Comments on: Truck crash landing

Truck crash landing

Anything — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 08:46:52 -0800

Recommended procedures in the event of being propelled through the windshield of your truck, exhibit A. Youtube.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 08:48:55 -0800

Ah, the glorious new bounty that is dashcam video from Russia. They are ubiquitous there now thanks to auto insurance discounts.

By: TheWhiteSkull

TheWhiteSkull — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 08:55:42 -0800

"Hmm...seems pretty warm out. Looks like I won't need my jacket."

By: The Deej

The Deej — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 08:56:41 -0800

In. San. It. Tee.

By: exhilaration

exhilaration — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 08:57:30 -0800

Hmm... so can anyone suggest a good dashcam for U.S. drivers? I wish our insurance companies would offer a discount.

By: One Hand Slowclapping

One Hand Slowclapping — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:06:19 -0800

The Russians are way ahead of us in terms of the quality and volume of vehicle-accident videos.

By: chavenet

chavenet — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:09:41 -0800

This is why Linus won't let go of his blanket.

By: jeffamaphone

jeffamaphone — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:15:22 -0800

Is the GoPro not the standard for these things?

By: kavasa

kavasa — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:18:09 -0800

Ah, the glorious new bounty that is dashcam video from Russia. They are ubiquitous there now thanks to auto insurance discounts.

Thank you! The flood of dash video from Russia has been driving me insane with confusion for a long time now.

By: Kabanos

Kabanos — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:19:52 -0800

A few too many steps on the landing. They're going to deduct points for that.

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:22:07 -0800

I like the head scratch at the end. It's like "WTF just happened".

By: Iosephus

Iosephus — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:24:16 -0800

That guy just consumed the good luck quota of two or three entire small towns for the whole year, I think. Greedy!

By: Free word order!

Free word order! — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:25:15 -0800

Play it backwards, and it is re-enactment of the famous Legolas horse mount.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:26:02 -0800

Seatbelts, people.

By: Anything

Anything — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:32:26 -0800

Seatbelts are fine, but they seriously hamper your ability to do these neat maneuvers.

By: kmz

kmz — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:36:09 -0800

A few too many steps on the landing. They're going to deduct points for that. French judge still gave a 6 though.

By: twist my arm

twist my arm — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:37:05 -0800

run that scenario a thousand times and you end up with a lot more squished truck/driver than awesome video... so i guess Death will be coming for him now? poor summummabitch.

By: Western Infidels

Western Infidels — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:39:02 -0800

When I was in high school, I had this crazy-looking teacher. His hair was different colors and textures on different parts of his head, and making it look normal was so hopeless that he just let if grow into a bushy mad-scientist mop. His face was all lopsided and possibly partially paralyzed, he was scarred, and he had a glass eye. This teacher had a habit of explaining, late in the year, what had happened to make him look this way. He had been in a car accident. He told my bunch of impressionable teenagers that he hadn't been wearing a seat-belt, so he was thrown through the windshield, and his face attempted to play the role of "tire" for some distance. He contended that he had been lucky to be "thrown clear," and that things might have been worse if he had been buckled in. That should have been a lesson in the lengths people will go to rationalize their poor decisions and bad opinions, but I was too young to see it at the time. Buckle up, kids.

By: Mach5

Mach5 — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:39:52 -0800

jeffamaphone, afaik many of the recorders used in these russian vids are cheap ones with limited storage that constantly overwrites itself, so you can keep it running all the time and not worry about deleting files. post-crash you press a button and it stores the last ___ minutes of footage more permanently.

By: stltony

stltony — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:43:36 -0800

In Soviet Russia, as in America, car ejects YOU.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:48:24 -0800

I'm hoping the US market will start favoring dashcams so there will be more development. Right now, they are all kind of crappy. But, yeah, most Russians are using fairly cheap cams that always record and just overwrite when the memory card is full.

