Engineer saves man by crashing into him on purpose
seattletimes.nwsource.com
Engineer saves man by crashing into him on purpose
1–10 of 76 posts
Re: Engineer saves man by crashing into him on purpose
#2"Stand back, I know Physics!"
Re: Engineer saves man by crashing into him on purpose
#3There are so many ways this could have gone wrong...
For example, the guy was passed out - the initial impact could have knocked the other driver's foot off the gas, or cause it to press harder, further worsening the situation.
Also, if the bumpers didn't match, or if the angle of impact was not totally flat, you could easily end up in a "jackknife" style situation where the rear car pushes the front car at an angle causing it to loose traction and knocking both off course.
Not to write off his quick thinking, but I would be hesitant to try repeating this.
Re: Engineer saves man by crashing into him on purpose
#4There are so many ways this could have gone wrong... For example, the guy was passed out - the initial impact could have knocked the other driver's foot off the gas, or cause it to press harder, further worsening the situation. Also, if the bumpers didn't match, or if the angle of impact was not totally flat, you could easily end up in a "jackknife" style situation where the rear car pushes the front car at an angle…
Yes, indeed. Next time you should be very hesitant. Hesitate so much that the out of control car plows into a busy intersection. So many things could go right. It could just barely miss that SUV with 4 kids in the back, and I'm sure it would only scare the elderly couple crossing the street.
C'mon, seriously? The article is an up-beat account of how things can go right. How under pressure someone made a necessarily quick decision to take action rather than sit on the sidelines and watch as an observer. Do you really think anyone sane-minded individual is going to come away from this article thinking to themselves, "Man, next time I'm on the highway I need to give this a shot"?
Re: Engineer saves man by crashing into him on purpose
#5There are so many ways this could have gone wrong... For example, the guy was passed out - the initial impact could have knocked the other driver's foot off the gas, or cause it to press harder, further worsening the situation. Also, if the bumpers didn't match, or if the angle of impact was not totally flat, you could easily end up in a "jackknife" style situation where the rear car pushes the front car at an angle…
not to mention
"Without consulting the passengers in his minivan — "there was no time to take a vote" — Innes kicked into engineer mode."
more like "Innes kicked into irresponsible mode risking other people's lives to try something he probably saw on a movie"
Re: Engineer saves man by crashing into him on purpose
#6There are so many ways this could have gone wrong... For example, the guy was passed out - the initial impact could have knocked the other driver's foot off the gas, or cause it to press harder, further worsening the situation. Also, if the bumpers didn't match, or if the angle of impact was not totally flat, you could easily end up in a "jackknife" style situation where the rear car pushes the front car at an angle…
If he matched the truck's speed before pulling in front of him, would it reduce the risk of the jackknife situation you described? Seems like it would to me.
Re: Engineer saves man by crashing into him on purpose
#7There are so many ways this could have gone wrong... For example, the guy was passed out - the initial impact could have knocked the other driver's foot off the gas, or cause it to press harder, further worsening the situation. Also, if the bumpers didn't match, or if the angle of impact was not totally flat, you could easily end up in a "jackknife" style situation where the rear car pushes the front car at an angle…
not to mention "Without consulting the passengers in his minivan — "there was no time to take a vote" — Innes kicked into engineer mode." more like "Innes kicked into irresponsible mode risking other people's lives to try something he probably saw on a movie"
Isn't that what governments do every day? They take choices for the well being of the country, without consulting me. Oh the irony.
Re: Engineer saves man by crashing into him on purpose
#8Well if that guy ever applies for YC he'll sure have a good answer to the "hacking a system" question.
Re: Engineer saves man by crashing into him on purpose
#9There are so many ways this could have gone wrong... For example, the guy was passed out - the initial impact could have knocked the other driver's foot off the gas, or cause it to press harder, further worsening the situation. Also, if the bumpers didn't match, or if the angle of impact was not totally flat, you could easily end up in a "jackknife" style situation where the rear car pushes the front car at an angle…
If he matched the truck's speed before pulling in front of him, would it reduce the risk of the jackknife situation you described? Seems like it would to me.
Actually there was one other outcome possible if the cars made contact at a wrong angle (which was not that probable since the pickup was against a barrier and the engineers car was driving straight in the lane): The pickup would have pushed against the barrier some more that it would have probably stopped the car or at least reduce the speed at which it was traveling, while at the same time pushing the car in front to the opposite side, maybe making spin in place. If things went wrong in this situation at worse he'd have a car in a worse state and the man in the pickup could have died if the barrier made him topple over. The probability of the pick-up going into traffic again (which would make the car in front collide with the barrier, which could be fatal) was really small... hell uuid duplicate probability small at that.
Re: Engineer saves man by crashing into him on purpose
#10There are so many ways this could have gone wrong... For example, the guy was passed out - the initial impact could have knocked the other driver's foot off the gas, or cause it to press harder, further worsening the situation. Also, if the bumpers didn't match, or if the angle of impact was not totally flat, you could easily end up in a "jackknife" style situation where the rear car pushes the front car at an angle…
Yes, indeed. Next time you should be very hesitant. Hesitate so much that the out of control car plows into a busy intersection. So many things could go right. It could just barely miss that SUV with 4 kids in the back, and I'm sure it would only scare the elderly couple crossing the street. C'mon, seriously? The article is an up-beat account of how things can go right . How under pressure someone made a necessarily…
If my math is right, the kinentic energy of 2 ton vehicle going 40 MPH is roughly equivalent to 70kg of TNT.
That's the kind of fire this guy was playing with, for his life, the life of his family, the life of the other driver and all the bystanders.
Not to understate his heroism, but had this gone horribly wrong he'd probably be a Darwin award candidate.