Saw the aftermath of a good crash today. Looks like the driver of an upmarket early-80s Toyota Townace either lost concentration or else was cut-off by a badly lane-changing vehicle; whatever, he was going along the left lane of a one-way system (RHD vehicles here in NZ, driving on the left) and hit a Mazda Capelle (626) wagon, probably parked. It seems he was doing about 50-60kmh on impact ie he hadn't slowed down at all, indicating that he wasn't aware that he was about to collide with an obstruction. The impact rammed the wagon up onto the sidewalk and caved the entire cabin in... it was bent in the middle and if anyone had been in the rear seat he'dve been history. The front part of the cabin was munted as well On the passenger side of the van (LHS, remember; I had a GOOD look as I went past in my Estima, as this has been a thread recently) the roof was kinked upward a bit, but I looked in through the open driver's (right-side) door, and the dashboard had not moved, the floor was unbetn...in other words, the front-seat ossupants would not have been in danger of injury to to bady distorsion. Makes me wonder about that German website... this van is the Toyota equivalent of the Nissan Sunny Vanette seen in the website. I don't think these earlier Liteaces had the forked or Y-shaped front chassis members found in the 84-and-later ones, but it certainly acquitted itself well in this frontal 3/4 impact. Anyway, I was IMPRESSED. The van utterly demolished the car ahnd was itself probably still drivable, even though the left-front door wouldn't have been openable. -- Andrew Grebneff 165 Evans St, Dunedin 9001, New Zealand <andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz> Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut |
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