By: ninjew

ninjew — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:49:06 -0800

also, when you're in Russia, watch out for logging trucks and downed tram wires

By: The Deej

The Deej — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:52:12 -0800

The Russians are way ahead of us in terms of the quality and volume of vehicle-accident videos. We choose to go to through the windshield on video! We choose to through the windshield in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills!

By: daniel_charms

daniel_charms — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:52:50 -0800

Also watch out for crazy guys with baseball bats and hatchets.

By: Jacob G

Jacob G — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:53:48 -0800

For the US folks looking for insurance discounts, you can always use Progressive Snapshot. While not a dashcam, it does offer discounts based on your driving habits.

By: orme

orme — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 10:03:02 -0800

How do we know the guy wasn't already hanging out the windshield while driving? That would explain the accident.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 10:14:48 -0800

I could watch crazy dash cam videos all day. Post more! MORE! MORE!

By: srboisvert

srboisvert — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 10:47:40 -0800

For the US folks looking for insurance discounts, you can always use Progressive Snapshot. While not a dashcam, it does offer discounts based on your driving habits. It's interesting because of course this is the kind of thing that destroys the value of insurance. It's a risk pool. If you start making smaller and smaller pools it eventually just becomes an accident pre-payment program that does not distribute any of the risk.

By: zamboni

zamboni — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 10:48:11 -0800

We choose to through the windshield in this decade and do the other things The relationship between the Rice/Texas game and being hit by a truck is left as an exercise for the reader.

By: Exad

Exad — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 10:51:25 -0800

Actually, the GoPro would work better for this if it did have overwrite. But they don't. Other items on my wishlist for one of these are: -GPS (to keep track of speed) -Highish Definition (enough to read License plates in daylight, nighttime is too much to ask) -Slightly higher than 120° viewing angle Features I don't need or want: -Any kind of "Tagging" system that monitors a motion sensor to let you know where the pothole events are going to be on the video -An LCD (I can use a laptop to review footage thank you very much) -For it to get so hot during operation that it drips molten plastic on me, the car or passengers -Nonstandard power hookup, I don't want to have to wire it directly into the car and with USB you can quickly throw it in a glovebox -Made by a company that might stay in business for a while (I've seen a couple of promising candidates go by the wayside due to their makers folding)

By: djrock3k

djrock3k — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 10:53:59 -0800

Never driving in Russia, NEVER!! (and I used to love driving in Tokyo when I was younger)

By: Wordshore

Wordshore — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 11:05:55 -0800

Well, this is disappointing :( At the very least, on landing on the ground, he should have done a short Gangnam Style horsey dance routine, instead of just standing there scratching his head. #FailTechnique #ThisJudgeAwardsOneOutOfSix

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 11:13:38 -0800

The Deej: “We choose to go to through the windshield on video! We choose to through the windshield in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills!” We share the same biology Regardless of ideology What might save us, me and you Is if the Russians go dashcam their windshields too

By: TheWhiteSkull

TheWhiteSkull — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 11:18:04 -0800

We choose to go to through the windshield on video! We choose to through the windshield in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills! Dashcam gap!

By: spacediver

spacediver — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 11:33:04 -0800

hard to figure out what happened exactly. It looks like he had time to prepare his escape, and perhaps positioned his truck such that the corner closest to him wouldn't directly collide. If you watch carefully, you can see what looks like the windshield popping out in one clean motion. But how would he know that this would happen and that he could "climb" out at that point? Perhaps he didn't plan this, but just flowed with the moment and got real lucky. It's really bizarre and I desperately want to know the physics of what happened (and what he was thinking).

By: The World Famous

The World Famous — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 11:35:46 -0800

Perhaps he didn't plan this, but just flowed with the moment and got real lucky. I don't think the "perhaps" is necessary there. What he was thinking was "What just happened? Am I dead?"

By: spicynuts

spicynuts — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 11:43:35 -0800

I call bullshit. My experience with driving in Russia is that traffic never moves anywhere near as fast as required for this kind of impact. In fact, my experience is that traffic doesn't move at all. The whole thing is shopped.

