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It's possible, but completely anecdotally I was in a six car pileup and watched the stuff move from my backseat to the window to smash against it in what felt like 20-30 seconds.

I remember clearly having several thoughts in what could not have been more than 1 second between getting hit and my entire car smashing into another at 60 mph.

  "Oh, that's my kleenex box, dang that's just hanging there huh?"
  "What's that noise? Oh, its me screaming."
  "I better hold my self against the steering wheel for the airbag... wait, if I am thinking this that means there's no airbag"
  
I remember watching my seatbelt break and snap across my chest, moving like a languid snake, barely motivated to snap back to the wall.

However, many other times in my life in extreme situations nothing like that happened, so I don't know if just jumping off a cliff is enough trauma or fear of death to cause it reliably.



Weird that your seat belt broke, they aren't supposed to do that. Was it damaged previously?


Not sure, I realized later that the car was made in 1986 and was 20 years old at the time of the crash (and so literally didn't come with airbags.)

I just figured they were old as hell, and I ended up having to hold myself off the steering wheel with my arms.

Ended up bending it significantly, which I can only put up to the time(not much!) that was actually spent transferring energy from me to the wheel.


Steering wheels are designed to bend, for that exact reason.




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