Another vote for a re-test on this myth, but do it with a wider range of vehicles. As other posters pointed out, most folks in Alaska drive pickup trucks and SUVs. Also, just for fun, throw in a Saab 900/9-3 to see how it stacks up against the moose compared to the American cars.
Originally posted by bigd65908: i got a problem with the manner the myth was conducted. the idea wasn't to just increase the car's acceleration, but to lift the front of the car. being attached to the cable, the front of the car was not able to rise as it would when one slams on the gas. the added height to the front of the car would help, .
I disagree... if your doing 50 mph and slam the gas your not going to move the hood up. How many horsepower you got in your car 800??? Most cars do very little when you stomp the gas. And if your going slower say 25 mph well then just stop and don't hit the moose at all.
I didn't like how they showed the moose as friendly animals. At one point they were petting one.
Moose are not friendly and can be highly agressive. I live here in Ak and there are deaths every year because people get too close to moose. They can be a menace and way more likely to hurt you than a bear simply because we have moose everywhere ! so fyi - stay clear of moose especially if they have calves with them.
this whole myth seems really dumb. Lets say there is a moose in the road up ahead. Are you seriously going through the mental process of " I am going to hit it and I will speed up " You will always slow down or try to avoid it. If you have this kind of time to reason then hey... just stop your car and don't hit it at all. Just thought that seemed ridiculous. Only a madman would accelerate into something ?
[QUOTE]Originally posted by cardinal biggles: Another vote for a re-test on this myth, but do it with a wider range of vehicles. As other posters pointed out, most folks in Alaska drive pickup trucks and SUVs. {/QUOTE]
Yes we do drive trucks and SUVs but is a re-test really necessary ? If the moose doesn't clear the hood as in a 4x4 truck the outcome is simple to guess. It won't fly over and it's just like hitting anything else. The whole idea was to see if it would / could fly up and over.
Okay so here's my moose impact story. Years ago here in Anchorage I was riding on the back of a 3 wheeler. The driver, a guy named Rick was taking us down a slippery road at about 35 mph. A moose walked out and we hit it's back legs. The moose flipped over us and tumbled. We crashed and rolled to a stop on the snowy road. Neither of us hit the moose at all. The moose got up and ran into the woods. There was tons of fur everywhere. So if the vehicle is small enough then this could work. Luckily I didn't get a moose on top of me. True story.
Was Tory just acting, or about half way though did Tory's toes get a little flattened? Its right before they show the truck testing at the crash place.
Hello from Canada, Love the show. After watching the Moose Masher/speed up slow down bit, I have a suggestion for any potential revisits to this myth.
As a graduates of the Wile E Coyote school of physics, I have a friend who has survived several "run in's" with moose on the road in Northern British Columbia.
His advice is if a collision is unavoidable to steer towards the hind quarter of the moose in an attempt spin the moose around the drivers side of the car, instead of hitting it straight on and having it create a new moonroof. What do you think? Keep up the excellent work!
Going to college in New Hampshire we were taught by Campus Safety - "If you see a moose hit it in the rear because moose don't back up!"
Moose will not suddenly turn back like deer will. Aim for the back end and the moose will either have moved or you will hit the hind and NOT the legs and break the knees and be squished by a moose
This message has been edited. Last edited by: mod_ivy,
If you are about to hit a moose you should try and aim for the HIND LEGS, then the moose gets thrown sideways away from the car. That was what we where taught driving in Scandinavia.
The way i first heard this myth it was with a deer, not a moose, and hitting the gas at the last second was to raise the front of the car. The speed at which you hit the moose was never a factor. Given that it would be a smaller animal that stands lower to the ground, I think it would make a difference.
I am a born and raised native alaskan. Ive been here for 27 years. I have seen 100's of moose collisions and have hit one myself. Yes in Alaska people think if you accelerate the moose will fly over, but tht usually comes from kids or people tha dont know how to drive in Alaska. AS for the myth buster test it was dead on for the size of cars they used on a head on moose collision. But if a truck or an SUV was used the moose could have cleared the winshied at high speeds because the truk or suv hit the moose on the body not the legs. But all Alaskan drivers that know anything about Alaskan driving would never hit a moose head on unless the moose came out of nowhere. When I hit my moose I followed the standard Alaskan driving rule,,, stay calm.... I stayed calm and did not slam my brakes cause slamming brakes on icy roads causes wrecks, I lightly pumped my brakes so my car would not slide and did vered away from the moose and hit it with my rear quarter panel.... But with my moose kill I didnt quite make it over enough and the head of the moose came through the windshield and hit the dash.... But the key to my survival was staying calm and controlling the wreck even after the actuall collision, and not wiping out into the ditch on Alaska's Narrow slippery Sterling Highway. I had a total of $400.00 worth of damage, which consisted of a winshield, driver side mirror, and a small dent poped out of my rear quarter panel....OH yeah another thing,,,you can drive 95 MPH on snowy roads in alaska.....But only Alaskan's know how to do it....WE siply just dont do it.....
