To which 'safety stuff' are you referring? And how did it save your life? What kind of van was it? Can you elaborate please? I'm always interested in learning what works and why.
Thanks!
My 2008 Toyota Sienna minivan was rear ended in heavy stop and go traffic on a busy highway. The car in front of me stopped and I quickly and safely stopped (probably assisted by the minivan's anti-lock brakes). The car behind me, however, didn’t stop and hit me really hard. My guesstimate was that their car was traveling about 40 mph when it hit me. It pushed my minivan into the car in front of me, and my minivan accordioned. There was no single safety feature that saved me--it was the combination of things working together and designed into the Sienna that was life saving. After being towed off the highway to a side street, I noticed the following while waiting forever for a second tow truck:
1. The minivan's front crumple zone collapsed just as crumple zones are supposed to. It crumpled almost to the front wheel wells.
2. The front hood folded up neatly, instead of flying open.
3. The engine dropped, instead of ramming into the passenger compartment.
4. Even with the front end collapsed and the engine dropped, the car was still steerable, indicating that the steering column and its power steering mechanism were able to flex instead of pushing into my chest.
5. I remember feeling the seat belt pre-tensioners tightening quickly, holding me firmly in place inside the car.
6. The rear crumple zone collapsed, as well. The rear one collapsed only as far as the back of the rear seat. With the rear axle and wheel well being located where they were, it looked like it was designed to collapse no further.
7. The entire floor remained flat and all of the seats, including the rear seats, remained in place. Unlike the seats in a car, minivan rear seats are usually removable and on struts that I never would have guessed to be so strong.
8. I remember my head hitting the headrest, but it prevented whiplash like it was supposed to.
9. All five doors remained firmly closed despite all of the stresses to the structure. None of them popped open. This included the rear door that was smashed in. Even after the accident, they all could be opened and closed like normal.
10. There were broken windows, but there were no sharp pieces of glass, trim or anything else intruding into the interior of the car.
11. There were no leaking fuel lines or damage to the gas tank, preventing a fire.
Besides the pebbles of broken safety glass, the passenger compartment was otherwise completely and totally fine, with one very minor exception. Ironically, a clip on the cheap plastic box that held my drug store first aid kit was damaged. It was behind the rear seat.
The only crash safety thing that didn't activate was the air bag system, probably because I wasn't going fast enough when I hit the car in front of me. I'd stopped, and my foot was still firmly on the brakes when I was hit. My hunch is that I hit the car in front of me with a lot of continuous force, but at a speed that was too low to trigger the air bags.
On that side street, I remember staring at my Sienna, seeing that it was noticeably shorter, and being stunned. Over and over I thought about the passenger compartment being completely fine, despite all of the major damage. After being checked out at the hospital, my only injury was to my wrist, probably because I was holding on to the steering wheel for dear life. My only passenger had a minor headache.
