200 milliseconds. It doesn’t seem like much but that is the amount of time it takes for you to see something and the brain to process it. So everything you see, your whole life, is in the past.
Also, If the car collision hasn’t caused a rollover, or secondary impacts — with other vehicles, for example — the crash is over right after 200 milliseconds! Therefore, this small period of time is so critical, and at the same time very valuable for traffic safety experts and car safety experts.
Because of all this, Saab experts have always studied car collisions and have been trying to find how to reduce the consequences for drivers and occupants in vehicles. See the video below, in which you can see a detailed overview of events in these key 200 millisecond of collision (TEst car Saab 9000):
This teaching film was shot in 1990 produced by Cameo film Stockholm. The whole purpose of a modern car is to absorb as much of the energy in the structure of the car by deforming the structure of the car and preventing that from going into your body.
The US Institute of Traffic Safety IIHS reported in 1995 that the 1989-93 Saab 9000 is the safest car in its class – with 0,2 deaths per 10,000!
