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How Safe is the Nissan GT-R? Ask a Russian Soccer Player

Russian footballer meets GT-R accelerator meets pole. That story played out in Russia with the car and pole meeting fatal ends while the football player walked away clean.
Demolished GT-R

Russian soccer player Andrey Yeschenko is a top shelf footballer, having played on the Russian World Cup squad and currently playing as defender for the Kuban Krasnodar team. He is not, however, necessarily a great driver of cars. He is, at least, lucky with them. Or perhaps its is great taste in fast automobiles that saved his life (and career).

In a report from the Daily Telegraph, the 31-year-old Russian footballer was, ahem, speeding in his Godzilla in Krasnodar, Russia to the tune of about 105 miles per hour. He lost control, going off-track, while changing lanes (hopefully with a proper blinker at least) and smashed fascia-first into a electrical pole. The traffic camera video below shows the crash as it happened with Yeschenko emerging from his demolished Nissan GT-R apparently unscathed.

While we don't know if any repercussions from the Russian authorities will be forthcoming, we do know that the football player likely owes his life to the safety engineering of the GT-R. Sadly, it's to the scrap heap for the beautiful Godzilla he learned his hard lesson from. On the up side, scrappers will be glad to know that at least a few things on the GT-R appear salvagable. Like maybe one of the wheels, the left side mirror, and perhaps the engine cover. The tail lamps and spoiler look OK too.

This video of the wreck comes courtesy of LIFE NEWS in Russia.

Photo and information thanks to The Daily Telegraph

Performance Vehicles
Nissan

Comments

JeffS (not verified)    May 7, 2015 - 4:01PM

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Absolutely unbelievable. Incredible Safety Engineering. Yeschenko must have been playing the position of, "crash test dummy". What's really hard to fathom is he gets out of the car, but that's what the vid appears to show.

JeffS (not verified)    May 8, 2015 - 7:18AM

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Good Day, Aaron. I know Godzilla has some amazing performance stats, but 100-O MPH in about a second and about 20-25 feet, that's pretty impressive. Talk about earning a 5-star crash rating, based on the vid, the GTR should earn a 6 star rating. It's hard to tell from the vid, how the heck did he manage to get out of the car. I can't believe the door opened, unless the door was thrown open during the crash. No matter, just amazing. I guess Nissan equips the GTR with one's own Guardian Angel, walking away from a crash like this will give one Religion real quick.

Aaron Turpen    May 8, 2015 - 11:08AM

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Difficult to say from the video, but it appears he climbed out the driver's side window. The driver's side of the car is bent, but not seriously damaged.

I'd say if this guy didn't go to church regularly before this, he's probably there every Sunday now for sure. :)