Talk about things going from bad to worse.
Dash cams have blessed the internet with a never ending stream of awesome videos.
From road rage, to Russian traffic jams, to crazy nature encounters, these little cameras have gone above and beyond in allowing the wonderful world of the internet to be as weird as it is.
One of those nature encounters happened a few years back in Yellowstone National Park, where we witness the unfortunate end of one of the park’s most majestic creatures, a bull elk.
Bull elk typically weigh in the range of 700 to 1100 pounds and can reach speeds of 45 miles per hour when sprinting, which means they’re no small feat to catch if you don’t get an early jump on them.
For the most part, wolves hunt in packs, especially when trying to take down large creatures like elk, but for some reason, this lone wolf decided to make a run at a bull.
It seemed like the elk was doing a good job getting away for awhile until it came to one of those pesky roads that have popped up throughout the landscape, and that’s when the beginning of the end started.
The elk tore out into traffic and absolutely slammed into the side of a moving car with such force that it was immediately knocked unconscious (or worse) and fell to the ground in a heap. A few seconds later, the wolf appeared and the feast was on.
Given we just had the NFL Draft and football is top of mind, let’s do a quick calculation on just how hard of an impact happened between the car and elk, shall we?
As a lifelong Pittsburgh Steelers fan, James Harrison is far and away my favorite player. The guy was by all accounts an absolute beast known for knocking opposing players into another dimension.
Here’s a quick reminder of how hard he can hit…
So just how hard was this elk collision compared to the hardest James Harrison could possibly hit?
Given the terrain, it’s safe to assume the elk wasn’t at its peak speed, but was still absolutely moving, so let’s say it was running at 30 miles per hour. Let’s also assume he weighed around 900 pounds. That would mean at the point of impact there was 27,000 pounds of force, not taking into account anything added by the moving car itself.
James Harrison ran a 4.85 40 yard dash, which comes out to roughly 16.87 miles per hour. His playing weight was around 245 pounds, which would make his highest possible impact 4,133.15 pounds.
So the elk hit the car approximately 6.5 times harder than the hardest possible James Harrison hit…
No wonder why it didn’t get up…
