Kind: captions
Language: en
What causes pileups in the real world?
The causes of crashes are really
complex. It's not just a single factor
like speed or weather or distraction.
It's often many factors coming
together. It's incidents like this that
have inspired the scenario for James'
experiment.
His plan is to replicate the conditions
of icy roads for the crash.
If we can make the road more slippery,
then you will start to see what the
effect of that will be on the stopping
distances of the cars.
To identify the perfect surface to match
the slippery conditions, James and his
team have covered a section of tarmac
with three different ice
substitutes:
gravel, oil, and water, and oil on its
own. But which surface most closely
replicates the stopping distance on an
icy road? To find out, stunt driver Paul
will drive at a moderate 40 mph, then
hit the brakes when his car reaches each
surface. First up,
oil. Okay, turn your logger off. Slide
there for a second. The next lane
combines oil and water. And because oil
floats on water, the team believes this
mixture will reduce traction even
further. 3 2 1 action.
[Applause]
Blime me. To be honest, that's that's a
shocker. That's like a foot and a half
further than oil on its own, and that's
it.
Neither option has come anywhere close
to providing the reduced friction the
team needs. So, they are now pinning all
their hopes on the loose gravel. Ready?
And 3, two, one, action.
That actually is a surprise. That That
is a surprise. Okay, I'll stay there.
Unexpectedly, loose gravel looks to be
the best substitute to replicate ice. As
soon as I touched the brakes, there was
nothing. He just went all was he just
constantly trying to do something and um
whereas the other two they felt exactly
the same and the distance was very
the gravel reduced the grip on the road
just as freezing conditions affect
traction.
[Music]