Drive careful on wet roads

[dirtyRU]

I know this is "offroad" subarus, but we all hit the pavement pretty much every day. Just wanted to remind everyone to drive safe on slick roads. Driving to Dripping Springs this morning, i was almost hit head on by someone who came around an upward curve & hydroplaned. Fortunately i had just enough room to shoot off the road & barely missed getting hit. The other driver was a girl, who was quite shaken by it, but was okay. Just 2 miles later, someone else had already slid off the road, hit a guardrail & flipped down into a creek bed.
On the way back, things got even crazier. RR 12 turns into 2 lanes each way at one main straight away for slower traffic to move over & faster traffic can pass. I always stay in the right lane at this section & don't speed because it's a big speed trap. However, the person ahead of me in a white corolla wasn't passing anyone, yet he was on the passing lane - the lane closest to oncoming traffic. Well i reached down to change stations, looked back up & a split second later i saw a maroon grand-marquis almost sideways crossing into our traffics passing lane. Next thing i know, the cars hit head on at about 55-60mph, both doing 360's . I quickly got on the brakes and got off the road to dial 911. I've never been so close to such a bad wreck in my life. Thinking about it now, i can still smell the hot metal, oil & blood from approaching the guys that were ahead of me. It about makes me sick to even think about it. We tried to get the guys out, but could not get the doors open on the car. Emergency personnel ended up using the extractors or "jaws of life" as you may know them.
You can see it driving by, or in an allstate commercial or a movie, but i tell you what, there's nothing more real than what i saw then. Anyway's, just a little reminder (maybe scare tactic) for everyone to drive safe on those slick roads. I would hope to never come across something like this again.
Here are a couple pics below, but some might find somewhat graphic. After there not being much i could do, i sat up on the hill and let the pros work while we waited on state troopers to arrive to give my statement.
DRIVE SAFELY!

 

[Rally]

Looks bad. Seems the white car emerged from this accident better for the occupants than the other car. Interesting as the other car looks bigger but appears to have suffered greater roof damage. Thankfully I have seen very few accidents like this. I am probably more squeamish than most as in such circumstances if I cannot help- in say first aid or traffic management until police arrive- i get out of there as soon as possible.

 

[carljwnc]

That is terrible.:sad: Glad you didn't get caught up in it.

Also in regards to driving on wet roads, do not use your cruise control, if you start to spin you probably won't get it shut off in time to stop the spin, whereas if you start to spin without it on, a lift off the gas might get you straightened out again.

Awful thing to witness, hope your alright, accidents like that can be quite traumatic to see.

 

[Rally]

Makes you wonder how the police, ambos and firies handle what they see. Must be tough for them.

With regards to reacting to a spin, you really do need to make the right decision. Lifting off and/or braking can do a lot more harm than good in many situations. Last time I was on the race track, I did something that even as I did it I knew it was the wrong thing, and that was to lift off mid corner. Never touched the brakes, just lifted off. The weight transfer to the front unweighted the rear end, and it did what it will always do in such situations and it immediately and quickly slid. Even with full opposite lock I left the track, spun across the grass and made the very slightest kiss with the armco. It is called lift off oversteer and I knew better, but gee it swapped ends quickly! It's funny how as you slide towards the wall you say to yourself that a) I'm going to hit the wall, and immediately after that b) how much is this going to cost! Anyway, always be careful with your steering, throttle and braking inputs as cars do not like sudden changes when at speed or in low grip conditions.

That is terrible.:sad: Glad you didn't get caught up in it.

Also in regards to driving on wet roads, do not use your cruise control, if you start to spin you probably won't get it shut off in time to stop the spin, whereas if you start to spin without it on, a lift off the gas might get you straightened out again.

Awful thing to witness, hope your alright, accidents like that can be quite traumatic to see.

 

[mr turbo]

That looks like a bad one alright
Glad you weren't involved in the actual collision yourself dirtyRU.
Like you said, it just takes in a split second & can happen in the blink of an eye.

I was thinking the same as you Rally, I don't know how those emergency people handle it. They just keep on doing it time & time again.
I tip my hat to them, they are fantastic people alright
When the roads are wet, or it's raining, I will always drop my speed to suit the conditions.

