OK, so the occupants of this M5 didn't walk away, but they did survive, and so did their dog. And that's more than you'd expect at 186 mph.
The crash, which was reported in Bimmer Post, occurred on an unlimited stretch of the German autobahn system, when some half-wit pulled out without checking his mirrors properly. Needless to say, he did a runner after causing the crash, and will probably claim he knew nothing about it, though the effect must have be rather like having a plane crash around you.
Anyway, the bright side to all this is that the safety gear all worked, and while the 60 year-old driver and his 20 year-old passenger are in hospital with fairly severe injuries, they did survive. You never really know how well crush zones, airbags and steel cages in your car will protect you, until the car gets into an accident. This being the mother of high-speed accidents, it appears BMW did an excellent job with the 2013 M5.
The accident happened when the driver was rocketing down an unlimited stretch of the autobahn earlier this week in his 560hp M5. Another motorist merged from a freeway in front of him, causing him to lose control. According to the man’s two sons, who were following him in other cars, the M5 bounced back and forth between the guardrails and ultimately rolled several times, down about 320 feet of roadway.
The mangled car then began smoking under the hood. Luckily for the driver and passenger, the man’s sons had a fire extinguisher and doused the flames, then extracted the driver and passenger and their dog. Amazingly, no one died. The crash caused such a mess that the autobahn was shut down for several hours for cleanup. ––Paul Duchene
