Pius rear ended BMW -- big suprise!

[zeeman]

yesterday afternoon as i was walking the dog i noticed bunch of lights (cops, firetruck) and prius hazard lights flashing in that area.
well, i hate accidents but decided to change my dog walking route so that i can see how damaged was the prius.

well, what i have seen was totally unexpected:

prius' front end was smashed up pretty good but it stayed together, the cabin shape seemed intact and only fenders to front door gap was noticeably larger.
all in all prius looked safe, airbag was deployed and no one seemed hurt in prius and the doors were closed which makes me think that driver was ok, no fireman were helping him out.

but, i cannot say the same thing for BMW (it looked like a 3 series 2 door coupe, could have been 5 series -- i could not see that well from emergency workers)

BMW had its rear part of its body bent down and creased just before the rear axle. the whole part of car was bent downwards considerably, rear bumper was a few inches from the ground, the back part looked so much bent that crease in car body was clearly visible from across the 4 lanes and a median in between. Basically, that car was total loss.
There were 2 or 3 fireman trying to open the driver's door on beamer more widely so that they can put that poor person on the stretcher.

i do not know how accident happened, it sure looks like that BMW was standing still when it was rear ended by prius, judging by the impact.

i still cannot believe how messed up BMW was, knowing that BMWs are pretty solid cars, but i am surprised even more that prius' front end did not disintegrate, that it stayed in one part. it sure seems prius is stronger than it looks, at least on the front end.

[hiremichaelreid]

Originally Posted by zeeman

i still cannot believe how messed up BMW was, knowing that BMWs are pretty solid cars, but i am surprised even more that prius' front end did not disintegrate, that it stayed in one part. it sure seems prius is stronger than it looks, at least on the front end.

There's a bunch of weight in Prius front end all concentrated together: ICE, HSD, motors, wheels etc. Like most modern smaller cars, front end body work is designed to get crushed in such an accident, and keep the passenger compartment intact. But also, all the mechanical components stay together and act as a battering ram.

Probably also, rear end on BMW is designed to crush.

Reminds me of F! racing crashes. They are sometimes spectacular, but driver cage stays intact.

Perhaps Prius driver was distracted by his MFD and rammed the stopped BMW.

[AZPrius]

Prius guy was probably distracted by the MFD.

[jammin012]

Probably had the rear camera hooked up so they can see who's behind them when driving.

[ny biker]

Originally Posted by AZPrius

Prius guy was probably distracted by the MFD.

Or maybe the BMW driver slammed on the brakes and the Prius driver was following too closely to stop in time to avoid a collision despite the fact that he was watching the road.

There really is not enough information here to know the cause.

[zenMachine]

Let's hope the Prius driver wasn't watching... ahem... TV!!

[freshmtt]

Lets hope the Prius Driver was not part of PriusChat, so we should all be on the lookout for a thread titled "I smashed into a BMW" LOL!!! But seriously, either he/she was distracted by the MFD or "watching T.V" ahem,, or just plain ole, was not paying attention.

[Qlara]

If the BMW's rear got smashed up this badly, it sounds obvious the Prius was ramming it in full force (with very late braking).

Assuming there's no TV hookup, the driver wasn't watching the road either by talking on the cell or searching his speed dials from the MFD......

Hope the Bimmer's driver is ok too.

[JanTheMan]

Interesting to say the least, but how do you engage the rear camera to be displayed if you are not in reverse? Can you acutally have the camera on while in drive? If so, how do you get to put it in that mode?

[narf]

two months ago i was involved in exactly the opposite, My 2007 Prius was rear-ended while stopped by an older Accord. His car was able to drive off, although he lost the front bumper and glass and dented up the hood, but my car was barely moveable. The entire back of the car buckled and the rear sheeetmetal was pushed into the rear wheels. It was a total loss.

There's much less mass in the rear of a car than the front, and I would expect more of the energy from the collision was absorbed by the empty rear of the car than the fairly solid engine compartment.