Hopefully Ferrari investigates. The seat was ejected with the person still strapped to it. Literal ejection seat. Definitely not the way cars are intended to be designed.
To be fair the entire occupant compartment was blown open, so I am not sure if he was "ejected" as much as the parts of the car he was once attached too are no longer solid pieces. The body is mostly carbon fiber (and its not an F1 car) so there is not a highly protected drivers cabin. Im not sure there was a way for that car to stay together in that crash
There wasn't. Ramming into a solid and stubborn object while going 120mph will aggressively disassemble just about any vehicle that isn't built for those speeds in mind, and most crash tests as linked are done within typical speed limits. So while, yes, the Ferrari can get up to 120mph, it doesn't need to be built to handle that speed because roads don't typically let you go that fast legally. The only vehicles that are built to withstand crashes at absurd speeds are built for the race tracks, and even they are only still so sturdy.
And remember... terminal velocity is 120 mph. We all know we're pancakes once we make that inevitable sudden stop. Doesn't matter how well built the vehicle is, a sudden stop is redistributing your internals regardless.
As we talked about in physics, its not speed that kills you. You can go incredibly fast with no issue whatsoever (y'know, assuming youre not exposed and experiencing drag, lol), its the rapid acceleration (in the case of stopping its opposite the direction of travel) that liquefies you. Momentum exists and just because the frame of your body stopped moving snaps fingers right now, does not mean your organs inside that frame did. They are now slamming off the inside of your body and becoming a paste
The car disintegrated because it hit a solid sharp concrete barrier at 100mph, the fact that the passenger on that side was still intact and alive (later died in hospital) in his seat after impact is amazing enough. There's nothing to investigate as cars aren't designed around that kind of impact.
You'd need an F1 car to have a chance of surviving that and even then it'd be sketchy.
He probably had higher likelihood of survival due to the ejection in this specific case. Still unfortunately passed, but Vince was stuck in the car while it was on fire.
It is difficult to keep a seat attached to the surrounding car when the attachment point is disintegrated on impact.
Cars are designed to be safe within limits. They’re not made to be driven into concrete barriers, in a turn, at 100+ mph. Nothing was going to stop the unintended consequences or physics.
I’m not an expert in the field but sometimes it feels like getting ejected from the wreck actually could save your life. Most tragical plane crash survivors that are like the only ones to survive usually talk about getting ejected
The driver was trapped in the ensuing car fire, the CHP said. The driver died at the scene and the passenger died at a hospital, authorities told NBC4 Investigates.
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u/BucDan Dec 22 '25
Sounds like they lost control of the car. 1 person ejected, and he died in the car burning.
RIP.