Brian says…..

[FILE] Police services prepare to take away the damaged car in the Pont d’Alma tunnel in Paris in which Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed were traveling in this Sunday, Aug. 31, 1997 file photo. The British inquest into the death of Princess Diana and her companion Dodi Fayed opened Tuesday Oct. 2, 2007 with the selection of a jury and the aim of officially concluding how the couple came to die in the Paris car crash a decade ago. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

In 1997 Princess Diana died in a high speed crash in a Mercedes-Benz S280. The S-class is Mercedes’ flagship car. It’s large, heavy and as the flagship is considered to be at the forefront of technology and safety. However, when a ~5000 pound vehicle is going over 90 miles per hour and runs into a solid object, that vehicle is going to crush itself. The occupants, who may or may not be belted in are going to continue moving forward at 90 miles per hour until something stops them: either the seat belts, ‘SRS’ (airbags) or both. Airbags and seat belts help disperse some of the kinetic energy, as does the crumpling of the car’s frame, but a body is still being decelerated from 90 mph to 0 in a space of about 24 inches.

All that can be said for large, heavy and well-engineered for safety is that at an unsafe speed, the car is only going to be more safe, not completely safe. Speed kills, no matter what the make or model of the car. 

 

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