Gen III Safety--first hand experience

[timo27]

OK, so part of the motivation for this is public atonement for being sooo stupid. Take home message: if your lunch falls from the passenger seat on to the floor and your apples and pears start rolliing around in the detritus the shoes of others have left, *ignore it* at least until you can safely pull over.

I did not. I reached over that flying buttress and the next thing I knew, wha-BAM! I had drifted off the road (probably about 25 mph) and hit a pole, which broke. The car bounced back across the street (thankfully no other traffic coming) and I gradually came to my senses. The driver airbag and knee airbag deployed. The extent of my injuries are a couple of bruises, a lingering stench of a gunpowderish substance, and a healthy dose of humility and feeling like a dumb-a$$. The knee airbag in particular I think made a real difference. It remains to be seen if the car is salvageable, and if so, if it will ever be the same .

May I, and others, learn from my stupidity.

Peace
Tim

[ggood]

Just know that all of priuschat appreciates your safety systems research! Now if we could just get someone with PCS to repeat your experiment, Bob Wilson could turn it into a graph.

Congratulations on living to laugh another day.

[bighouse]

Did that fix any dashboard rattling issues?


(Glad to hear you're ok and no one was hurt!)

[Indyking]

Originally Posted by bighouse

Did that fix any dashboard rattling issues?


(Glad to hear you're ok and no one was hurt!)

Also glad you're OK, that's all it matters, but I do have second thoughts about hitting my dashboard with a big sledge hammer to see if it fixes the rattles or let that rattle snake inside it go back home...

[Rae Vynn]

Our son did the same thing - a water bottle fell on the floor, and he went for it, and smacked a power pole, though it was more a glancing blow which took out his front quarter panel. (it was with the Malibu, not our Prius)

Thanks for posting the reminder - if it falls to the floor, LEAVE IT ALONE!!

[DaveinOlyWA]

man, sorry to hear what happened. at my age i can assure you, i have done things just as stupid if not worse.

my problem is i did not learn very fast and did it more than once. but the important thing is that you are ok. the car will be fixed with deductible and that is that.

[fuzzy1]

Take home message: if your lunch falls from the passenger seat on to the floor and your apples and pears start rolliing around in the detritus the shoes of others have left, *ignore it* at least until you can safely pull over.

Thanks for posting the reminder - if it falls to the floor, LEAVE IT ALONE!!

Anything that shouldn't fall off the seat should be placed on the floor in the first place. And anything that shouldn't roll around on the floor should be braced or packed by other cargo so that it won't move. Over a driving lifetime, there will be sufficient emergency stops and maneuvers to invoke Murphy's Law numerous times.

My 'stupid learning experience' wasn't in this category and wasn't in a Prius, so it won't be posted here.

Glad to hear that injuries are limited to bruises.

[chrisj428]

Originally Posted by timo27

Take home message: if your lunch falls from the passenger seat on to the floor and your apples and pears start rolliing around in the detritus the shoes of others have left, *ignore it* at least until you can safely pull over.

This is why I eat cheeseburgers. They tend to stay where they land.

Seriously, though, Tim...glad you're ok!

[F8L]

Glad you're alright man. Sometimes we do stupid things that have big impacts and leave us embarassed but as long as we are alive afterwards then no biggie.

[JuJu and Me]

Glad you are ok, too. How are the apples and pears???
Many, many years ago, I was coming home from the grocery store in MY BOYFRIEND"S car, got cut off by some jerk, slammed on the brakes, and the gallon of milk I had placed on the front seat flew into the dashboard and exploded. This was in the days before airbags. Years later that car still had a faint sour milk smell. He married me anyway! I however didn't learn, and still pile the passenger seat full of junk!
Hope your car heals well, Sam