Regards
Mr Turbo

 

[dirtyRU]

Been a busy weekend! The guys in the little car actually ended up alot worse, mostly i think in part to them taking the hit head on vs the other driver taking a passenger side impact. I'm not sure how the lady is, as she wasn't near as banged up as the two guys. After i got into the office that day, i searched on the internet for him & found out he is an instructor at an alternative school here in Wimberley. I called the school & spoke to the principal since i figured they were worried about a teacher not showing up & probably wouldn't hear anything from authorities until sometime this week. It felt pretty good to have been able to do that & give the students & teachers a chance to go visit him during the weekend.
His father got ahold of my number from the principal and want's to talk with me.. I'm not really sure how to explain things to the guys dad as it's pretty uncomfortable even thinking about the whole incident, so i haven't called back yet.
Both guys are doing better, although still unconscious. The driver broke every bone in his face, collar bones, and several ribs with lungs getting punctured. The other guys only broke half his face & collar bone, but suffered severe brain swelling which has finally subsided. They say they are doing much better, but still not out of the woods. 4-6 weeks and they should be able to perform facial reconstruction on atleast the driver.
As for the EMS personnel, i have no idea how they do it. I about lost my breakfast several times just doing what i was doing. Those people are real heroes. I will probably call the father back here shortly.. I'm sure not having any real answers & not being able to talk to his son are really disheartening. This has definitely been an eye opener for me to say the least...

 

[Rally]

Do you know if they were all wearing seat belts? I'm amazed there are still people out there who do not wear them. Worse still are those who do wear them but allow their kids not to or share a seat belt.

 

[LoneStar]

Ain't rained in so long folks here in Texas forgot how to drive in it. Sorry you had to see this Matt, but it only gets worse. Sat here and thought about it for half a minute and can vividly recall 8 bodies and more probably died shortly. Bout 10 years ago saw what happens when a Jeep Cherokee rear ends a semi-truck trailer. The jeep was under the trailer all the way past the passerger cabin. Driver was still in the seat minus everything from the shoulders up. Praying for those you saw to recover. GB.

 

[dirtyRU]

Wow, that's pretty bad John. And yes they were wearing seatbelts. I spoke to the guys dad finally & he told me his son will be regretting a recent decision he made. For the last 5yrs, he's driven a larger SUV until 3 months ago when he got that corolla to save on gas... Just imagine how diff it all may have turned out if he still had it.He also informed me the elderly lady in the other vehicle ended up dying once she got to the hospital. She had heart surgery done less than a year ago & just wasn't strong enough to pull out of it.

 

[Rally]

The only problem there Matt is if everyone had big 4WD's then everyone would be back to where they started from for vehicle on vehicle- unless it is a truck where you'd be in the same boat as the bloke in the Corolla. You'd then have a car that would be more likely to have an accident as it would not handle, not stop and if it the roadside furniture being so solid the occupants would not survive. For all we know the Corolla may have saved him from an accident that might have been an accident in the big 4WD. While size generally wins, it works against you in preventing an accident and is no good against similar sized or bigger vehicles. A good new car is his best bet- one that passes all the safety tests and then some. He is being a bit too hard on himself I think.

 

[lefty]

when I did my cross country driving tour of Canada and bit of northern USA back in 09 one thing that struck me was how closely people tailgate over there. And the scary thing is it seems to be a norm. Many times I saw people tailgating with only 1 carlength on a country highway doing 100-120kph with absolutely no intention of overtaking, just tailgating ....why?

 

[mr turbo]

Worse still are those who do wear them but allow their kids not to or share a seat belt.

I'm with you on that one Rally. Almost every day I will see a child bouncing around in a car without a seatbelt whilst driving to & from work. It pisses me off so much !!!
If we end up stopping at traffic lights next to each other I will always give them a blast & piece of my mind

I agree that sometimes a larger vehicle is safer, but not always. It just depends on the safety features / ratings as all vehicles are different (airbags, sips, etc)

My thoughts go out to all those involved & their families.

Regards
Mr Turbo

 

[carljwnc]

I'm glad you called the guys Dad back. It may have been difficult for you, but I'll bet he really appreciated it.

 

[El_Freddo]

Seems the white car emerged from this accident better for the occupants than the other car. Interesting as the other car looks bigger but appears to have suffered greater roof damage.

Yeah it's interesting, check out this crash test between old and new:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joMK1WZjP7g&feature=related"]Crash Test 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air VS. 2009 Chevrolet Malibu (Frontal Offset) IIHS 50th Anniversary - YouTube[/ame]

one thing that struck me was how closely people tailgate over there. And the scary thing is it seems to be a norm. Many times I saw people tailgating with only 1 carlength on a country highway doing 100-120kph with absolutely no intention of overtaking, just tailgating ....why?

