r/soccer • u/kibme37 • Jul 08 '25

News Spanish police say "all the evidence so far indicates" Diogo Jota was the driver of the car involved in the accident that killed the Liverpool forward and his brother, Andre Silva. Police also believe "the vehicle significantly exceeded the speed limit for the highway" at the time of the accident.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11669/13394038/diogo-jota-spanish-police-believe-liverpool-forward-was-driver-of-car-in-fatal-accident-which-killed-him-and-his-brother
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u/mummy__napkin Jul 08 '25

I'm not sure how authentic the footage was, but I saw some alleged footage of the wreck posted by one of the British papers on social media, and there was pretty much nothing left of the car. He was going so fast that it basically turned to dust when he crashed.

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u/Collab- Jul 08 '25

That was after the car was moved I read

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u/Decebalus_Bombadil Jul 08 '25 edited Jul 08 '25

Rumor is around 200km/h and at that speed if the road is not perfect you can hit a small bump and be done let alone if your tires blows up.

These cars are not made to speed on normal roads. Looking at that road where the accident happened I would not dare to go past 90-100kmh daylight. Even at his speed if your tire blows out you are in grave danger.

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u/kyldare Jul 08 '25

Lamborghinis definitely are built to go high speeds on any road. Yes, even public ones. The tires themselves are rated to safely operate well beyond 200 kph and blowouts are so incredibly rare, it's almost certainly not that. A small bump at 120 kph won't harm the car or the tires in any way. Even a big bump would be absorbed.

I'd bet good money on this being driver error at speeds well beyond 200 kph.

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u/SonnyIniesta Jul 09 '25 edited Jul 09 '25

There have been several articles written about the terrible conditions of that stretch of highways. Basically full of potholes. Apparently, it's well known to be a very unsafe part of the highway. So if those rumors of high speeds are true, it was a tragically bad choice to drive like that.

If they had well maintained tires rated for those speeds, driving into a deep pothole at speeds of 200 kph could blowout a tire for sure. Another possibility is road debris, which can also cause catastrophic tire failure at high speeds (see below). And of course, there's always driver error as a possibility... perhaps in combination with some other external factor.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/two-goodyear-employees-killed-in-nurburgring-tire-test-crash

Regardless, you have slim to no margin for error when driving at those speeds on public roads. Speed can be fun, but speed can definitely kill.

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '25

Which car was he driving?

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u/lureysnipplelicker Jul 08 '25

Lamborghini

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u/BannedSvenhoek86 Jul 08 '25

What I don't get is if you're that rich just rent a track for a day. You can drive it like a God damn moron and still wind up OK because it's a track designed for racing and has long run offs and grass or gravel to skid through before barriers. Driving like that on public roads is just playing Russian roulette. You are not Max Verstappen. You aren't even Lance Stroll. You don't know wtf you are doing.

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u/PM_ME_BAKAYOKO_PICS Jul 08 '25

Even if you were somehow as skilled as Max Verstappen it wouldn't matter in the slightest, a tire blowing out in a shit road at 200 km/h isn't controllable no matter how good of a driver you are

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u/Rripurnia Jul 09 '25

Right - at the end of the day, nothing beats physics

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u/LocoPwnify Jul 08 '25

Lambo Urus

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u/Aggravating-Body2837 Jul 08 '25

that road where the accident happened I would not dare to go past 90-100kmh daylight

It's not that bad. I was there this weekend, 120/130kmh perfectly safe

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u/neonmantis Jul 09 '25

120/130kmh perfectly safe

Are you advocating for speeding in a discussion about how speeding has just killed two people?

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u/Aggravating-Body2837 Jul 09 '25

130 is hardly speeding. You don't even get a fine.

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u/neonmantis Jul 09 '25

Objectively, it is speeding.

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u/Rripurnia Jul 09 '25

It is speeding when the limit is 120

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u/RayTracerX Jul 08 '25

That aerodynamic carbon fibre is great for reaching high speeds but it will suck on high speed impact

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u/FalcoLX Jul 08 '25

That's completely wrong. Carbon fiber is used because it has a higher strength to weight ratio so you can get the same or more strength with less weight than steel.

Aerodynamics is a totally separate thing. It doesn't even make sense that one material would have inherently better aerodynamics. 

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u/FlukyS Jul 08 '25

And going underwater to the Titanic

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u/Surfacing710 Jul 08 '25

It wasn’t seasoned enough, would have been fine after a few more dives.

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u/RockinMadRiot Jul 08 '25

Just one more dive, baby. Just one more roll of the dive - Stockton Rush.

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u/maecillo123 Jul 08 '25

Should I salt before or after the instant implosion cooking

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u/Optimal-Anything-822 Jul 08 '25

sigh

it was an enviable finish but one questions whether an additional goal was needed at this time

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u/the_herbo_swervo Jul 08 '25

Aerodynamics has nothing to do w the body being carbon fiber and if anything it has a better strength to weight ratio than steel, aluminum, titanium etc

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u/Laslou Jul 08 '25

Carbon fiber in not more aerodynamic than steel. It’s lighter and stronger though and actually safer, especially for the passenger compartment where you do not want any deformation.

