what happens whe you drive over an open manhole (video)

epic destruction

reply to post by spaceg0at


Holy sh*t.......Didn't see that coming, I figured the tire would just glide over due to the speed.....hahaha

That just ruined someones day...

WOW! I smell a lawsuit, I feel sorry for whoever was in that car. It is no fun flipping over when you dont expect it.

Well, this is a good reason I try and dodge any manholes I see on the roads. they are either sunk way into the road, or raised way up. And honestly, if one was open, you would never know it until it was too late.

Crazy that it flipped that SUV like it was nothing though. I ride a motorcycle, and I'd hate to see what happens when you hit one with that.

reply to post by Diggz


I was gonna say, city lawyers are going to be busy.

Holy holey!!
What the heck??

Fume explosion? That was weird. Any explanation?? I was expecting just to see a wheel fall into a hole. Wow.

Originally posted by wildtimes
Holy holey!!
What the heck??

Fume explosion? That was weird. Any explanation?? I was expecting just to see a wheel fall into a hole. Wow.

That is what happened, the wheel hit the hole, bounced out, and the forward momentum of the top heavy vehicle essentially catapulted the car. kind of like a spring

Like so many i never saw that one comming damn that must change your day and not in the happy haha guess what happend to me way.

and also why does the car filming it (allrdy curious that he is filming) stoppping above the manhole just shot the car infront of him right in the air. crazy #

Wow.

Good thing they weren't going faster.

Hard to spot a giant gaping open hole in the road when you're texting.

Amazing that stealing a manhole cover is a misdemeanor and not a felony, in most locations. This vid somewhat solidifies the need for it to be a felony IMO.

Awesome vid thanks for posting.

Good find OP. There was a place, I believe it was NJ, where people stole 40 manhole covers in one day. This was only several days ago. I remember remarking to myself "what would happen if you hit one of these holes"? NOW I KNOW! These metal stealing thieves have absoluting no idea of the consequences and probably really don't care. I hope they get caught.

Here is the same accident, but with an additional angle and some aftermath footage.
Also, if you watch closely, the manhole cover IS on prior to the SUV driving over it.

My guess is that perhaps it was cracked or broken and the weight of the SUV pushed it through the collar resulting in the wreck.
Speaking for myself, I think I will try to avoid driving over manholes from now on.



EDIT to ad...
Actually, upon further review of the video. It seems it wasn't the front wheel that went into the manhole, but instead seems to be something underneath perhaps catching on the cover.
It looks like the wheels straddle the hole.

Imagine your exhaust pipe being undone near the front of the vehicle and firmly bolted near the back. It would act similar to a pole vault. lmao.
Exhaust pipe is too weak to do this but perhaps something more solid underneath did.

Like someone else said, I figured you would "float" over it, you would get a hell of a jarring but DAMN! Those things should be locked on so as no hooligans can remove them. Cr@ptasic!

No way.

I've seen hundreds of cars that have hit open manholes, or potholes, or driven through trenches. I worked in the automotive repair industry for 2 decades, I've even testified as an expert witness in liability claims when cars were damaged by something like this.

NO WAY does the back end of the car flip up like that. The physics don't work. The pothole/manhole cover will mangle the rim/wheel, it might destroy some of the strut arm, stabilizer arm, tie rod end and steering mechanisms. It will rip out some things from the bottom side, but the vehicle will either bounce out of the hole, or it will rotate around the hole with the back end spinning out to the right and then pull itself out of the hole.

I'm at work and can't do a mockup, but if any engineer or physicist is online, they can show you the vectors for all the different momentums and torque, and there is just no way the back end of the van pops up in the air like that.

ETA:
You also will NOT "float" over the hole. That only works in the movies and cartoons. The wheel definitely drops immediately into the hole, and there is a jarring stop, a bounce, and a ton of damage, there is no "float" and there is no "flip."


ETA2:
Discussing if it is a fake

Also, watch the slow motion from 10 seconds to 13 seconds. There is actually no left to right torque on the vehicle at all. In fact, the vehicle torques opposite to the direction it would if the left front wheel were stopped suddenly. The left rear of the vehicle goes straight up and a little left indicating the force used to fake it was applied at the left rear, not the left front.

Plus, there are several camera angles of the fake online. What are the chances of an "accident" being caught on a dash cam, and several other cams at the exact spot of an accidental missing manhole.

Obvious setup equals obvious fake.


ETA3:
On the second version of the video, stop and go the video from 20 seconds to 23 seconds. The manhole cover is in place, the left front tire misses the cover completely, the van goes past it, and when the left rear is over the cover, the left rear suddenly shoots directly upwards. Something was placed inside the manhole and propelled the rear of the vehicle upwards. This did not happen from hitting an open manhole.

Looked at this closely, big screen with 480p, it is quite interesting.

There is no cover on the manhole, but there is a screen mesh with circular holes. It is taking up more space than the manhole cover itself, and appears to be rectangular not circular. It doesn't fully cover the manhole, but the driver goes over it. HOWEVER, this makeshift mesh cover gets caught up in the underside of the SUV, and lifts with it as it flips over. The driver DOES hit this mesh with his LF and LR wheel, so this mesh which must actually be some seriously thick metal appears to be the culprit.

So that's why I instictivly avoid those things....