Given the importance of planned weaknesses in cars, like crumple zones, how do armored/state cars that don’t have these features remain safe in the event of a crash?

Question

I’m thinking specifically about how breakable safety glass is important so that you can escape through a broken window if your car falls into a body of water, or how crumple zones are designed so that it’s the car that gets smooshed, rather than your brain and organs. But official state cars, like Cadillac One/”The Beast,” have bodies that are way stronger/heavier than a normal car and bulletproof glass windows, so how do they protect the occupants if there’s some kind of freak accident?

(I realize that the best plan is to avoid such a situation in the first place, but given that Cadillac One is hermetically sealed to protect against gas attacks and has electrified handles to keep people from getting in, I can’t imagine that no one has ever considered “what happens if the car accidentally ends up in a lake?”)

In: Engineering

Answer 1

They protect the occupants specifically by being built like a tank.

The Presidential Limo simply will not end up in a lake. Every inch of every route it takes is scoured by Secret Service and police. 100 percent of the time that the President is in it, it is part of a gigantic motorcade with full police escort. There simply isn’t a scenario whereby that is within the realm of possibility.

Heavily armored cars are pretty much the same. They’re built like a tank. Any accident and it’ll be mostly unscathed while the other car will just be squished. Heavily armored = lots of mass which = lots of force as compared to a regular car.