The word "crumple" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to refer to the action of crushing or compressing something into a wrinkled or shapeless mass, which may occur through the application of physical force or even through strong emotion. For example, "The child's enthusiasm crumpled when she found out she had to take a test."
With the engine and transmission amidships, the front third of the vehicle was effectively a dedicated crumple zone.
For the car industry, this could be great news, enabling it to produce safer cars with crumple zones that will absorb more of the impact in a crash.
But German confidence has begun to crumple under the weight of an increasingly outdated and rigid economy, which was once the envy of Europe.The Christian Democrats complain that the Social Democrats blocked their "tax reform of the century", which they rightly say was, and is, essential to boost investment and create jobs; but the government did not even get round to the plan until last year.
Despite that potential delay they still provide what Rodolfo Schöneburg, Daimler's head of passive safety, has described as an "electronic crumple zone": applying the brakes a bit late rather than not at all will at least reduce the impact of a collision.Yet sometimes there is no room for any delay in avoiding an accident, for instance when a vehicle jumps a stop sign at a busy junction.
Replacing steel with aluminium allows additional interior space to be offered, along with larger crumple zones at the front and rear for even better crash protection, all without paying a heavy penalty in fuel consumption.But there is a snag: cost.
Mercedes-Benz's carefully engineered "crumple zones" of the early 1950s still assumed the accident was unavoidable.
Today, improvements to, among many other things, track design, protective clothing, crumple zones and easily-escapable "survival cells" in the cockpits of cars, through which no fuel or water lines may pass, has made the sport much safer.
Seeing the wood for the trees The firm that builds India Burberry goes digital The magic of good service ReprintsWhen muscular millionaires (the players) fight brash billionaires (the owners), neither side will crumple easily.
There is a crumple zone at the front, and a bar across the car, on which the front seats are mounted, improves rigidity in the event of a side impact.
In a typical crash, the initial jolt would cause the air-bags to inflate, the seat-belts to lock, inertial switches to cut off the fuel supply, and the vehicle's crumple zones to deform in a predefined manner, so as to absorb the energy of impact.
As the regime enters what may be its death throes, it is increasingly difficult to see how world leaders, with or without Russia, can interpose themselves to solve the crisis.Should the regime crumple suddenly or fall back to its Alawite heartland, Syria's divided opposition will have a hard time picking up the pieces.
