"In 1979 Sepp Maier caused with his Mercedes S-Class an accident in his home town. He slid in rainy race road in an oncoming vehicle. Two women were injured. Sepp Maier came with fractures and bruises to the hospital. "
Sorry if this is old news.
(http://img2.auto-motor-und-sport.de/Sepp-Maier-Mercedes-S-Klasse-W-116-f498x333-F4F4F2-C-188fc5cd-361117.jpg)
Sheesh. Normally seem to suffer only scratches and slight bruising (the car that is). Must have been some pace behind it...
Not old news at all, I don't think we've seen that pic before.
But damn!! Had it been a RHD car he'd be gone. Actually, can't believe he survived at all. I've never seen a w116 like that unless a crusher has had a go at it.
Fractures and bruises?! Holy shit I can't believe he walked away from that. MB engineers were ahead of their time.
Wow, that's serious indeed!
If you believe the Wikipedia article, he was intoxicated at the time of the accident.
Tim
It is sick that when I look at that picture all I see are the parts that could be salvaged :-[
Tail lights, rear euro bumpers, bundts, possibly euro head lights...
He's very lucky to of lived thru that..
Its not necessarily the crushing that kills in more minor accidents. Humans are quite fragile and were never meant to deal with the kinds of forces possible in a car accident.
My friend had an accident like that a while ago and the damage was no where near that bad, but he hit his head on the drivers door window. He was still alive for 15 minutes after but when moved all the blood run out of his body thru his nose and he died. Nothing anyone could of done for him.
MB mike, im with you. before i read your post i was wondering if there was one piece of that car that had been salvaged and was still in existence!
looks like a 6.9 as it has xwx's
That's very sad MT. I think the movies have given us wildly unrealistic expectations as to what the human body is capable of - you look at your average action movie with people being thrown across a room, or Tony Stark falling 1km from the sky and just because he happens to have a thin layer of metal around him he somehow doesn't sustain massive internal damage from the deceleration.
That makes me thankful for the side impact bars that the USA models have. It appears the other car hit him, so there wouldn't have been as much deceleration force on his car, but I bet the people in the other car really felt it!
That will just buff out! Maybe a bit of bondo too ;)
Yikes indeed. I also can't believe that anyone could survive that crash.
Nathan, I too spent some time wondering if it was a 6.9. It seems surprising that the suspension would still be up if it was a 6.9, but still possible I guess. No sunroof, but then again, many of the euro delivered 6.9's were fairly barren compared to export models, and some were supplied without sunroof.
It is sad about the accident MT, and unfortunate that even today we still have lots of fatalities. The interstate I use every day, Interstate 4 (I-4), is rated as third most likely to generate a fatal accident. The other interstate I use, but not as often, I-95, is rated number one. I-4, unlike I-95, runs only in Florida. So for I-95, some of that could be due to other states. [http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2010/05/31/daily21.html]
Having said that, I was in an accident when I was 18 where a car two ahead of us went to turn but came back out of it and decided not to. The car in front of us adjusted, as did we, but the driver behind us slammed into the rear end of the Cavalier at 65 MPH. I was in the front passenger seat and ended up nearly in the trunk. No bones broken, but the back a bit screwed and I had a major concussion.
As the concussion caused me to be out of it, unable to talk well or stand up straight the driver of the car that hit us had the nerve to ask if I had been drinking... as if it would have mattered since I was the PASSENGER.
The nerve of that guy pissed me off... and naturally he was uninsured and his kid unbuckled and ended up in the floor boards.
I wonder where the passenger seat went... :o
Whew!! that's about as bad as it can be but, look at the hood and trunk lids...????
Thanks for posting... but, don't try this at home ;)
Sheer luck id say! id hate to think what injuries he got. We need more pictures of crashed cars, makes us remember to slow down!
this one faired a bit better...
(http://www.surfblau.de/crashW116Capri1.jpg)
:)
ummmm
what is that orange thing ?
Is it made out of toilet paper and aluminium foil ?
the w116 is hardly damaged at all! 8)
Those pics are rather illuminating, just goes to show that not all older cars were built properly. Don't buy a Ford Capri eh, not that one would anyhow. Looks like the engine is now sitting in the passenger's lap, what a POS!
Thats very much what happened when our old volvo hit a datsun sunny! good to know the mercs of old stood up to their reputation!
That other guy is lucky that the W116 didn't have the USA-spec battering ram bumpers! :D
Quote from: Squiggle Dog on 21 December 2010, 10:15 PM
That other guy is lucky that the W116 didn't have the USA-spec battering ram bumpers! :D
Speaking of US spec bumpers, I wish that it were a bolt on bolt off scenario because I'd like to preserve my euro bumpers in case of such an incident. I had a ridiculous close call on the way home from work last night when an American SUV (Ford, GM who knows) turned in front of me as I rushed through the yellow light :-[. I hit my brakes just in time to avoid tearing the rear axle off that beast as I was positioned for a direct hit to the rear wheel.
Anyway, the pics in the post flashed through my mind and left me thinking how I would be alive to post the incident on this board.
I think one should excersize extra care when driving a w116. Personal safety aside, anything but the most minor collision will be uneconomical to repair rendering the poor old w116 a collection of spare parts or scrap metal.