Ford Taurus split in half in t-bone by numbnuts in late model GTO

[Roadrunner]

This happened in a city near me.

 

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/51572182.html

 

A 17-year-old in a late model Pontiac GTO allegedly was doing 80 when he broadsided the Taurus and split it in half. Thankfully no-one was in the rear seats, which took the impact.

 

If you can identify the Taurus by year, I would be impressed. (The wheels may give it away?)

 

It's too bad it was a Taurus, and too bad it was a GTO as well. That kid :slap:

[Michael Reynolds]

96-97 LX

[jpd80]

The force of the impact split the Taurus in two, and the back half exploded into flames.

The crash was caught on nearby surveillance cameras.

 

The 17-year-old driver of the Pontiac sports car and his male passenger were not hurt at all,

and there was hardly any damage to the Pontiac.

 

I find that last statement hard to believe, an 80 mph impact is going to

do heavy damage to the GTO, it must in order to protect the occupants.

[RaZor]

For the two ladies that were in the Taurus-- another good example of what I call "the numbers up scenario" (their numbers were obviously not "up" and so they survived) -- or as some would put it - "luck".

 

Here is another good example of that scenario as when you look at the second and fifth pics (it's a good thing that he was the only occupant of this Audi), this driver's number wasn't "up" either. http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=3105304

[Mark B. Morrow]

Thankfully no one was killed. The newer (Volvo based) Taurus is even stronger than the late '90s cars. Sometimes it's just better to be lucky. Tha Trooper in the photos below survived with minor injuries.

Edited July 25, 2009 by Mark B. Morrow

[TomServo92]

A couple of things:

 

In the video they show the GTO. The nose is pretty well torn up but the rest of the car is in pretty good shape.

 

The Taurus was a station wagon and the impact occured near the rear wheels. That's a big open area in car without a lot of structure. I'm not surprised it sheared it off and there wasn't much damage to the GTO.

[BORG]

Duh, everybody knows that any GM car will split a Ford in two!

 

The wagon was a 1996 or 1997 model.

[MY93SHO]

A couple of things:

 

In the video they show the GTO. The nose is pretty well torn up but the rest of the car is in pretty good shape.

 

The Taurus was a station wagon and the impact occured near the rear wheels. That's a big open area in car without a lot of structure. I'm not surprised it sheared it off and there wasn't much damage to the GTO.

 

I wouldn't judge the damage by pictures. There can be a lot more damage than what can be seen by just standing there and looking at it.

 

When I was at the Ford dealership we had a customer with a Mini that hit a racoon. Standing ther looking at it there was no damage. When you raised it up you saw the damage to the radiator support, radiator, A/C condensor, etc.

 

Since he didn't see any damage he kept driving it and got it hot enough we had to replace the cylinder head.

[V8 Ford]

The Taurus was a station wagon and the impact occured near the rear wheels. That's a big open area in car without a lot of structure. I'm not surprised it sheared it off and there wasn't much damage to the GTO.

That's strange about the lack of structure near the back, considering that the 90's station wagons used to have fold down rear facing seats in the trunk. I guess I never thought about that when I was a kid and used to fight with my friends over who got to sit in the back.

[Roadrunner]

A couple of things:

 

In the video they show the GTO. The nose is pretty well torn up but the rest of the car is in pretty good shape.

 

The Taurus was a station wagon and the impact occured near the rear wheels. That's a big open area in car without a lot of structure. I'm not surprised it sheared it off and there wasn't much damage to the GTO.

 

 

"Station wagon" seemed to have been missed by all the reports I saw.

 

I that case, yes -- lots of space.

[ANTAUS]

Its unfortunate the 17 year old didn't die... I hope his parents had very good insurance.

[Mark B. Morrow]

Its unfortunate the 17 year old didn't die... I hope his parents had very good insurance.

 

 

Having done some monumentally stupid things at 17, I think death is kind of a harsh punishment. Thankfully, no one died.

[fordtech1]

I am glad no one was killed. I know I did some dumb things as a teenager when I started driving, I was just lucky. Either way, I am not so sure that the Taurus tearing apart was so much a lack to structure as it was the speed of the impact. Look at the Karate students that can break the boards with their bare hands.

 

Those older Taurus are inferior to the new design as far as strength, but at the time they were adequate in crash test. If you want to see some wild pictures of wrecks go to www.wreckedexotics.com