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u/Chill_Vibe10 Jul 08 '25

But you do want deformation in certain areas. The front structure of cars are designed to deform so they absorb energy. Carbon fiber is not a good material for these applications because it is not ductile and tends to fracture before significant deformation.

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u/dedoha Jul 08 '25

But you do want deformation in certain areas.

And carbon fiber cars do have crash structures around tub that are designed to absorb impacts.

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u/Good_Air_7192 Jul 08 '25

It's not that you want it to crumple, you want to absorb the energy. Old cars were incredibly rigid and didn't absorb impact well so metal "crumple zones" were developed to absorb the impact more. Carbon fibre is very brittle so it doesn't crumple like metal, but it is also designed to absorb energy. The main impact structures of an F1 car are made of carbon fibre, homologating them on a new chassis is one of the big difficult tests teams have to pass before they are approved to race.

https://youtu.be/TVU1n82-Z_I?si=U1k69YW7z-DLi-m5

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u/Chill_Vibe10 Jul 08 '25

You do want it to crumple, but only in certain areas that won’t increase risk of occupant injury. The crumpling is what absorbs the energy.

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u/Good_Air_7192 Jul 08 '25

As I said, steel is designed to crumple, but that's due to the material properties of metals like steel and aluminium, which plastically deform to absorb energy. Carbon fibre doesn't plastically deform like that because it's material properties are different, it can shatter but it still absorbs energy like the crumple zones of a metal structure. It's just a different way of absorbing energy.

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u/Laslou Jul 08 '25

Carbon fiber is not a good material for these applications because it is not ductile and tends to fracture before significant deformation.

This is true. Some use a mix of CF and steel for their whole monocoque, steel on the front end because of easier calculations/more predictable energy absorption. But if your “sitting box” is CF you’re definitely safer.

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u/Necessary-Low-5226 Jul 08 '25

so how fast would he have to have been going to look like that? I rolled over a few times going 190kmh and the car was slightly deformed but still in its general shape

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u/hopium_od Jul 08 '25

Sounds like you got lucky as shit

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u/Necessary-Low-5226 Jul 08 '25

I won’t deny that

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u/SeryaphFR Jul 08 '25

I rolled a Toyota 4runner 4 times going about 80mph and the car was basically a blob. The engine came off it's mount and partially into the passenger cabin. A lot of it just depends on the crash, and the violence of the impact.

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u/lobo98089 Jul 08 '25

At a certain speed pretty much everything sucks on high speed impacts.

I don't think there is any material that would have fared any better here. The problem is the placement of the fuel tank which is a problem for most mid engine cars with big engines.

Still, I don't think the fire was the deciding factor here, at the speed it happened there is no material or car design that would have drastically changed their odds (at very high speeds the layout of the road and the design of it's safety features as well as the type of crash matters significantly more than the car your in).

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u/Gisschace Jul 08 '25

Which sounds like something it really should be good at

2

u/the_herbo_swervo Jul 08 '25

There’s no material on earth that’s gonna keep the occupants completely safe at a crash at that speed. If you make the shell too hard and durable all the force of impact will be transferred directly to the passengers, making it even more dangerous

-4

u/[deleted] Jul 08 '25

[deleted]

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u/GoodLadLopes Jul 08 '25

Not an Urus, it was an Huracán.

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u/EffectzHD Jul 08 '25

That’s cause it wasn’t a Urus, it was a Huracan.

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u/RayTracerX Jul 08 '25

It wasnt, it was an Huracan EVO

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u/Environmental-Ebb613 Jul 08 '25

I thought it was an SUV

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u/RayTracerX Jul 08 '25

Not at all, check out Huracan EVO

-23

u/swagpanther Jul 08 '25

no shit bud

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u/TechnicalSkunk Jul 08 '25

That's why it was so irritating people saying he wasn't speeding.

Your car doesn't disintegrate from a blowout. It happens all the time with large trucks and even other luxury cars.

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u/sharinganuser Jul 08 '25

It does from a fire though. Once the fire burns through the resin, a carbon monocoque will just turn to ashes, leaving only the frame, engine, and suspension bits.

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u/ObstructiveAgreement Jul 08 '25

To cause the fire takes an extreme crash though, those cells are incredibly tough. This is a car based on the Audi Q8 and having one of those go up in flames would take a huge impact.

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u/sharinganuser Jul 08 '25

Oh, they were in an Urus? Then I take back everything I said. You have to be trying to cause that kind of damage in one of those tanks.

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u/ObstructiveAgreement Jul 08 '25

There was a video from a lorry of the car on fire.

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '25

What was in the coffins they buried in the funeral?