Thank God my friend was in a PU.

[Gliderjohn]

Sometimes like a deer a vehicle comes out of basically nowhere.Two days ago in Wichita and friend of mine was involved in a fatal accident. In the picture the black Ford PU is his (He was not injured). A 14 yr. old girl was pronounced dead at the scene and her father was critical. The father was driving the red Pontiac G-6 at a high rate of speed hitting a dip in the road which sent the car airborne and then slamming into the greenish PU (minor injury to PU driver). It bounced of the PU and slammed into my friend's PU which is totalled. The red piece of metal in the picture is what was left of the G-6.



GliderJohn

[Green1000S]

Airborne???

You need a lot more than 55 for that.

[oldbike54]

 Damn 


  Dusty

[Stevex]

14 years old, what a waste of a life.

[kballowe]

That happens in the blink of an eye with absolutely no warning of any kind.

We were on a rural stretch of 55 mph highway with sparse traffic when an oncoming 2000-ish Buick Century suddenly pulled directly into the path of the Chevy Aveo that we were following.  We ended up in the small split between the two cars, at the end of a 103ft skid mark.

The offending vehicle license was two years expired, and the driver was without insurance.   The Aveo driver survived, but spent months recovering from a broken pelvis and more.  Neither were wearing seat belts. 

[Sasquatch Jim]

Whizzzzzzzz BANG.  It's over.

[GeorgiaGuzzi]

Sadly this type of accident is common. I see fatal accidents or accidents that should have been fatal every week. Sometimes twice a week. Cars are safer hence my “should” comment. Unfortunately common sense is becoming more and more uncommon. Now a father has to live with the knowledge he killed his daughter. Which I wouldn’t wish on anyone no matter how much I disapproved of them.

Glad your friend was okay, and please reassure him that he bears no responsibility. It’s something our heads know but our hearts can disagree with.

[nc43bsa]

That happens in the blink of an eye with absolutely no warning of any kind.

We were on a rural stretch of 55 mph highway with sparse traffic when an oncoming 2000-ish Buick Century suddenly pulled directly into the path of the Chevy Aveo that we were following.  We ended up in the small split between the two cars, at the end of a 103ft skid mark.

The offending vehicle license was two years expired, and the driver was without insurance.   The Aveo driver survived, but spent months recovering from a broken pelvis and more.  Neither were wearing seat belts. 

Those pictures look familiar.

Did this accident happen a few years ago, or am I having a Deja Vu moment?

[kballowe]

Those pictures look familiar.

Did this accident happen a few years ago, or am I having a Deja Vu moment?

Noon, on July 4th, 2018 in New Haven, Missouri.

[bodine99]

Senator Thompson always said and wondered why common sense was so uncommon. Such needless death from drivers that don't respect other drivers. Just a hour ago I was passed by an asshat over a double yellow in a school zone.(did not like I was doing the zone speed limit) To bad no coppers around would have been big $$$ ticket for being a dumb ass. All that and a 1/2 mile down the road I pulled up behind the fool that made it 1st to the red light!! Tooted my horn and waved.

[Lannis]

Part of the problem is that we keep calling these events "accidents".

NONE of them are "accidents".   They are ALL caused by impaired drivers, untrained drivers, stupid drivers, or suicidal/homicidal drivers.

An "accident" would be a meteorite hitting the car, or a tree falling on a stationary car at a light, or getting hit by lightning.   Every single one of these above was preventable ... matter of fact, it wouldn't even take common sense to prevent all of them, just a change in our attitudes.   35,000 people a year dead for no good reason, and we just shrug, go on with our lives, call it an "accident" or an "act of God", and chalk it up to "Normal Wastage", like sending Tommies and Poilu over the top in WWI.

It's a blind spot that I no longer have, and it's hard to see how others still have it ....

Lannis

[Gliderjohn]

Can't find any updates other than an investigation is ongoing. The speed limit in that area would have been 40 mph. Here is another picture of my friend's PU. His was the second PU to be hit and it appears the car was still carrying a lot of energy.



GliderJohn

[wirespokes]

There is a little more to it than stupidity, thoughtlessness, bad manners, inconsiderate actions or lack of common sense. I agree - most aren't accidents. In the old days parts would break, tires blew, brakes went out suddenly causing an accident. But that doesn't happen so much these days. I think the biggest problem is the poor American diet and drugs. I heard a statistic that something like 80% of the public is on some type of legal or illegal drug. If you don't think that impairs judgement and control of the physical universe, think again!

