But if the reports are true, that failure probably contributed to their deaths, O'Neill said. We expect that people in the rear have as good a chance, if not better, of making it. It's a simple matter of physics, said William Boehly, an auto safety engineer and former administrator of vehicle safety research and development at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. A body at rest tends to remain at rest. A body in motion tends to remain in motion.
Auto crashes are horrific stoppers of motion.
There is the initial crash of car into object. There is the secondary crash of occupant into objects within the car, a collision that could be fatal if the occupant is unbelted. And there is the collective third crash of organs banging against one another and against bone structures within the occupant's body. The inner-body collision, too, is worsened by the severity of the blows to an unbelted occupant striking structures within the car, O'Neill and Boehly said. It's possible to design a car to withstand the reported crash speed of 100 mph that ended Diana's life, O'Neill said.