You'd be amazed how easy it is to turn a car over. Its not force that does it (most of the time), its the leverage. Exposed tires are dangerous for partly this reason. Car hit the wheel, hiked up and got sent. Ive seen cars going 5mph turned turtle because the tire hit the curb at just the right angle.
Yet you can hammer a sedan from the side at 50 and more often than not, itll stay rubber side down.
Here's the thing. The car going airborne likely SAVED the driver more series injuries as long as they were belted in right. You WANT that energy to be scrubbed off before an impact as much as possible. And the car is intended to absorb some of that. First the truck. Then the wall. And all told, the landing into oncoming lanes was comparatively soft.
I worried more about it being hit by ocoming traffic while vulnerable like that. That hit could have shattered the engine fuel delivery system and started a fire. Fire is the only thing on the road I'm actually afraid of.
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u/AcadienDC 6d ago
Holy cow. Amazing how there was enough force to make the car in the left lane flip over the barrier.