Calculating, (Formula), for Force at Impact of Semi Stationary Object

How many points of articulation would you include?

only 1 but it would have no effect except to hold truck in air as frame stretched, then releasing its own energy, flinging my truck away from cattle guard. usually you roll in front of guard til metal catches on rails then you roll and crush beneath the guard, then the wheels.

F=Force

m=mass

a=acelleration

F=m*a

but in your case it's;

slodl over F=m*a.....meaning S#it Load Of Dumb Luck / (F=m*a)

Within a few milliseconds, you could have been accelerated to 40mph ≈ 59ft/s, the speed of the train. Let's guess that was accompanied by 4 feet of crushing of your rig, which would have taken 4/59 ≈ 0.068s. 59ft/s ÷ 0.068s ≈ 868 ft/s². One g ≈ 32 ft/s², so this would have been about 27g! If your total rig weighed 10,000 lb, this would equate to 270,000 lbf. You might have been thrown clear before this, in which case the force and acceleration could have been less. So pop your eyeballs back in, dust yourself off, and walk away? Thank goodness--you were indeed lucky. [Some of those guesses were mighty rough, so we could entertain some other thoughts.]

Very good estimations (in my opinion) based on information provided. I would think there would be some other factors involved that helped save the drivers life. Perhaps the vehicle rolled up onto one side a bit thereby increasing Δt and lowering the force caused by the sudden acceleration.

Drew

thanks for response, truck n trailer total weight approx. 5500 lbs. the frame rails were pulled together at rear of truck, tow package pulled straight, finally ball snapped off truck allowing it to roll over on me and drive me to bottom of embankment, my body stopping in nich at bottom, saving me from complete crush. truck was crushed at impact.

You are one very lucky individual!! I come from a railroading family and my Dad once commented that with the tonnage they were pulling, it takes over a mile to stop a train from 60 miles per hour. With 4 units and only 45 cars, it sounds like they were hauling coal or something equally heavy. Important thing though is that you survived.

Bill

newspaper said weight was 9.400,000 lbs going 40 mph. With these 2 parts of the equation force at impact should be fairly easy tp calculate. Maybe someone in your family would have an answer for me, one lucky sob !! thanks

I hope you went out and bought a lottery ticket with luck like that.

Perhaps start at how far away the train was when you 'looked' and how long it was until you were "T boned"?

I.e more, or less, than 60 ft?