Top Tip: Don’t Drive Into the Side of a Tractor-Trailer

There’s no way that a poor Chevrolet Malibu will make it back from this accident.

The Fast and the Furious series is known for having outrageous stunts that would never work in the real world. One scene that really sticks out is from the 2001 original, where the gang tries to steal some goods from a semi-truck while driving in customized Honda Civics. The Civics manage to slide underneath the tractor-trailer, with little difficulty. We’ve always wanted to recreate that scene, and for anyone else out there that has wanted to do the same, this video reveals why that’s a horrible idea.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) put out the video above, revealing why tractor-trailers need better protection. In doing so, they crushed, literally, our dreams of driving underneath a semi-truck. They conducted two tests where Chevrolet Malibus ran into the side of a tractor-trailer at 35 mph. One test occurred with a trucked fitted with a fiberglass side skirt, while the other had a protection device from Airflow Deflector Inc. called an AngelWing.

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The results are eye opening. Both of the Malibus hit the center of the semi-truck, and in the gold car that hits the trailer without the protection device, the poor dummy takes the brunt of it. The first item to smash into the trailer is the vehicle’s windshield, followed closely thereafter by the dummy’s head.

The dark gray Malibu rams into the trailer with the AngelWing, and things look more like a regular accident. The protection device ensures that the vehicle’s hood is the first thing to ram into the trailer, causing the airbags to go off. Yeah sure, the hood is crumpled and the front end is unrecognizable, but that’s better than the dummy’s head taking the majority of the impact.

There you have it. If you’ve always wanted to drive underneath a tractor-trailer, don’t, because it’s a horrible idea. In fact, you should probably stay as far away from semi-trucks as possible.

via [IIHS]