In my work as an insurance adjuster I've seen some pretty gruesome wrecks. A few of them are pictured below. With the exception of the Geo which I didn't get any background on, all the participants in these wrecks survived, most walking away from the destruction.
This GMC 1 ton, double cab dually was towing a trailer when it ran into the back of a semi. Loaded with Amish carpenters, it mowed all the sheet metal off the front to the firewall. The frame is so badly bent it's on the ground in the center of the truck, while the bumper is a foot higher than it should be. I never could find the VIN tag on it. Everyone survived.
A seventeen year old girl slid through a downhill stop sign in the rain with this Pontiac Grand Am. The passenger door wound up on top of the center console after being hit by another car. Note the grey floorpan curled up along the bottom of the car. Luckily, she was alone, because there was nothing left of the passenger seat.
I stared at this car for several minutes before I figured out it was a Geo Metro. I don't know what hit it, or if anyone was in it. I sure hope not. While I like small cars, I'm convinced the Metro is far from a safe vehicle, this crash notwithstanding.
This was a nearly new Honda Civic before it did a head-on with another vehicle. The two guys inside were both ok, after they were cut out of the wreck. The only salvageable part on this car was one of the taillamps. That's the engine right above the front wheel.
This one's spectacular because of what didn't happen. This is actually my company car on a road posted 'no winter maintenance' while I was scouting a rally route. I came down the steep hill behind the car, which only turned to solid ice halfway down before I could see it. I nearly made it up the other side but started to get wheelspin, so I stopped. With all four wheels locked, the car began sliding backwards down the hill into the valley. I almost got the whole way down before it spun sideways and over the bank. The car suffered virtually no damage, but I had to wait a week for the ice to melt before a truck could winch me out.
These 3 shots are of my good friend Mike's Ford EXP. After a guy towing a trailer pulled out in front of him, Mike left the road sideways at about 60mph and impacted a surprisingly small tree right behind the door. The results are illustrated here.
More interesting is the fact Mike couldn't afford collision coverage at the time so took out a personal loan to buy this car. He was still paying it off years after these pictures were taken.
This used to be a Mitsubishi Eclipse. The three teenage knuckleheads who were in this all survived, in spite of two of them being tossed from the car (seatbelts are there for a reason, folks). You can't really see it in the photo but the firewall seam below the windshield base is split open most of the way across the car. That's nearly impossible to do. The heater core is against the front seat, and the dashboard is twisted in so many directions you can't tell what shape it was originally. These guys were candidates for the Darwin awards, yet they still live, hopefully wise enough not to try street racing again.
This Audi 5000 wagon was piloted by a student who fell asleep in a construction zone. Not sure what he hit, but it was solid! You can see the intake manifold was actually torn off the engine block. The driver walked away with only scratches. Even the passenger seat area isn't that horrible, except for the hood coming through the windshield. Fortunately, no one was sitting there. The remaining doors all function. These cars are tanks, and testament to German build quality.
