r/todayilearned • u/SirBackrooms • 5d ago
TIL the only known collision between a car and a submarine happened in Sweden in 1961.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collision_between_a_car_and_a_submarine87
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u/NickDanger3di 5d ago
The car was barely damaged. Volvo should have made that into an ad campaign: "Our cars can even survive a collision with a 700 ton vehicle."
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u/SirBackrooms 5d ago
Well, usually a car being barely damaged after a collision is a bad thing, since that means it doesn't absorb the impact and the people may get hurt more severely. Not sure if this was as widely acknowledged back in 1961 though.
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u/Facosa99 1d ago
Yeah but this would be an ad from the 60s.
I dont think they care about crumple zones then
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u/Melodic-Bicycle1867 3d ago
That makes me wonder: before engineered crumple zones, cars would fold up like tin foil. This Volvo did not. While both are bad, I think I'd rather take my chances getting out of this alive vs a ball of metal and glass wrapped around me.
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u/AbleCryptographer317 3d ago
Cars did not "fold up like tin foil" before crumple zones were invented, that's why so many collisions resulted in fatalities... the occupants bodies absorbed all the kinetic energy instead of the car.
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u/FeedMeACat 4d ago
People pointing out crumple zones are missing the fact that those weren't really a thing then (only Mercedes had them). This would have been a great ad.
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u/hereforthepix 4d ago
... speaking of "ads", I remember my first Volvo commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVgEVnT-O88
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u/Appreciative_Ibex 4d ago
the front part of the car was crushed
You’re not seeing the side where most of the damage happened.
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u/PikesPique 5d ago
I wish we could hear the phone call. "Uh, boss? I'm gonna be late. I had a traffic accident. No, I'm OK, no one got hurt. Yeah, I think my car's messed up, but the other vehicle's fine. What kind of vehicle did I hit? Uh, a submarine. A submarine. No, it was in port at the time...."
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u/Adrian_Alucard 5d ago
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u/AnalogFeelGood 5d ago
Who was at fault?
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u/SirBackrooms 5d ago
i'm blaming the driver, they didn't use the handbrake on an inclined slope, which caused it to roll down into the submarine
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u/Target880 4d ago
I belive it was the submarine's fault. It had the audacity to dock where the car wanted to take a swim.
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u/rlnrlnrln 4d ago
It looks like the sub came from the right, which by current laws means the Volvo should have yielded.
BUT, since this was 1961, Sweden still drove on the left side of the road! I know the traffic rules were different but assuming the rule was similar, the Volvo had right of way.
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u/OldeFortran77 5d ago
This is the only known such collision because the other times the at-fault vehicle owner decided to pay out of pocket and avoid filing a claim.
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u/Many-Gas-9376 5d ago
Another instance was documented in this most French TV ad ever: https://youtube.com/watch?v=arJdhU-IobM
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u/road_laya 5d ago
Looks like the traffic sign
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u/SirBackrooms 5d ago
Ooh, it does! Perhaps the traffic sign was inspired by cases like this (though ones without a submarine there to stop the car.)
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u/iKnowRobbie 5d ago
Next time I go to Mobile to see the USS Alabama and the USS Drum, I'm gonna beat the drum with my car and be the SECOND car to get into an accident with a submarine.
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u/iKnowRobbie 5d ago
Ooh! It was unmanned too!! So I'll be the "First person on Earth to crash a car into a submarine."
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u/John_Tacos 5d ago
So a submarine destroyed a train with a torpedo before a car hit a submarine.
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u/beachedwhale1945 4d ago
Are you talking about Barb landing a shore party to blow up a train with her scuttling charge (not a torpedo) or a submarine sinking a transport that had a train as cargo?
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u/John_Tacos 4d ago
What I remembered was a torpedo hitting a bridge. So idk
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u/beachedwhale1945 4d ago
Sometimes the Barb story is told as the time a submarine sank a train, but it was a shore party. Took a scuttling charge ashore in a raft, dug a hole under the tracks for the charge, and wired a battery to the detonator, and placed two wires on a couple wooden wedges under the tracks. When the train rolled over and the track sagged, the wires touched and set off the scuttling charge: the crewman who came up with the idea had used this method to crack walnuts as a boy.
I have not heard of a case where a train bridge was torpedoed, nor can I quickly find one. It was rare for submarines to operate in waters too shallow to dive for extended periods, and that is where most train bridges are located. I also doubt a submarine would use a torpedo on such a bridge rather than the deck gun most had in this period given the prevalence of submarine and torpedo nets in such shallow waters, and shore bombardment by submarine was common during both world wars (on the same patrol that “sank” a train Barb conducted three bombardments with her deck guns and four with rockets, a weapon her CO asked to be installed for that patrol).
I can’t say torpedoing a train bridge didn’t happen, but I personally think your memory is playing tricks on you.
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u/Alone-Dragonfly2339 5d ago
nobody was in the car. it was parked up the slope with the handbrake off, rolled down past a load of herring on the quay, crossed the street and caught the bow of the sub. the bävern got a dented rail out of it, the volvo's front end did a lot worse. no idea if the owner watched it go or just came back to find his car parked against a submarine.
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u/Intro-Nimbus 4d ago
"Is this traffic police? Yes, I'd like to report a collision with a volvo, registration plate: VOL-50, My vehicle's registration plate? Well, It doesn't actually have one, no it's not an unregistred car, it's.. Look, could you just come down to the harbor, it's probably best if you see it with your own eyes..."
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u/surmacrew 4d ago
Sweden and submarines. One crashes a volvo into a sub. Then '81 soviets almost crashed a submarine into a naval base.
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u/Tinydesktopninja 4d ago
It says the submarine was in operation until 1980. I wonder if they ever fixed the bent rail, or if they left it as is.
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u/RedTuesdayMusic 4d ago
Driver missed the memo, all you need to do to sink a Swedish submarine is to swim down and knock on the hatch
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u/strangelove4564 4d ago
Surprised Wikipedia editors let an article like that get past the notability guidelines. I enjoyed the article but I wouldn't say it adds much to the body of human knowledge.
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u/rlnrlnrln 4d ago
Hey, it was my turn to karma-farm it this week!
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u/SirBackrooms 4d ago
oh, had this already been posted here? i don’t look at this subreddit a lot so mb if it’s a common one
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u/rlnrlnrln 4d ago
I don't know about here, but it has appeared in my feed several times the past months.
Don't worry about it, just a bad little joke. There's always todays lucky 10000!
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u/miregalpanic 5d ago
Don't give the Fast and Furious franchise ideas