I grew up in Mt. and have seen the results of Moose & Auto/truck accedents. The moose they made was smaller then most I've seen. Try a Bull weighing 1500 - 2000 Lbs.
In West Yellowstone in 1963 or 1964 there was a accedent between A semi and a LARGE BUll. It came hightailing it off the side of a mountain and hit the side of the cab of a frieghtliner. The truck was flipped on its side and the moose left the seen.
I was riding in a car with my family. We stoped at the accedent just minutes after it happened. The driver was a freind of my dad and my dad was his steward at CF. My dad didn't believe the cause untill he climbed up and opened the pasanger door. Low-an-behold there in the buddyseat was the the antler of a moose.
Figure that out all you math buffs. What would be the impact of a 2000Lb moose running down hill into the side of a 1960 Freightliner.
Being in law enforcement and having had some formal training and experience in crash reconstruction and investigation I know that when a car crashes into a pedestrian it can "vault" the body up onto and even over the car depending on speeds. The faster the speed the higher up onto the hood or windshield you would expect to see the secondary impacts. Over 45-60 MPH and the body can go over the roof without impacting.
When I started watching the Alaskan myth episode I thought that was the route that particular myth was going to take, instead all the tests seemed to be trying to get the car under the body of the moose before the body fell onto the car. Being that the moose's center of gravity and most of its mass are so much higher than a humans the cars bumper and hood took out the relatively small legs of the moose and the body mass makes its first impact on the windshield and passenger compartment of the car getting no opportunity to vault over the passenger compartment. I would suggest doing the myth over using full size pickup trucks and/or SUV's, not only because that is apparently what most Alaskans drive, but the higher bumper and hood height would better match the body of the moose and perhaps cause a vaulting scenario.
As a caveat, I have my doubts that you can get a full grown bull moose to vault over any vehicle given the differences in physiology between a moose and a human, but it would be interesting to see what you guys can do with it. Also as others have already stated I think it would be more wise to reduce speed and/or maneuver to avoid the moose or to get a glancing impact rather than to take it head on and hope it goes over the top.
Originally posted by HITNRUNX: I have heard something similar all my life about deer... But I think the Mythbusters had the wrong idea on this one... The point is NOT to accelerate and "throw the animal OVER the car." The point is to slow down as much as possible before impact, but then take your foot off the brake and hit the accelerator just before an unavoidable impact... The reason behind this is that when breaking, the front end of the car lowers, which make the animal go onto the hood and through the windshield... But when you punch the accelerator, the front end rises, giving you a better chance that the animal will go UNDERNEATH the car... THAT is the basis for this "Myth" that I have heard my entire life...
Don't think you can rely on doing all that without practice. Brake then accelerate at just the right moment? Not likely. For a large animal like a moose or deer the difference in the car's atitude isn't going to mean very much.
Hello MythBuster ok I live in wyoming and have seen cars, trucks, and semi hit moose every year but what does more damage is when out of sate people come up here and see a moose stop and blow there horn at the moose not a good thing cuase a moose wiil charge and do more damage to the car and people in it then hitting one
Great myth! But...in SC we have a ton of deer and a lot of times you hear if you don't slow down or don't accelerate you hit the deer and it rolls up your windshield and over your roof. It still does do damage. BUT..it's not supposed to hurt you that badly. The alternative, to slow down by slamming on your brakes, puts the front end of your car down a bit. The speed of the body of the car is going faster than the wheels, which are slowing down, thus putting your bumper down. So then the deer would plow into your windshield potentially hurting you in the process. So either way damage will be done to your car..the question is how much damage will be done to the driver and/or passenger. In that case is it best to slam on the brakes or continue at your current speed?
I agree with the SUV/Trucks. I would also like to see BOTH regular and BOTH with a Grill Guard such as a RinoGuard or something that is designed for Protection of the Front of your truck. Maybe the guard will take all the impact and absorb it into the frame (not sure) Or it might even deflect the moose I hope the Mythbusters read this and next time they do a Revisit try it out
Originally posted by GunSlinger09: I agree with the SUV/Trucks. I would also like to see BOTH regular and BOTH with a Grill Guard such as a RinoGuard or something that is designed for Protection of the Front of your truck. Maybe the guard will take all the impact and absorb it into the frame (not sure) Or it might even deflect the moose.
A moose weighs 4 times as much as a deer. That is as much as a small car. So a grill guard will be useless, it will not stand up to that kind of impact. The only thing I've seen that stood up reasonably well to a moose crash was a large bus.
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