The importance of airbags (bad crash pics)
 

A couple things to note here:
1) Not my car
2) I have permission from the cars owner to use the pics
3) She doesnt know what happened to cause this, just the results
4) She lived

When I saw these pics on our local 86 Facebook group I was immediately taken with the severity of the damage vs the drivers injuries. She did not walk away from this one, and for that matter was trapped in the car for 20 minutes before help arrived and another half hour more as they cut her from the car. She escaped this with a broken femur, a broken foot, a spleen injury and cuts. The air bags saved her life. She has no head, neck or back injuries and is expected to make a full, if slow, recovery. I wanted to share this with everyone just to illustrate how safe the cars can be, and how important the safety equipment is when its working properly. I work in a repair shop and regularly see cars come in with SRS or airbag lights on, and people not wanting to repair them because they dont effect the way the car runs. They can effect whether or not you live through something you never saw coming.

It is truly amazing she lived through that. Seeing how the steering wheel is scrunched up to the seat, any more impact and...I don't want to think about it.

holy shit!

damn that is crazy!
so glad she walked away from that!


scary to see what we can face if we are ever in an accident with this car....

That'll buff out

im sure this wasnt an average accident, you'd be looking at serious damage in any car

Thats why i say: Sport cars are safe these days, dont wory mom.

And this ladies and gentlemen is why heavy emblems glued to your steering wheel and boost gauges on your A pillar are a really bad plan!
Those same airbags that saved this drive just get turned into high velocity cannons when things are attached to their housings.

Looking at the type of damages, I'd say vehicle roll over collision starting with impact to the driver side of the vehicle. I'd be willing to estimate 50+ mph from each vehicle, and it's likely an intersection collision or something of the like resulting in T-bone type impact.

Scary stuff, but glad she's relatively ok. Wow.

In any type of accident like this, someone will not experience the full outcome of the impact until a lot later, could be months to years. Seat belts or not, she odds of her not experiencing further injuries are very low, typically to the neck and back. She'll certainly have a number of soft-tissue injuries that will take her a while to recover from, in addition to any psychological damages that could impact her recovery.

Also, can you clarify how she doesn't know what caused it, when she was the driver? Sounds like head trauma and memory loss if you ask me…

She didnt exactly walk away - broken foot, broken femur, ruptured spleen etc.. Thing is she WAS able to post these pics from her hospital bed and tell us what happened herself. She doesnt have details on what happened, as she was blacked out during the crash. Woke up with a face full of airbags (which she used a knife she apparently kept in the center console to cut away - tough chick!!!). The roof was probably more a victim of the fire dept cutting her out of the car...but yeah does kinda look like she got hit on the side.

Why would she need a knife to cut away the air bags? That is the most bizarre thing I have ever heard.

Dont know if she doesnt remember what happened, or if she just never saw whatever it was coming.Even she's hoping to get some details out of the CHP incident report. Her recovery timeline is in months. In the meantime she says shes now in the market for a replacement Pearl White FRS lol. I dont know her real well, but seems to be taking it all in stride.

She apparently kept one in her center console - for whatever. When she woke up she was pinned in the seat surrounded by smoke and airbags...it was just the first thing that came to mind I guess - cut this shit off my face!!! If it was me I'd have been stuck there with an air bag in my face til help arrived LOL