Porsche 911 prototype crash with fatality

http://www.worldcarfans.com/9090213....production-911 A 51-year-old died in Germany this morning following an accident involving a Porsche 911 cabrio prototype. The victim, a Porsche engineer, was driving the car on the A5 Autobahn when he lost control and slammed into a guard rail. The one-car accident happened at 2:45am just past the Weiterstadt exit on the motorway. Photos of the scene show the sports car wedged under the barrier, with the rail making contact near where the driver's head and torso would have been. A spokesman for Porsche said the engineer "was one of the most experienced test drivers." The company representative confirmed that the car was a camouflaged cabrio covered with foil to mask parts of the vehicle's appearance. He also noted that, although it did not rollover, the convertible does not have the same resilience as a coupe. Police and fire department personnel responded to the scene from nearby Darmstadt. The public prosecutor there has taken charge of the ongoing investigation. The location of the accident was midway between Frankfurt and Heidelberg, in the German province of Hessen. It is not yet known what caused the accident. Witnesses say the driver, who has worked for the German company for 25 years, was driving a prototype of a new Porsche 991 model at a high rate of speed. That stretch of road does not have a speed limit. He was being followed by a second Porsche testdriver in a camouflaged four-door Porsche Panamera prototype. That driver successfully evaded the crash, and escaped unharmed. Although the accident did take place at an unusual hour, both drivers were working on a 10pm to 6am shift. An initial damage estimate is said to be several thousands of Euro.

Just Terrible...

My condolences to family, friends and coleagues. A sad day indeed. Conjecture on my part, but looking at the damage to the right front corner, and what looks to be a deflated tyre as well as some damage to the rear, I'll bet the car had a fairly hefty encounter with the barriers a few hundred meters before becoming lodged there. Perhaps even with the rign side barriers. He was extremely unlucky to go under the rail like that. I saw a Corvette test mule that came to grief on the autobahn at near 200mph. Every corner was smashed, the radiator was wrapped around the engine, both front corners completely torn off. Not one pane of glass was cracked. The guardrails did their thing in that case, and the driver walked away..

That's horrible. My thoughts and condolences go out to the driver and his family. I don't think being in a coupe would have made much of a difference. IMHO - The barrier design looks pretty stupid, the space below it allowed for the car to get wedged under and insure the driver got killed. A steel reinforced Jersey barrier would have done a much better job and most likely the driver would still be alive.

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yeah... cant understand the design.... I guess thats why we have bumper height requirements that maybe would help as well...

but the car is right hand drive, the drivers seat didnt reach the rail....The rails looks to have been dislodged form its original possition though as it is not symetrical... one side is very differant from the other indicating that perhaps the rail is on its side and what we see as right and left were once top and bottom... Still very sad, I guess the only good thing to say is perhaps is was quick, and he went doing something he loved to do.

That is horrible! Quite frankly, I am surprised that the guard rail is elevated so far off the ground. If that had happened in the US, the family would have a case for a suit against the state in which it happened and against the guard railing manufacturer.

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Ed, I don't think that is the case. Look at the background of pics 1 & 2 where the railing goes back to the bridge supports. The railing in like under the bridge. There is no doubt that the railing has been lifted by the car, but it has not been severly twisted. Poor railing design.

That is very sad. Interesting to see if any more details ever emerge. I believe early morning on the Autobahn is the unofficial speed-test time in Germany.

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Yes, and that section of Autobahn is often used for testing, it's part of the original section of Autobahn. Actually this is around where Rosemeyer perished in his Auto Union back in the '30s..... I used to live just south of this area. This is really tragic.....

I can't explain that guardrail. Well for those of you that want to see a little more of what happened, it's ugly. There are 4 pics, click on "weiter" (edit: I guess those are the same pics as above.) http://www.fr-online.de/_em_cms/_mul...5055&em_page=1

WOW that's horrible... Agree with everyone here on the stupid guardrail design, it should have allowed the car to skid-off or slide off it not wedge down cars and cut driver's head. This terrible accident should make people aware of the poor safety design of these guard-rails. RIP...

