Re: Tail Light Bulb Question

["Octavian I Popa" <oipopa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Gary writes:
"In talking to the Mercedes rep about the incident, he is reporting to
her that there is a way, within either the taillamp or the bulb, to
determine if the brakes were actually applied at the time of impact.
The way it was described to me is that it seemed as though this was a
designed-in feature. Based upon this evidence, it seems that MB will
say that this is driver error.

Possible of course, but given that there appear to be more than 40
similar cases documented with this and similar models (260E, 280E,
300E), my tendancy is to believe that something other than the driver
may have been amiss in the car at the time of this incident.

I have never heard of anything like this (the lights being designed in
the manner described) at all before. Can the collective wisdom of the
digests add anything to this?"

This actually make sense to me.  Assuming that the driver was pressing the
brake pedal at the moment of the crash, the brake lights were lit, right?
As the back of the car crashed into the wall, the brake lights shatter, but
the filament inside, or whatever is used, was still glowing white hot, at
least for a little while.  Careful examination of the filament remnants
would show a characteristic chemical reaction or melting that is only
possible if the filament material was very hot at the moment it contacted
the outside air.

On the other hand if the brake pedal was not pressed, the bulb filament
would have remained cold at the moment of the crash, and it's condition
would most likely be very different from the first scenario.  Interesting
theory, if nothing else.

Octavian Popa - NWARC - Issaquah, WA

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