Gorski's answer finetunes the analysis but his analogy to ejected cooupants during rollover crashes is eroneous. The unrestrained occupants in rolling vehicles are traveling at the same speed as the vehicle at the instant the vehicle is beginning to dig in (which produces a couple about the c.g. resulting in the roll). The deceleration of the "digging in" slows the car but not the occupants (just as in any other crash) and the occupants continue to move in the same direction they and the car were going. Any open port along that path (whether created by them, breaking a window or by the roll crash) allows the occupants egress from the car. The former occupants are traveling faster than the car but their coefficient of friction with the environment and their beanbag type kinematics results in a faster speed reduction than the lumbering inertial mass of the vehicle behind them. Hence the vehicle now overtakes and contributes further to their injuries.
Wilt
Wilt Nelson WIL7MO@aol.com
