A controlled crash between two vehicles traveling about 40 mph became quickly uncontrolled when a cable snapped and struck Russell Strickland, the Cincinnati man who was supposed to be controlling the brakes, with a remote radio device.
The simulated accident was a scheduled event at an Atlantic City convention for the New Jersey Association of Accident Reconstructionists this week.
The experts attached a Ford minivan and a Hyundai car to a cable pulley system tied to a pickup truck; the truck was supposed to pull the vehicles together to simulate a "T-bone" crash.
"It's all just basic trigonometry and physics," a state police official told a New Jersey publication.
The math went out the window when the cable came loose and the moving pickup whipped it around -- striking Strickland in the gut.
Police said Strickland was bruised but did not break any bones.
