Sergeant Joe Friday: [Friday is explaining what happens in the first second of a head-on collision at 55 MPH] There are people who've taken that first second of impact and they've broken it down into tenths. Now you're driving 55 miles an hour, and you have a head-on; this is what happens. In the first tenth of that fatal second, the front bumper and grill collapses. During the second tenth your hood rises and strikes the windshield, fenders begin wrapping themselves around the object of collision, you slam on your brakes, but your body is still moving at 55 miles an hour. You stiffen your legs for the jolt, but they both snap at the knee joint. During the third tenth of a second, your body catapults from the seat, broken knees ram into the dashboard. The steering wheel begins to collapse, the steering column drives toward your chest. In the fourth tenth, two feet of the car's front end are totally demolished, but the rear end is still travelling at 35 miles an hour; your body is moving forward at 55. In the fifth tenth, your body's impaled on the steering column, blood rushes into your lungs. During the sixth tenth, the force of impact has built up so that your feet are ripped out of their shoes, the brake pedal shears off, the car frame buckles in the middle, your head slams into the windshield. In the seventh tenth of a second, the entire car body is distorted, hinges rip off, doors spring open, the seat flails from striking from behind... but it really doesn't matter. You're dead. You aren't around to experience the final three-tenths of this one second. Neither are your passengers. It doesn't take long to die.
