Replies

I'm not disputing the sound. The only time I have felt the concussion is when I have been in one of the vehicles involved. While air is a great medium for propagating a compression wave, the intensity of the wave falls of by an inverse cube of the radius from the source. Either the source is very intense (explosion, thunder after a close lightening strike) or most of the shock waves we feel are transmitted through the ground or other solid objects, not the air.

What gets me is that vehicles I have seen which collided with fixed objects, especially hard enough to stop the vehicle and permit the engine to continue to travel (shearing motor and/or transmission mounts, overcoming the confining influences of surrounding bodywork) have left the remainder of the vehicle in far worse shape. Even then, fuel tanks were very seldom compromised, and fires were rare. In vehicles touted for safety, (you can wreck it, but they would rather you survive to buy another one), this seems a very strange set of worst-case scenarios (apparent loss of throttle control, steering and/or braking, collision with odd dynamics, and explosion/fire--especially if the vehicle was a diesel, which I do not know for certain). Add in what this gentleman was occupied with, and the particular timing in regards to his professional activities, and there is ample reason to suspect foul play.