The most important highway safety tip for holiday travel


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SALT LAKE CITY — In the next few days, we're going to start seeing many more vehicles on Utah roads as people head out for the Thanksgiving holiday. In fact, there will be more people on the roads this coming week than there's been in years, according to AAA.

Most drivers know the usual safety tips: go the speed limit, don't drink or text and drive, and wear your seat belt. But do you know which of these tips is most important, even when you’re following all the other rules of safe driving?

“You can have devastating injuries — even at low-speed crashes — when you stop abruptly and are not restrained,” said Dr. Kurt Bernhisel, emergency room physician at University Hospital.

Being properly restrained is key, experts say, and it has to do with something called "crash force” — that is, pounds of instant pressure against our bodies.

“When you take somebody and you hit a wall, and you go from 30 miles per hour to zero, the forces are actually thousands of pounds rather than just your body bumping against something,” Bernhisel said.

Consider this: If you weigh 160 pounds and crash your car into something — say, a telephone pole or light post — going 30 mph, the force on your body is about 4,800 pounds.

At 40 mph, the force jumps to 6,400 pounds; and the amount force continues to increase significantly the faster you drive. At 70 mph, your body is getting a jolt of more than 11,000 pounds.

Calculated 'crash force' for a person weighing 160 lbs

Speed Crash Force
30 mph 4,800 lbs
40 mph 6,400 lbs
50 mph 8,000 lbs
60 mph 9,600 lbs
70 mph 11,200 lbs
80 mph 12,800 lbs

“It can do massive damage,” Bernhisel said. “You have certain parts of your body that may have some coil and flexibility, but other parts of your body do not bend.”

Forces that we feel in vehicle crashes are not unlike many others — for example, football players crashing into each other or fighter pilots pulling G's while flying.

“We’ll see devastating injuries when people fall off ladders, scaffolds, things like that,” Bernhisel said. We’ll have serious injuries that resemble, in many cases, what a car crash would be.”

You can calculate your own crash force by using your weight and multiplying it by the speed (mph) you’re driving. It just kind of makes you think, anytime we're behind the wheel.

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Keith McCord

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