So you are up to almost midnight (late night at work or at the bar) and decide to take a shortcut home on the highway, only to come face-to-face with a semi-truck loaded with 42,000 pounds of carrots. Keeping in mind that 42,000 pounds is roughly 19,000kg and 70mph is roughly 30m/s, so the carrot-car impact had a minimum of 8.5 mega joules of energy (roughly 2kg of TNT). A tragedy in any terms, but quite dramatic – hope the guy is ok.
Wrongway driver injured in Int. 196 crash
SAUGATUCK TOWNSHIP — A driver who entered northbound Int. 196 the wrong way at the M-89 on-ramp suffered serious head injuries when he struck a semi hauling 42,000 pounds of carrots, police said.
Allegan County sheriff's deputies said the car's driver, who headed south in the highway's north lanes for two miles before hitting the truck about 11:30 p.m. He was airlifted to a Kalamazoo hospital.
The road was closed for three hours during the crash investigation. The semi-truck driver was not hurt, police said.
http://blog.mlive.com/grpress/2007/08/wrongway_driver_injured_in_int.html