Back in 2003, friend of mine had a head on crash with a lorry (not the large semi but a smaller one) in his 99' Merc S500 @ around ~80MPH on the motorway in pouring rain.
His driver was clearly driving too fast in the rain and they were going down slope. The car went out of control, smashed across the barrier, went onto the opposite lane and crashed into the lorry. The car then spinned 180 degrees due to the momentum and the back end smashed off the lorry's front axle and both wheels.
He was sitting in the front passenger seat, belted in, although the crash triggered all the front air-bags and curtains but the brute force still broke 11 of his ribs and caused a severe pneumohemothorax, but he was lucky enough to survive mainly because there happened to be a very well equipped hospital not far away and the rescue arrived in under just 8 minutes. But the peoples in the back weren't so lucky, the two friends sitting on both sides of the rear seats got thrown out of the car and killed
But his wife and his young son both sitting in the middle of the back seat miraculously survived and suffered only minor injuries. I was so shocked by the immense power and courage a mother could dispay in a dire event to protect her children . She said she crossed her arms and grabbed onto both of the handles on the back of the front seats so she could protect her son under her body.
Btw, those god-o-mighty german handles, they're tough
I once checked the back handles of another similar S-class, although wrapped in leather, the center was made of some tough synthetic material and the flexible material on both ends goes very deep into the backs and almost impossible to pull off..
