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This is what a 60 MPH crash into a parked car looks like in a Jeep JL

Stretcher

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A little background on me. I spent 25 years as a police officer/supervisor. One of my duties was investigating every officer involved vehicle accident, every fatality accident, and most of the accidents involving serious injury (if I wasn't called out, the officers got written up, so yes almost all of them!). I've seen fatalities at low speed (less then 15 mph), and worked accidents where the speeds were well in excess of 120 mph (one of those, the passenger actually survived with no long term disabilities!). I now work as an RN in the ER (I wanted a lower stress retirement job . . . Yes, I know I have no common sense!).

That said, your wife's Jeep looked like it did a good job of protecting the occupant. A cracked sternum, and significant bruising are relatively minor compared to what I'm used to seeing. No lacerated liver or spleen, no long bone fractures, no brain bleeding, and no spinal involvement. You said she should make a full recovery. I've seen similar accidents result in fatalities. Good luck to you and your family.

I would have estimated the speed at impact at approximately 40mph just based on the picture. I would never include a speed estimate in a report based on pictures alone. Roadway marks, roadway grade, roadway surface, temperature, and lots and lots of math go into these investigations. Your description of the accident is similar to many that I've worked.

Let us know how you like the Gladiator, I might have gotten one, but they came about just after I got my Wrangler.
That's one thing a lot of people seem to overlook: hidden trauma. These cars get better over the years at absorbing impact etc. But the human body is still built the same way, and your organs still hate being thrown against your rib cage/bones/other organs at high speed and expected to stop in an instant.

Btw thank you for what you did and still do sir.

Eric
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Paluss

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I know this is speculation, but would the adaptive cruise option with the collision alert have stopped the car? My kids now drive, so thinking about safety for them...
Those systems are usually disabled if there is any driver input, if the driver is steering and braking the system will not react on most cars, but will apply full braking as an aid. There are all types of warnings in the owners manual that these are driver aids and not intended to replace driver input, manufactuers do not want that liability on there hands. I agree no injuries is the perfect outcome, but surviving is the main goal. People get injured for having their hands in the wrong location on the steering wheel resulting in black-eyes and broken noses, so its hard to say whether driver positioning at time of impact helped or hurt....
 

PeeCeeJunior

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I don't think anyone is faulting the end result for the driver. If it was anywhere near 60mph then she got away lucky. We're all just accustomed to seeing the crumple zone obliterate a vehicle's front end, so seeing otherwise makes you question what's going on.

Like this accident scene (complete with dash cam footage that will pucker you up like nobody's business).

https://imgur.com/gallery/Ti9NsgM
 

sf5211

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There’s a cool crash test video on You Tube. Straight into a solid wall and that Jeep looks to have about the same damage as the one in the pics above.
 

Kyanche

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Ah this reminds me why I want a jeep with the forward collision warning system ^_^ glad everyone was ok!
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