Yeah - wrecks at > 15mph actual impact speed get UGLY, Fast. (Ouch bad pun, not intended).

Most people don't seem to realize, but that "screech" before the "Bang" tends to slow down the cars to a survivable level

Back when I was a kid, my parents lived about 50 yds from a BAD corner. In Queens, where I live (well, at least in that section of Queens), stop signs were on the North/South roads (Streets) and you had clear sailing on the east/west streets (Aves). It wasn't TOO bad on MOST Aves, because they were short and Narrow, so speeds didn't build up

Well, there were exceptions to this rule - the Ave that was 50 yds from my parents house was/is a semi Major Ave - it was the ONLY one that went through to the highway on the east, and to the industrial/highway on the west (except for the Blvd about 1/4 mile up which MOST traffic takes)

So, what we had was a stretch of fairly wide Ave with NO stop signs and NO traffic lights for about 3 miles - except for ONE - yep, on my parents corner! Due to the fact that the fire trucks and the like in our area used my parents street, the stop sign was on the Ave!

The HUGE problem was, the folks on the Ave tended to get up to about 40mph, and not even slow for the stop sign, not knowing it was there. It wasn't TOO bad when a car on the street it the side of someone coming up the Ave, but man, it got bad going the other way

We could tell how bad the accident was by sound. If you heard "screach, boom" it wasn't TOO bad - if you heard "screeeeeech, bang", you knew someone realized there was a stop sign ALMOST in time. The ones that went "BOOOM" with out the "screach" got a call to 911 before we even walked out of the house

We protested for traffic study after trafiic study - no joy. We AVERAGED 3-4 accidents/week on the corner, but still no traffic light. The week we had 3 fatal accidents in 2 days convinced the city to put in a light (when I was about 13). It was bad enough that the Tow truck companies used to park on our block!

Back onto topic - living on that corner is what made me realize that SERIOUS first aid kits were necessary. I don't doubt that Dad, the neighbors and myself saved 1 or 2 lives, and prevented some serious hospital time for others. (Mostly by preventing bleed out - something about penetrating trauma from car parts - I still shudder at some of it)