Amazing truck collision

In this video, two trucks collide nearly head-on and one driver flies through the windshield. Spoiler: He lands on his feet and walks away.

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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http://twitter.com/michaelsayyes michael b

What’s amazing about that is just not that he didn’t get hurt, but he split second it took for him to be thrown out of his seat. He’s already halfway out of the window before we even see the truck. Seat belts aren’t such a bad thing sometimes.
- Don McNeil
  
  Strangely I figure if he is actually wearing a seat belt in this circumstance he is badly injured. The one in a billion circumstance where it goes the other way. There is a weird dissipation of kinetic energy and the windshield pops before he goes through it. Purely speculative on my part.
  - http://illustratorhints.com/ Jesseham
    
    My buddies father was in a head-on-ish accident in a convertible Karman Ghia and was thrown out of it, only to watch it explode from the side of the road. *most* of the time, seatbelts are a good thing.
  - brainflakes
    
    The driver’s side of his cab looks pretty much untouched so not sure what would have injured him?
    - Ushao
      
      The seat belt.
      - http://nelc.livejournal.com/ NelC
        
        Bosh. The driver doesn’t fly through the windscreen so much as tumble out of it. A seatbelt would have absorbed that little energy without any injury, except maybe a sore neck. As it is, he might have cracked ribs from hitting the steering wheel and dashboard.
        
        If he had actually flown out of the window, he could have had a cracked skull, broken limbs and seriously abraded flesh, not to mention whatever the glass would have done by not getting out of his way in time. Whatever injury he might have had from a seatbelt stopping him flying through the windscreen, they wouldn’t have been as bad as all that.
      - Diogenes
        
        His left arm looks a little funky. Wonder if he fractured it.
Navin_Johnson

He almost managed to hold on to his coat too!
http://jonathan-peterson.com/ Jonathan Peterson

not was he not wearing a seatbelt – he wasn’t wearing shoes.
- Brandon Wright
  
  Or the force ripped both off? =o
http://www.facebook.com/people/David-Horton/100001980195134 David Horton

Props to Kottke? http://kottke.org/12/09/lucky-truck-crash
http://www.spockosbrain.com spocko

When we have those driverless trucks this won’t happen.
- Henry Pootel
  
  “CPU ejected from car, and continues running defrag!”
acerplatanoides

Noodly Appendage at 0:15, unless someone has a better explanation?
- ChicagoD
  
  I was going to go with broken arm, but that’s just the rationalist in me.
- SumAnon
  
  Truly Noodle-Touched, that man. Dressed like a pirate, too.
ammo

In Soviet Russia, you don’t get out of truck; the truck makes you get out of it!
- Guest
  
  deleted
  - mccrum
    
    We call it Wee Britain. Watch out for the daily Poppin.
- http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Driver/100001568136916 Michael Driver
  
  Are people STILL actually using that LAME “joke”? Obviously so.
http://celesteagnes.blogspot.com/ Sekino

I hope he had a change of pants handy.
Lance Brown

That is not a nearly head-on collision…. More like a side-swipe.
- Ramone
  
  Yeaaaaah, I kinda think it is a head-on. Since the front of the cabs touched. It’s kinda like rounding third on your way to home though.
  - http://www.facebook.com/matthewbfriar Matthew Blake Friar
    
    If you watch, the collision doesn’t occur until the cab of the truck is already across the road. The oncoming cab hits the back end of the trailer. So no, it wasn’t a head on collision.
Grahamers2002

This has all the elements required to make it the final stunt in a ald-time silent film. The strange and fortunate way he exits the video and just walks away (Charlie Chaplin); the way he stands and scratches his head afterward (Harold Loyd); the striped shirt makes for the perfect villain whose attempt to get away with the stolen truck is foiled (Give him a Hamburglar mask to complete the look!)

Quick! Someone do a remix!
- http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo
  
  I think it’s less of a head-scratch and more brushing the busted glass out of his scalp…
  
  Although the way he looks in the camera’s direction as he does it seems to say, ‘geez, how do you like that?’
  
  Bloody awesome luck : )
ChicagoD

So, I think the driver in front of the car with the camera must have an interesting story. Had he not turned left he would have rear ended the truck in front of him. Had he not swerved right, he would have turned earlier and had a head on with the truck that passed right before the crash. He *almost* threaded the needle and made the turn.

The only question is, what was happening that made him have to try to thread that needle.
- ldobe
  
  I didn’t notice that the truck was actually making a left turn, I thought the driver just fell asleep and swerved. But on second review, I do see the ridiculous attempt to impossibly thread the needle.
  
  That driver must have been suicidal if he thought he could cut it that close. Or perhaps he was an utter asshole, and expected both lanes of traffic on the highway to stop for him, so he could make an insanely dangerous turn.
  - ChicagoD
    
    I was thinking that he did it to avoid a collision with the truck stopped in front of him. Not sure why he didn’t notice THAT guy, but that’s what I thought was going on.
Guest

deleted
http://halfbakedmaker.org Robert Baruch

That’s insane! One second you’re driving your truck, and the next you’re standing on the road. WTF!
http://mysite.verizon.net/~vze2tmhh/ pduggie

So is it typical to exit a highway by making a left turn in front of oncoming traffic?
- http://halfbakedmaker.org Robert Baruch
  
  When you’re asleep, sure!
simonbarsinister

Dude is so Alpha he wouldn’t let go of his jacket. Like Indiana Jones defying death to reach for his whip.
harvey the rabbit

My guess is the stationary truck was waiting to turn left but had no rear lights showing. It almost looks as if the truck coming up behind saw it too late, thought about passing on the right, saw he couldn’t, and had to turn left across the oncoming truck. Hilarity ensued.
Petzl

The truck veers right first (evidently, to prepare for the left turn), so he must have had visibility on that the truck in front of him was slowing or stopped. So, he made the left turn instead of just braking hard. So, he’s a maniac.
- RJ
  
  Big trucks have to swing wide only for right turns, to prevent the trailer from cutting the turn short. On a left turn, where you swing more widely anyway, there’s no need for any set-up.
  
  It looks to me like the driver didn’t allow enough of a space cushion ahead. Those trucks can’t stop on a dime, especially when loaded, so when the truck ahead screeched to a stop, there wasn’t enough room in front of the white truck to also stop, so the driver had to decide which way to veer. Maybe there was already a vehicle in the emergency lane, so the driver went to the left and hoped for the best. It was a bad call, and it could have all been avoided if the driver simply hung back a little more from the truck ahead.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_BOOM27DBLMZQIJVK4BQLE7K5YA Nagurski

Be like water, my friend.
Julian Bravo

I want to know what song is playing on that guy’s radio.
- http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo
  
  Pretty sure there’s an app for that.
- nedmorlef
  
  hangin by a thread…mike and the mechanics
niktemadur

Yet another in a very long list of reminders to never, ever, EVER, drive in Russia.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=502103047 Dust McPuddin

im guessing the music would be someone like Mikhail Krug, kinda like a soviet mixture of johnny cash/bob dylan. I studied for a year in his hometown Tver. and yeh…fuck driving in Russia