Lucky Corvette driver survives trailer crash that experts call too common | Motoramic - Yahoo! Autos

five years ago at almost the same spot during a rainy night, I had a corvette split in half spinning around in front of my 10 ton grip truck.

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1979 Black on Black, 300CD (sold), 1990 Black 300SE, Silver 1989 Volvo 780, 1988 300CE (vanished by the hands of a girlfriend), 1992 300CE (Rescue).

Don't believe that kind of accident is caused by tailgating.
Looks a lot more like vast speed differential coupled with lane change...
Guy was a lot luckier than this SOB.

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On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST

1983 300SD - 305000
1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000
1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000

https://media.giphy.com/media/X3nnss8PAj5aU/giphy.gif

and that attitude will get you killed. In any defensive driving school they teach "Expect the Unexpected" Repeat: "Expect the Unexpected".

That means increase the following distance when trailing a Semi to about double what you would normally follow. Normally you should count a second for each ten MPH of speed. Traveling 60 MPH? Count one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, four one thousand, five one thousand, six one thousand. That much time should elapse before your front bumper crosses the point on the roadway the vehicle in front of you just passed.

DOUBLE THAT time frame when trailing a semi tractor truck and you will live a long long time. Shorten that time frame and you'll end up like "I bought a Corvette but look ma, now I don't have head" man.

um....dude... I not only know how to drive, but I also understand physics.

You cannot stuff a Corvette that far under a semi because it put it's brakes on when you were tailgating. Need considerably more force than the braking power available to the truck, or more distance.

DB in the 'vette was likely weaving through traffic and doing double the speed of the semi when he weaved into the wrong lane.
Or the 'vette driver did not notice traffic slowed in front of him.

I would lay $20 on it not being a case of following to closely.

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On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST

1983 300SD - 305000
1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000
1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000

https://media.giphy.com/media/X3nnss8PAj5aU/giphy.gif

What's the braking capability of the 'vette relative to the braking capability of the truck?

If the 'vette isn't doing 2X the speed of the truck, it can easily slow before hitting the back of the truck.

I'll bet a 'vette can safely follow a truck at 20' (at 60 mph) if the driver is paying attention.

Now I will just read that text message. It may be important.

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Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club group

I no longer question authority, I annoy authority. More effect, less effort....

1967 230-6 auto parts car. rust bucket.
1980 300D now parts car 800k miles
1984 300D 500k miles
1987 250td 160k miles English import
2001 jeep turbo diesel 130k miles
1998 jeep tdi ~ followed me home. Needs a turbo.
1968 Ford F750 truck. 6-354 diesel conversion.
Other toys ~J.D.,Cat & GM ~ mainly earth moving

When you're not paying attention to the road, for whatever reason(s), bad things can happen really quick. No matter what you are driving, or how fast you are travelling. When you're inattentive, or focusing your attention elsewhere - stuff sometimes pops up that you cannot avoid hitting or swerving off the road. All b/c you weren't paying attention.

I wonder if fog was a factor. Both trailer & vette are well off the highway, as the roadside asphalt scallops are seen next to white line.

I dunno, but I have driven the 99 south of Sacto when I could barely see the front of my car, but traffic was whizzing past me in the two left lanes. I got off an exit, no way was I looking to stop on side, and get rearended.

Also, the article points out the need for better design rear crash bars on trailers. How about some one looking & being responsible where the heck they are driving.

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Gary
Experience is something you get, Just after you needed it....
'99 E300 295K, '83 300D 220K, '75 240D 185K sold
'80 MCI Bus Conv DD 6V92TA, w/4 cyl. Kubota diesel GenSet 12.5KW

I responded to an almost identical accident on I-95 north of Richmond. In that case it was a Mustang convertible stuffed under the rear of the tractor.

Circumstances were; the truck was stopped by road construction and the car hit him at full interstate speed, breaking off the rear safety bar. We expected to see the driver's head in the back seat along with the windshield and convertible top. He too miraculously survived with his head between two of the longitudinal beams under the truck bed. He had a broken arm and facial lacerations but was conscious and able to talk to us. We were not able to lift the truck (filled with bird seed) with airbags and crawled underneath to cut the side of the car out for extrication.

The Mustang driver was an attorney and was texting at the time. Imagine That!

If responsible adults drove for transportation and were motivated by safety it would be a different world. We sometimes pretend that this is the case. I say it is not the case.

Marketing pushes vehicles as a person's identity and a powerful car means a powerful person. A big truck means a big man. People are stupid enough to want to believe this and try to live their life like it is a car commercial. Except for when they are trying to live their life like it is a beer commercial.

So you put the adrenalin junkies in race cars or trucks out on the road with the responsible adults and conflict occurs.

several years ago I saw a television show that highlighted rear safety guard design on European semi tractor trucks versus rear safety guard design on American semi tractor trucks. The European version has a special break away feature which will prevent injury in all but the most catastrophic underride collisions. Conservatively, I'd say you have around a 100% better chance of survival when rear ending a European semi tractor truck than when rear ending an American one.

http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/Esv/esv16/98S4O07.PDF

Conservatively, I'd say you have around 100% better chance of survival if you simply drive the f'n vehicle rather than let it take you to your destination.

Vehicle design has a lot to do with injuries. Volvo, Saab and Mercedes Benz appear to lead the pack when it comes to safety design. ALL European cars, BTW. Seems the same goes for underride guard design for Semi tractor trucks. Again, it appears the Europeans have beat our a** at this game.

On another note, when it comes to safety and guard rail design on our highways, we suck big time. There is an old saying, "Speed doesn't kill, it's the sudden stop that will get you" and when crashing into our moronic designed guard rails, death or serious injury is virtually guaranteed.

Our interstate highway system was built by Dwight D Eisenhower's "Public Works Project" workers with a 50 year life span. Currently, we are at the 40 year marker and the bridges and roads are literally FALLING APART. It is said that Eisenhower was highly impressed with Hitler's Autobahn and used that idea to implement the Interstate road system in the United States. Only one problem: He failed to bring the German engineers to America to show us how to properly build a highway and thus we continue to pay the price for poor road design.

There is one winner in all of this though. Asphalt and paving companies make major $$$$$$ in lucrative government contracts performing continuous repair of Eisenhower's interstate highways. This writer is aware of at least one state in the union where more than a few politicians went to jail due to receiving kick backs from awarding asphalt and paving company contracts to "players".

Wait! There's a construction work zone up ahead, you better slow down!

Could be a case of where the Corvette driver was planning on passing traffic on the right shoulder of the road. In fact he (Corvette driver) may have been doing the whipping in and out of lanes driving faster than the flow, and surprise, when there was an 18-wheeler on the shoulder dead ahead. Some drivers will pass you on the right, if they feel they can do so without a traffic citation, and come away scott free ahead of the game of traffic. I am wondering why it's seemingly only Corvettes that get pictured in this situation. The picture of the Maroon red Corvette well under the trailer pictures, has been passed around the Internet for years. I've seen it tons of times. The black Corvette with the guy still in it? That's a new one to me.