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Tall Van Has a Bit of a Rough Encounter with the Laws of Physics

Van capsizing 4 photos
Photo: Screenshot from YouTube
Van capsizingVan capsizingVan capsizing
Spending all our lives at the wheel of relatively flat passenger cars (most standard SUVs included), we will probably never be faced with a situation where the vehicle thinks about capsizing while driving on a plane surface.
The low center of mass makes it very unlikely that the car will ever want to lay on one of its sides without hitting something first that sends it up in the air. Of course, we're not completely safe from making fools of ourselves or trashing our cars since oversteer is always waiting to peek its nasty head, but things are a bit simpler there. And also less dangerous.

For this tall van, however, these rules don't apply. If the goods he's transporting have also been stacked the wrong way inside (light at the bottom, heavy at the top), then every turn of the steering wheel can make the vehicle skip from one side to another until it finally comes crashing down on either its left or its right.

Case at hand, it looks like the man takes his eyes off the road for just a moment, and when he points them back where they were supposed to be, he notices he's way too close to the right-hand side edge of the pavement. He jerks the steering wheel to the left, which initiates the balancing motion we were talking about earlier.

For a few seconds there, the van starts to tilt more and more with each movement that the driver makes in his desperate attempts to save the day. The driver of the car that's filming this makes the right decision by pulling back and watching helplessly as the man in the van tries to wrestle control of his vehicle back from the laws of physics.

It's a nailbiter. Things could go either way so we won't spoil it for you by revealing how it ends. Just watch it and try not to cringe.

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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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