A Happy Ending
No one really buys a car expecting to get in an accident. Years ago I was talking to a car insurance guy about accident frequencies, ‘about once every 12 years’. I don’t even want to go there with thoughts on timing.
Here’s a story we just received. The accident was with our first generation C70 Convertible. This was the first time we used ultra high strength steel (boron treated steel) in our cars. Inside the ‘A’ pillar is a tube structure designed to keep the A pillar in place and when coupled with rear pop-up ROPS (like roll bars), they give the driver a good zone area that helps protect in a roll over. Also around the belt line is more of that steel to help create a caged structure. Yellow is ultra high strength steel:
My name is Kasey, and I am lucky to be writing this email. If it was not for my Volvo C70, I have no doubt that this would not be possible at this time. On Friday, January 21st, 2011 I was driving my usual route to work during rush hour traffic. I live out West, so of course it was 75 degrees and sunny, which for me means I am driving with my top down. Since I was traveling on a major highway, I was traveling at speeds around 70 MPH… when out of nowhere another driver moved into my lane. I swerved to avoid being hit by the other driver, and in upon doing so, my car went into a fishtail. I was not able to regain control, and my car veered off the side of the road, where it proceeded to flip 4 times, slide down the gravel embankment on the driver’s door, and then flip once more to land be back on what was left of my tires. Imagine my surprise when I opened my eyes and I was alive. Not only was I alive, but coherent. I was rushed to the hospital, were upon running all necessary test, the conclusion was that there was nothing wrong with me. Other than some bruising and muscle soreness, I just walked away from a high speed roll over with my convertible top down. To say the least, the doctors, police and ambulance teams were shocked to see that I was fine. There was one common theme that I heard over the next 2 weeks, and that was “Thank God you were driving a Volvo.” Everyone from my co-workers, to Facebook friends, to strangers I meet that hear my story, all believe that I owe my life to Volvo. I KNOW I owe my life to Volvo, and my children, my husband, and my family all thank you. How do you thank a car manufacturer for saving your life? I have no idea how to go about this process, other than to spread the word to every person I come into contact with that Volvo is the reason I was given a second chance. If not for your ROPS, this story would not be possible. I do not know if I will be able to afford another Volvo, but If I am, you just made me a Volvo customer for life.. I have attached photos of my car after the accident, once you have viewed these, I am sure you will agree that you have done nothing short of a miracle in saving my life. I want my story shared will every single employee at Volvo, so they will know I want to personally thank every engineer, every line worker and every office member that makes Volvo possible. I want all Volvo employees to know that the work they are doing today is saving lives. Please promise me that you will thank every single employee at Volvo and send them my heartfelt thank you.
dan
8 Comments
That’s an amazing story. Kudos to Kasey, and three cheers for Volvo’s C70!
Glad your story had a happy ending. Certainly the safety features designed in to most cars these days are saving more lives. However, as a long-time owner of a 2001 C70, I have to say that the “fishtailing” that you describe might have actually contributed to your getting into the rollover situation in the first place. I have experienced similar handling behavior when avoiding a deer on the highway but was fortunately able to recover the car without incident. My wife’s 2006 C70 (a different car completely) handles much better.
That c70 looks preety bad I must say
This is exactly why I love Volvo (besides the fact they build beautiful cars!).
@Mike That’s the good thing about the people at Volvo: they don’t stop at thinking ‘glad she came out alive’. Nooo.. These thoughts will be followed by: ‘why on earth did this thing roll over in the first place? Let’s fix that’.
@Kasey Best of luck dear! Hope you’ll be able to get yourself a new Volvo. You deserve it!
Really glad you are ok! Scary stuff. I can’t necessarily afford my Volvo, but I cut out other things to make it fit in my budget, because I really feel that my family and I can’t afford to NOT be in a Volvo should a collision occur. The roads are a really scary place to be.
Kasey, Thanks for the post. I live in Miami. I purchased my 2011 Volvo C70 T5 through the OSD program in Dec. It arrived on Jan 19th 2011. I have driven everyday this past month with the top down. Miami isn’t exactly known for having the safest highways in the country. I’ve have wondered it the ROPS would actually work. Well your story proves that it does. Thanks for the reassurance. Sorry you had to go through what you did.Happy to hear that you came out okay! I hope you get a new 2011 C70 and continue to enjoy driving to work with the top down. Thanks Volvo for building such safe cars!
I really have to question the wisdom of using stories like this where the car’s active safety (handling characteristics and stability control) fail. A car with proper handling should be able to make an emergency maneuver at speed w/o “fishtailing”. Especially if it is a car sold as being “sporty” to any degree. And if it does yaw due to driver overraction, the carr should be able to correct this in an instant.
I drive an XC60 now and have seen video of it handling this type of maneuver without problems. For a recent year model, it sounds like the convertible needs more work in the area of stability control and handling. I certainly wouldn’t be giving it kudos.
Hi Bruno,
To a certain degree, I’ll agree with you. Not knowing the road surface or any details like how worn the tires were, or anything about the car it’s very hard to pin down what happened. I do know, that just about any car at 70 mph w/o stability control of some sort is going to be a handful. This version of C70 was built on our 850 platform. The electronics for stability control were not available at that time. Today we have stability control in all our cars. I can say that the safety technology we used did what it was suppose to do. I doubt any convertible from that era would have done a better job of protecting occupants. Today our mission is to build cars that avoid accidents, in those *
days it was about protecting in an accident.
Kindest regards,
dan