《那些古怪又讓人憂心的問題》第80期:飛越減速帶(2)
As those medical quotes attest, it's truethat people are occasionally injured by speed bumps. However, nearly all ofthose injuries happen to a very specific category of people: those sitting inhard seats in the backs of buses, riding on poorly maintained roads.
正如之前引用的那些案例所展示的那樣，確實有些倒黴的人類會因爲減速帶而受傷，但幾乎所有這些受傷案例都只限於很特殊的一羣人——那些人坐在公交車後排硬硬的椅子上，車子又開在年久失修的路上。
When you're driving a car, the two mainthings protecting you from bumps in the road are the tires and the matter how fast you hit a speed bump, unless the bump is large enough to hitthe frame of the car, enough of the jolt will be absorbed by these two systemsthat you probably won't be hurt.
當你在開車時，主要有兩樣東西保護你不受減速帶傷害——輪胎和懸掛。無論你以多快的速度（除非減速帶特別巨型，足以碰上車體）通過減速帶，輪胎和懸掛這兩個系統都能夠吸收足夠的顛簸，儘可能使你不受傷害。
Absorbing the shock won't necessarily begood for those systems. In the case of the tires, they may absorb it the bump is large enough to hit the wheel rims, it may permanentlydamage a lot of important parts of the car.
但對於那兩個系統來說，吸收衝擊並不一定是好事。就拿輪胎來說吧，它可能以爆胎的形式吸收衝擊。如果減速帶大到能碰到輪轂，就有可能對你的車的重要部位造成永久性損害。
The typical speed bump is between 3 and 4inches tall. That's also about how thick an average tire's cushion is (theseparation between the bottom of the rims and the ground). This means that if acar hits a small speed bump, the rim won't actually touch the bump; the tirewill just be compressed.
一般的減速帶高度在8～10釐米之間，一個普通的輪胎的胎墊（輪轂與地面之間那部分）也就這麼厚。這意味着如果汽車壓過一個小的減速帶，輪轂是不會碰到減速帶的，只是輪胎會被壓縮一下而已。
The typical sedan has a top speed of around120 miles per hour. Hitting a speed bump at that speed would, in one way oranother, probably result in losing control of the car and crashing.4However,the jolt itself probably wouldn't be fatal.
一般的四門轎車的最高時速在120英里左右（約200千米），以這樣的高速通過減速帶幾乎必定會造成車輛失控撞毀。但是由此產生的顛簸（也許應該是衝擊）本身可能並不致命。
If you hit a larger speed bump-like a speedhump or speed table-your car might not fare so well.
如果你撞上了大型減速帶——比如駝峯路面或平頂駝峯路面——你的愛車可能就要毀了。
How fast would you have to go to definitelydie?
多快才能確保致命？
Let's consider what would happen if a carwere going faster than its top speed.
讓我們考慮下如果汽車比它的最快時速還快會發生什麼。
The average modern car is limited to a topspeed of around 120 mph, and the fastest can go about 200.
現代的車一般最高時速限定在120英里左右（約200千米），一些跑車可以達到200英里（約320千米）。