Truly sad. The guard rail design is very strange. My guess is that they are designed to restrain larger trucks hence it's height (a very uneducated one at that) but one would think that it would be low enough to accommodate lower cars). Especially, considering the TUV front bumper pedestrian standards. Perhaps, the new lower bumper standard had a part to play in the way the car went under the guardrail?

maybe that is the intent of the gaurd rail... to grab and take hold a little, to keep the car from bouncing... and do more damage to others. But to wedge the car under is just wrong.

I see the rail now, not a design for durrent cars, more for older cars. I think there is a chance that is what made it worse, but like people say, when its your time... it just is. Notice sone very smart things about the design (1) there are tall pipes, (2) it is slightly elevated Hear me out. Go down a dark road in the rain with no street lights, No matter how bright your lights are, there is not much return light from the actual road surface. That and when an oncoming car comes you have to "dim" your lights makes it even worse. Now if the oncoming lights are shining off the road, YOU have abetter view of the road. Next, if the oncoming cars lights shine in your eyes, you have a much lower return on the light reflecting from "objects" from your headlights. So by blocking the upper light section from oncoming traffic light, YOU have the highest return of relected light from your headlights and by allowing the light to bounce off the ground fron under the rail you have the highest use of the oncoming cars light to see the road ahead of you. NOW look at the "jersey barrier" they are exacty the opposite. What you have (aside from great collission block and roll over protection) is that the light from oncoming cars goes stright to your eyes and blocks the view you have on the limited return you get off the road surface making the raod actually disappear. Dont believe me, next rain, go out at night and drive near one... with oncoming traffic there is almost NO way to see the actual road surface (and remember most drivers are not professionals or enthusist like Porsche owners, so they already have a lower skill set) So a Jersey takes away your view of the raod BUT since they are short you get the benefit of all the oncoming cars light in your eyes. It truely is bad and there is a fix... those tall green plascit pipes. Thetre is another benefit to those too. When we have activity on the "other side" of the road, why does the traffic in the opposite dirrection slow down? because they want to look.... The pipes also blosck the view and thus improve flow in the oppostie dirrection when there is something interesting to look at on the freeway. OK I will sep off my soap box Thoughts?

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Huh...they drive on the same side of the road as in the US...why do you say this is RHD? RIP.

IDK, I zoomed in on the first picter Redridge posted and it sure looks like a steering wheel on the right side...?

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Uh...no did you read the description "with the rail making contact near where the driver's head and torso would have been"...your zoom must not work.

My bad, sorry

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From which picture do you see it being a RHD car? It's not obvious in any of them, but considering that Germany is setup the same as the US (driving on the right side of the road, from the left side of the car) I'd be surprised if their prototype was a RHD car. The rail is as it should be, except lifted and bent. That rail design is pretty common from what I can recall seeing when I was in Germany anyways. I think the 911 was just low enough and going fast enough to go under the rail and lift it up, the car acting like a wedge. Very sad news though, my condolences to his family and friends.

by just looking at the windshield wiper.... it is a LHD pcar.

At least Porsche is making marked improvements in safety, though. I mean, at least this one crashed nose-first instead of tail-first! BTW, am I the only one who thinks high-speed tests with a camouflaged car is an inherently very bad idea?

High speed tests have to be done, although I'm not a fan of them on Germany's public road system... (or any public road system, legal or not)

Destroying the carefully crafted aerodynamic properties with duct tape, plastic and foil is simply an all-around recipe for disaster regardless of where the testing is done. Public safety-wise, I don't see much difference between a professional driver testing a new car and the average German letting loose with his production car.

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Except for the fact that one's a pre-production car with flaws that the production car may not have, flaws which could create fatal accidents. Most German autobahns have speed limits similar to US speed limits anyways. I agree to a point with the ghetto camo though.