By: ceribus peribus

ceribus peribus — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 11:45:18 -0800

It's a risk pool. If you start making smaller and smaller pools it eventually just becomes an accident pre-payment program that does not distribute any of the risk. Sounds like how health insurance works in the US.

By: photoslob

photoslob — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 11:48:51 -0800

Careful when pumping gas in Russia

By: tommasz

tommasz — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 12:05:58 -0800

I like the head scratch at the end. It's like "WTF just happened". That'll teach him not to take a nap at work.

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 12:08:42 -0800

In any case, this video demonstrated precisely why all of the truck drivers I know refuse to drive cabovers.

By: Kid Charlemagne

Kid Charlemagne — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 12:26:23 -0800

Wow. That pumping gas video kind of gives me flashbacks to when my Volvo took out a Ford Expedition. We didn't travel quite so far. I almost hat time to scream.

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 13:43:43 -0800

hard to figure out what happened exactly. Looks like the truck initially in front of the cam stepped out to pass. Once passing guy started passing they saw windshield dude coming at them head on. Windshield dude craps himself. Passing guy knows stopping won't help and he can't go right so he proceeds to travel further to the left onto the shoulder/into into the ditch. Windshield dude trys to squeeze between passing guy and the truck on left and doesn't quite make it clipping either or both which is what breaks the windshield and tosses him out of the cab. Considering cam driver doesn't run over windshield dude it must have been a fairly low speed accident.

By: Flunkie

Flunkie — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 15:01:49 -0800

The car is my place to say all sorts of embarrassing things, sing off key, and so forth. I so do not want a dashcam.

By: stebulus

stebulus — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 15:13:34 -0800

Looks like the truck initially in front of the cam stepped out to pass. I'm not completely sure, but I think the truck initially in front of the cam was just turning left. At the beginning of the video I think I see a bit of road over there, after the railing stops. (This also explains why that truck moves over to the right edge of the road first, then goes left — it's a left turn with big turning radius.)

By: Ansible

Ansible — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 15:26:05 -0800

looks to me like the going-the-same-direction truck didn't notice that the truck ahead of him was stopping, and then ran out of room to brake. the driver was going to swerve right but there wasn't room there so they went left, found that left was an even worse choice, then continued going ever further left to try to get out of the way of oncoming traffic.

By: stebulus

stebulus — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 15:38:15 -0800

didn't notice that the truck ahead of him was stopping Ah, yes, I hadn't noticed that that truck is stopped just ahead there during the crash. Your theory now seems better to me than my theory. Is it too late to change my allegiance?

By: spock

spock — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:23:59 -0800

Dash cams have as much chance of incriminating you as they do coming to your defense.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 16:42:04 -0800

Dash cams have as much chance of incriminating you as they do coming to your defense. True, but I think the reason for the adaptation in Russia is due to rampant scamming in the streets. It helps to point to a camera when someone does the old back into you on the road or fake being hit while walking cons. But they record whatever you say inside the car and that could be used as evidence as much as it recording any of your driving mistakes, so proceed with caution.

By: sonascope

sonascope — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 18:08:15 -0800

My favorite video of Russian driving is where they drive endlessly through Tokyo on their way to an exceedingly glum space station.

By: spacediver

spacediver — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 23:32:22 -0800

a colleague suggested that perhaps the windshield dude brought up his knees and braced his feet against the windshield in preparation (rather than risk having his thighs and torso crushed against the dashboard). The resistance of the windshield against the force of his feet provided some buffer force before popping, thus rendering his velocity through space smaller than if there hadn't been a windshield, and less traumatic than going through the windshield.

By: Anything

Anything — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 08:37:23 -0800

For the sake of completeness, this video is possibly the original, or more original than what I posted in the FPP. Includes comments in Russian that might be more informed. Helpful.

By: spacediver

spacediver — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 08:57:57 -0800

motherfucker... upon further review, it appears that dude went through the windshield HEAD first.

By: spacediver

spacediver — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 08:59:22 -0800

also, uncanny how the music reaches a stage of "conclusion" just as the collision occurs.