As those medical quotes attest, it 8217;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 8217;re driving a car, the two mainthings protecting you from bumps in the road are the tires and the suspension.No 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 8217;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 8217;t necessarily begood for those systems. In the case of the tires, they may absorb it byexploding.If 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 8217;s also about how thick an average tire 8217;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 8217;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 8217;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 8217;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）。