Would Driving Through A Glass Pane Actually Hurt Anyone? | MythBusters

Hollywood has a long and storied history of bending the rules of physics for the sake of entertainment. From impossible stunts to improbable escapes, movies often present scenarios that leave audiences wondering, "Could that actually happen?" The MythBusters, with their signature blend of scientific inquiry and explosive experimentation, take on two such cinematic car crash myths in this episode.

The Slapstick Glass Smash

The first myth originates from classic slapstick comedy: two workmen are carrying a huge pane of glass across a street when a vehicle, seemingly oblivious, drives right through it. In the movies, the glass shatters dramatically, but the workmen emerge completely unharmed, not a scratch or a drop of blood. The MythBusters aim to determine if this improbable escape from a shower of broken glass is actually possible.

To test this, Adam and Jamie first need to create realistic stand-ins for the workmen. Adam constructs human analogs using foam wrapped in plastic, designed to bleed a vibrant red liquid when slashed. These "bleeders" will be placed on either side of the glass, mimicking the position of the workmen. If the glass slices through the plastic skin and causes the red liquid to spill, it indicates an injury that a human would have sustained.

The next crucial component is the glass itself. The MythBusters explain that there are three main types of glass encountered in everyday life, each with different breaking properties: tempered glass (like car side windows), laminated glass (like car windshields), and regular plate glass (like large storefront windows). Tempered glass shatters into a million tiny, relatively harmless pieces. Laminated glass, with its inner gum layer, tends to crack but stay together in larger chunks. Plate glass breaks into large, sharp, and potentially very dangerous shards. For their initial test, they choose plate glass, believing its large, sharp fragments pose the greatest threat and are most likely to cause injury.

With the bleeders in place and a large pane of plate glass set up on a street, the MythBusters prepare their test vehicle – a yellow sedan. They take safety precautions, wearing helmets and reinforcing the car's windshield with thick polycarbonate to protect themselves from flying debris. The car approaches the plate glass at 30 miles per hour. The impact is dramatic, shattering the glass into thousands of sharp pieces. Upon inspection, one of the bleeders has sustained a significant laceration, with red liquid gushing out. The other bleeder, surprisingly, remains unscathed. This initial test suggests that while not every worker would be injured, the slapstick cliché of complete unharmed escape is unlikely with plate glass.

They then proceed to test laminated glass. This time, the glass cracks but largely stays together, creating a car-shaped hole as the vehicle passes through. Crucially, neither bleeder shows any signs of injury. This result aligns with the safety design of laminated glass, intended to prevent shattering into dangerous shards. Finally, they test tempered glass. As predicted, it shatters into a multitude of tiny pieces. However, contrary to Adam's initial prediction that these small pieces would be harmless, both bleeders suffer multiple puncture wounds. The tiny, high-velocity fragments act like a thousand tiny knives, causing significant damage. This reveals that even seemingly "safe" glass can be dangerous under impact.

In conclusion, the myth of the unharmed glass-carrying workmen is busted. While laminated glass might allow for an unscathed escape, both plate glass and tempered glass pose significant risks of injury, with tempered glass surprisingly causing more widespread damage due to the sheer number of small, sharp fragments propelled at high speed.