Duane saw a truck sliding across lanes at 64km/h. It showed no signs of stopping. Your (and probably my) reaction would most likely be one of frozen shock. But Duane? To Duane, “there was no time to take a vote”. Yes, a vote, because his car was full of passengers.
Duane slammed on the gas, pulled ahead of the renegade truck and let it rear end him. Risky? Stupid? Incredibly smart! “Basic physics,” explained Duane. “If I could get in front of him and let him hit me, the delta difference in speed would just be a few miles an hour, and we could slow down together.” And they did. The driver, who had suffered a heart attack and passed out at the wheel, survived, thanks to daring Duane and the power of science. [Seattle Times]
Patrick McMorris
Friday, October 22, 2010 at 10:15 AMPretty cool I have to say. Stuff like this just makes me smile.
matt
Friday, October 22, 2010 at 10:45 AMcool. I assume the truck was just rolling (foot off the break and accelerator) I assume it was a small truck too (pickup truck? that’s like a ute right?)
good thinking, belief, and sacrifice! and could have been done without causing much damage to the car at all.
its basically common sense, hardly need to be good a physics.
pdf
Friday, October 22, 2010 at 3:19 PMPfft, whatever dude – I’ll drive a truck at you and see how you deal with it. Bet you don’t come up with that plan.
kop48
Friday, October 22, 2010 at 4:48 PMIf you read the story, his foot was stuck on the gas (accelerator) pedal.
Leah
Sunday, November 21, 2010 at 1:01 AM@matt – I’m am not stupid, but I know only very basic physics, and this would not have occurred to me. This is not a matter of ‘common sense’. You’d need some degree of education in physics for this to just pop into your head. Having it pointed out to me, I can see how it makes sense, but not being educated in physics it’s not something that would just occur to me in such circumstances. ‘Common sense’ is the sort of thing you can expect anyone in the street to have despite their education. I wouldn’t expect just anyone to have that kind of idea.
Travis New
Friday, October 22, 2010 at 11:19 AM@matt
How many people think in rational terms when faced with a disaster or something similar. Aside from the obvious military/police/emergency services not many people would be able to think of something like let alone know that doing something this would solve the problem.
Give credit where credit was due.
matt
Friday, October 22, 2010 at 7:06 PMwtf, did people READ my comment?
all I was saying is that its really nothing to do with knowledge in physics, from purely a thought perspective, common sense would have produced the answer.
20 years of physics doesn’t make you cool in the face of danger, or a quick thinker…
the article is suggesting it is his is knowledge of physics that allowed him to do what he did, I was simply saying it was because he was brave.
Josh
Friday, October 22, 2010 at 12:09 PMHe’s obviously a Vulcan.
badasori
Friday, October 22, 2010 at 2:07 PMwonder what his insurance company thinks of his idea
Daniel
Friday, October 22, 2010 at 3:38 PMThe truck hit him in the rear, isnt the truck at fault for failing to stop in time? :>
A different Daniel
Saturday, October 23, 2010 at 9:35 PMYeah, but this guy came out saying he did it on purpose? I’d say insurance companies do everything in their power to avoid payment… therefore they’d probably refuse to pay him. Also, it doesn’t state which one of the two people have third party insurance – making it harder to judge.
But then again, maybe the insurance company will pay him on the premise that he prevented something worse “damage-wise”.
Regardless, at least he can say he saved a life – despite paying thousands of dollars from his own pocket.