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Yeah, I know, it's a dumb question. But it's been on my mind for a few hours, and I know I'm not going to let go of it until I find out.
I saw a pretty bad accident tonight on my way back to my hotel, with one car completely upside down. What struck me as odd was that this was on a street with a relatively low speed limit (30 MPH), a perfectly straight, flat stretch of road where cars just don't really go all that fast, and no nearby intersections. Looking at that piece of road, I just couldn't reconcile the physics in my mind - you had two cars, traveling in the same direction on a flat, straight street, going maybe 40 MPH at the most, and somehow they managed to come into contact in such a way as to cause one to flip over.
I could see it if there was an intersection where one of them could have T-boned the other, or a curve, but I couldn't figure out how a car could flip from apparently being sideswiped at such a low speed. Does this sound unusual to anyone else, or am I just being dense here?
I recall a HS buddy flipping his brand new turbo'ed Chevy Corvair at 15 mph on dry pavement.
I've seen a BMW 2002 model flipped at 35 mph in an abrupt maneuver to avoid a load of steel pipe dropped off a semi-trailer in front of him. I was in a car next behind him and had to swerve to miss him and the pipe ... wound up sliding around 180 and skidding backwards off the road.
Cars with a high center of gravity don't need much speed to flip over in the right conditions. I've seen an Explorer slide sideways into a curb and flip over down into a ravine, was probably going about 20-25mph when they hit the curb.
I watched a pretty intense dash cam video of a Honda Fit rolling. he couldn't have been going that fast, he was on an on ramp and hydroplaned.
Of course you could easily roll your vehicle by going up an embankment and having it tip over.
Also consider if the fenders bend and tires run up on another cars tire, even at a silly 5mph it could cause a flip over. I've seen videos like the one posted of people flipping at less than walking speed ! WE learn quick in circle track racing not to run tires up another cars tires! Barrel rolls down the backstretch isn't fun! lol
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