Well, I guess driving a Volvo is no guarantee of survival as we've discussed before. Austin, TX highways are akin to the wild west. This accident was on the news. No further details were available. From the tv report it looked like an S80. The only recognizable part of the car was a wheel. The other car was a Ford Explorer.

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Car wreck and fire claims one life
12/23/2002

KVUE News


Austin police say the weather was not a factor in a deadly car accident that happened in South Austin Monday afternoon.

The two-car wreck happened on Southwest Parkway near William Cannon.

According to police, a Volvo was heading east when it crossed the median. It slammed into an oncoming car, rolled, hit a guardrail, then burst into flames.

Firefighters managed to put out the fire, but they were unable to save the man inside.

Two people were rescued from the other car.

So far no names have been released.

This is the 70th fatality in Austin this year.

Last year, the city recorded 76 fatalities.

This test done by the Swedish insurer Folksam in 1994 with a Volvo 745 comes up from time to time. It's not just SUVs.....

http://www.vanagon.com/info/safety/volvo-crash/

As davidm pointed out, in addition to driving a safe car, it's best to drive on the correct side of the highway, too.

-bill d cat

Well let's run the Volvo into a Mini Cooper and see what happens.. I don't think running a larger, higher-riding vehicle head-on into a 745 and causing a lot of damage is anything to be surprised at, or make you think twice about Volvo's safety..

Proves something that has been said here all along: a Volvo loses its safety advantage when confronted with an SUV. Especially at an impact rate of 130mph (assuming each was doing 65). I also notice the Volvo crossed the median: either a definite no-no, or something else was very wrong.
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David \\ (98 S70 T5SE Black, misc mods (mostly lighting), red calipers) (92 940GLE)

I have no lack of confidence in Volvo's safety.
Surviving a car crash is one thing... surviving a car dire is something else.
Would the drive have survived the accident if the car hadn't caught fire? I don't think we will ever know. Some times it is your time to go and it doesn't matter if you are in your bed or in a car... the hand of fate doesn't care if you are in a Volvo!!
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1998 S70 T5Se Silver, 83,000 km

The fire wasn't the problem. He could have survived it...if he had just stayed on his own side of the highway.

Either through failure in judgment (driving drunk? tired?) or a catastrophic health issue (heart attack?), the driver put his car in a position where the best available safety measures would have been thoroughly overwhelmed. If he had been in an SUV, it's likely people in the other car would have been killed, too.
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David \\ (98 S70 T5SE Black, misc mods (mostly lighting), red calipers) (92 940GLE)