《那些古怪又让人忧心的问题》第80期:飞越减速带(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样，确实有些倒霉的人类会因为减速带而受伤，但几乎所有这些受伤案例都只限于很特殊的一群人——那些人坐在公交车后排硬硬的椅子上，车子又开在年久失修的路上。
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.
当你在开车时，主要有两样东西保护你不受减速带伤害——轮胎和悬挂。无论你以多快的速度（除非减速带特别巨型，足以碰上车体）通过减速带，轮胎和悬挂这两个系统都能够吸收足够的颠簸，尽可能使你不受伤害。
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.
但对于那两个系统来说，吸收冲击并不一定是好事。就拿轮胎来说吧，它可能以爆胎的形式吸收冲击。如果减速带大到能碰到轮毂，就有可能对你的车的重要部位造成永久性损害。
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.
一般的减速带高度在8～10厘米之间，一个普通的轮胎的胎垫（轮毂与地面之间那部分）也就这么厚。这意味着如果汽车压过一个小的减速带，轮毂是不会碰到减速带的，只是轮胎会被压缩一下而已。
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.
一般的四门轿车的最高时速在120英里左右（约200千米），以这样的高速通过减速带几乎必定会造成车辆失控撞毁。但是由此产生的颠簸（也许应该是冲击）本身可能并不致命。
If you hit a larger speed bump-like a speedhump or speed table-your car might not fare so well.
如果你撞上了大型减速带——比如驼峰路面或平顶驼峰路面——你的爱车可能就要毁了。
How fast would you have to go to definitelydie?
多快才能确保致命？
Let's consider what would happen if a carwere going faster than its top speed.
让我们考虑下如果汽车比它的最快时速还快会发生什么。
The average modern car is limited to a topspeed of around 120 mph, and the fastest can go about 200.
现代的车一般最高时速限定在120英里左右（约200千米），一些跑车可以达到200英里（约320千米）。