One friend quit riding because he blacked out, went off the road and landed in the ditch. Scared him enough he quit riding. He has no idea why it happened.

A good friend's step son was heavily into bikes. He was a moto journalist and had been sent to test ride a new Motus. It was a tricky curve, but nothing he couldn't handle - blacked out, took out a mail box and wound up in critical care for a month. That was in Georgia somewhere, his wife had to drive him back to Seattle because something about his condition prevented him from flying. He had been majorly into bikes, but quit after that.

I believe both instances had to do with poor american diet, though neither took any sort of drugs I know of. I've just been reading a book that states sugar can cause a person to black out, especially when injested with other certain foods. There's sugar in everything you get at the store or in restaurants.

[moto-uno]

  And of course smoking pot is legal in many areas :) . Roll up a fatty , wash it down with a beer or two and take the truck ( car , bike ) out for a ride !
  Enough to make one a defensive rider !

[Lannis]

I think the biggest problem is the poor American diet and drugs. I heard a statistic that something like 80% of the public is on some type of legal or illegal drug. If you don't think that impairs judgement and control of the physical universe, think again!

I absolutely agree, and include all of that in "impaired".   If someone is on some prescription mind-altering drug, or hovering on the edge of uncontrolled diabetic comas, they're just as impaired as someone with a BAC of 0.15, and just as shouldn't be in control of a 4000 pound kinetic energy weapon.

It's interesting, the "poor American diet" thing.   During the ongoing unpleasantness (and forever now, regardless of outcome), Fay and I have stopped shopping in supermarkets.    Local small stores "Davis Produce" and "Long Mountain Grocery" supply our produce, meats, and bulk items like flour, buttermilk, rice, oatmeal, etc.   For items that we can't get there, we patronize the local "Dollar General".

"Dollar General" is geared toward lower-income folks ... lots of EBT cards getting swiped in there.   And it's very difficult to find anything that is not loaded with sugar and fats; although that's a "feature" of prepackaged foods everywhere, there are, unlike a supermarket, no lower-calorie or lower-fat alternatives.   I've asked, and the management says that those items just wouldn't sell there.

I don't know how much the effect of poor diet (other that diabetes) has on the death rate on the highways, though.   Medications like "Metformin" for lowering blood sugar (I used to be on it, not any more though) don't mess with your brain or reactions that I know of.

Smart phones are the thing I'm most afraid of.   The number of cars on a perfectly straight clear road that drift halfway over into my lane, and have me braking and heading for the ditch, before they look up and snatch the wheel back, is 50 times what it was 20 years ago .... Anyone who doesn't understand the newspaper articles over and over "Susan's car ran off the right side of the road, overcorrected, and ran head on into an oncoming  dump truck ...." isn't paying attention!

Lannis

[Rough Edge racing]

 The little I watch TV I see several commercials by manufacturers shwin how warning/devices saving a distracted driver from a serious wreck.
 It's  got nothing to do with sugar loaded diets, it's all about distracted divers in vehicles requiring minimal driver input...

[Lannis]

Odd that we should be talking about this, and this morning, a few miles from the house, this happens:





My daughter-in-law was in the process of making a turn across the median of a four-lane highway on her way to vote, in her 2014 Ford Focus, and BANG!   My son was at work and incommunicado, so I got the call from the trooper, picked her up, talked to the trooper, then my son came in and I handed the situation over.

Car got hit twice, rolled (so says one witness), blew the airbag, and she ended up with bruised legs and a cut on her hand that took six stitches, and that was it - an hour in the emergency room and home to calm the shakes.   No one else hurt, one other car towed.

Don't know what happened yet, but not "an accident".   Her fault?   Someone else's?  Contributory negligence?  The cops interviewed several witnesses and are sorting the stories out.   She doesn't remember anything, as you sometimes don't when this happens.

BUT ... someone, maybe she, screwed up.   Left the tail of the car hanging in a traffic lane, pulled out too soon, going too fast ... someone wasn't paying attention to what they were doing.    Guess we'll find out soon.   Meanwhile, the insurance companies for three drivers are making the wires hum .... !!

Lannis

[Bulldog9]

Despite Innocent victims, I have one word for stuff like this... Darwin.....