Comment by red369

I suppose if you absorbed all of the energy from the car, rather than just being pushed back by it, then the damage might be more comparable. For example, I think if someone was standing against a wall and a car rolled into them at 10mpg it might be as terrible as being hit by a 200lb cyclist at 40 mph. Of course, I agree that 10 mph seems a lot less dangerous - it gives many more options to move out of the way, or to spread the impact over time (by walking backwards and pushing against the car). Just throwing out some thoughts on why the same energy from each seems to have such a different destructive force.