Yeah that's pretty much what happens down here in victoria too - either they don't pass or they'll wait a long time before they do. Worst are those who pass only then to turn off at the next intersection that's either a couple of hundred metres or a km ahead...

Sorry you had to witness such an accident and glad to hear you didn't become a part of it. And two thumbs up talking to the dad, loads of courage needed for that!

Cheers

Bennie

 

[dirtyRU]

Holy sh** El_Freddo! I would never have imagined that crash wouldve turned out that bad for the big heavy steel car, amazing! An interesting thing though is that i thought airbags did not deploy at high speeds? I know neither of the air bags in the crash i witnessed were deployed.

Lefty, you make a good point there. The general population in this country drive like complete a-holes. The big cities is where you see it most at. I've driven all over the southern half of the US, east & west, & Texas is by far the most driver friendly - as long as you aren't in the big cities like Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, etc.. Everybody is in such a dang hurry these days.
If somebody comes up on us here, we pull move over to allow them to pass. Then the driver of the passing vehicle usually waves and then we wave back. It's practically an unwritten law out here :lol:
One time while driving through New Mexico, we had someone coming up on us pretty fast, so i moved over to the shoulder to let them by (even though i was doing 80mph in a 70). They just sped on past, never waved to show thanks or anything. Next thing i know i had a New Mexico State Trooper pull me over that was behind the truck. He questioned me on why i let the truck go by, and all i said was " i guess you've never been to Texas", then actually had to explain to him this complicated concept. It's just the polite thing to do.
That is why you are greeted with this sign when crossing into our borders :iconwink:

 

[Rally]

Excellent post, but what a waste of the old Chev. Let's hope the metal mice had not weakened it to distort the result

 

[mr turbo]

An interesting thing though is that i thought airbags did not deploy at high speeds?

I've never heard that one before. I always thought that airbags were designed to go off once a certain impact speed was reached, so as they will protect the occupants in the car.

I know neither of the air bags in the crash i witnessed were deployed

Thats one thing I noticed too. NO airbags were deployed.

There is another version of that vid too. And at the end it states that, and I quote....

According to safety engineers at the scene, the driver of the 2009 Chevrolet Malibu would likely have suffered a slight knee injury.

The driver of the 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air would have died instantly.

Regards
Mr Turbo

 

[dirtyRU]

I tried looking this up but all i could find was that what triggers the airbag deployment is not based on speed, but on the force of deceleration. Sooo... with that being said, i'm not really sure why they wouldn't have.

Yesterday, this whole thing took another strange turn. Apparently, the older woman that died was the mother of a new client of mine and just a month ago, the woman who died came in here to pick up the application for her son(my client) because he had to work late. So i had actually met the woman for a brief period. I then tried to contact my client to send him my condolences & found out he got thrown in the slammer (prison) for a repeat offense to a DWI just a week ago! Not only does his life suck now to be in prison, but also never got to say bye to his mother or even be able to attend her funeral. Talk about bad mistakes & misfortune...
Now i'm sure i'll be getting a charge-back of commissions since he won't be out to pay his premium! That doesn't bother me as much though, as he is much worse off... Still just odd how this whole thing had panned out...

 

[dirtyRU]

And another accident right in front of me on the same road! I was 2 cars back from this little S10 before it went all circus act on us. The person driving the new Bentley that was ahead of me didn't even stop!

What 30seconds of hard sleet did to this guy....He ended up being okay minus a broken nose and shoulder/collar bone. He flew pretty far before he rolled atleast 4 or 5 times. Once EMS & police showed up, one of the deputies was sifting through all the trash & jokingly told his buddy, "yeah, we can atleast slap him with a citation for littering!". They referred to that as a little "law enforcement humor". :lol:

As you can see, i was not the only Foz on scene

There was a camper on the back holding all that sh** inside...

 

[mr turbo]

What 30seconds of hard sleet did to this guy....He ended up being okay minus a broken nose and shoulder/collar bone. He flew pretty far before he rolled atleast 4 or 5 times.

Being hurt or injured is never good, even at the best of times. But after seeing the pics of that accident, I'd have to say he was fairly lucky.
By the sounds of it, he could have been a lot worse

Regards
Mr Turbo