leaf Involved In Head-On Accident

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