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Horribe Accident

EJBasile

EJBasile

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Apr 20, 2004
1,304
2
This is just a horriffic accident that has been all over the local news and newspapers (3 pages in one newspaper).

NY Times
WFSB News

To sum it up a dump trucks brakes failed barreling down a mountain, got out of control, hit around 20 cars and a bus, killed 4 people, critically injured 4 other people, and involved 30 other people. The truck had a history of problems too.

The sad thing is incidents happen so frequently on this main road, not to long ago some idiot was speeding down this mountain in his new BMW, lost control, hit a tree, and died.

I had the experience of being stuck in the traffic jam 15min after the accident. Everything was on fire. If you look at the pictures you can see how scary that must have been.
 
image_1763918.jpg
 
That's shocking.

Thankfully, I live on one of the flattest places on Earth so we don't get these brake failure accidents so much. Of course, we get the usual head-ons from fatigue instead though. :(
 
puckhead193 said:
what highway/road was it on? I don't have a NY times account
Click to expand...

It just happened to be in the NY Times. It happened in Avon, CT on Route 44 across right infront of Avon Old Farms Inn (one of oldest resturants in new england started in 1678, quite a good one too).
 
For some reason this year Phoenix has been having nearly weekly fiery semi wreck and multi vehicle accidents. :(
 
EJBasile said:
It just happened to be in the NY Times. It happened in Avon, CT on Route 44 across right infront of Avon Old Farms Inn (one of oldest resturants in new england started in 1678, quite a good one too).
Click to expand...

What a coincidence. In St Louis the other day, a family of 5 was was killed when they were stopped in traffic on I-44 and a dump truck driver not paying attention rear ended them at full speed. Very sad :(
 
I've seen many incidents where a tractor trailer hits a few smaller cars but this truck wiped out a 2-3 lane highway worth of cars parked at an intersection. This included moving a bus two lanes over on the road along with 20 other cars.
 
Geez. That's scary. Well, our town 50 miles of St. Louis had our own little tragedy. Monday night into Tuesday morning, I think the boy and the girl were around 20 years old. She had a brand new sports car and apperently he was driving it. They were supposedly going 130-140 miles per hour on a backroad. Now, this backroad is definatly not the smoothest road according to one person I know. They appearently slammed into a concrete pipe that drains water under a road from one side to another, and basically went into a field. When they were found they we're both strapped in. The girl died instantly and had no cuts on her face, just a broken neck. The boy was in the hospital for a couple days. He was 99% brain damaged and later died. This is not known to happen in a town this small. Anyways, this week, the town is going to mourn the losses. :( By the way, nobody knows what model, year, or what is front or back of the car. All we know is that it was black from looking at it. I saw it for my self. It's like somebody took the car and crumpled it up. So sad. :(
 
Meh... once saw the aftermath of a minivan running into the back of a semi. The live ones were taken to the hospital were my dad works. They died soon after (54 year old, 30 something year old, and a 6 year old IIRC) but their, "windpipes were mush, just destroyed. Whoever got the breathing tube in there did an amazing job since there wasn't anything to push it down."
 
I saw this on cnn a few days ago -- it particularly caught my attention because I'm getting married at the Avon Old Farms Hotel (which is across the street from the Avon Old Farms Inn) next July.

I've driven that road a million times and people simply don't drive it sanely. But I don't think anyone ever expected a wreck like this ...
 
That's such a tragic way to die. I don't know the cause for this particular accident, but I really feel that overall, people need to realize that cutting trucks/ big rigs off is a HORRIBLE idea. I don't care if they're really slow, do NOT cut them off! They can have 15+ gears! That makes it so much more difficult to downshift. And they really don't have good enough braking systems for the load they carry, so please, give these exhausted truckers a break and don't cut them off.

At least on highway 5 (in CA) there are runaway truck ramps. These are steep inclines of dirt that branch off the main highway incase of brake failure I guess. A runaway truck would direct itself away from the bulk of traffic and go up this really really steep incline and hopefully be able to stop w/out impacting the rest of the highway traffic.
 
thedude110 said:
I saw this on cnn a few days ago -- it particularly caught my attention because I'm getting married at the Avon Old Farms Hotel (which is across the street from the Avon Old Farms Inn) next July.

I've driven that road a million times and people simply don't drive it sanely. But I don't think anyone ever expected a wreck like this ...
Click to expand...

Avon Old Farms Hotel is an excellent place to get married. I know people do not drive sanely on that road. My sister won't even let her 18 year old daughter drive on that road.

I know these two people who years ago were driving up a hill and an 18 wheeler was coming down with failed brakes and hit them head on (they were in a chevy pickup). Amazingly they survived. The husband broke his leg and his wife had very bad bruises on her legs. They both fully recovered.
 
EJBasile said:
I know these two people who years ago were driving up a hill and an 18 wheeler was coming down with failed brakes and hit them head on (they were in a chevy pickup). Amazingly they survived. The husband broke his leg and his wife had very bad bruises on her legs. They both fully recovered.
Click to expand...
Talk about blessings! I'm glad they turned out okay.
 
wow, thats insane.... ive seen some bad wrecks in my day too, i do a LOT of driving in the Chicago area and i see at least an accident a day on average i would say.... but that one is particularly nasty, my thoughts go out to the people stuck in it all....
 
That is very scary. I'm surprised that it wasn't on the front page of the Globe today. Maybe it will be on the local evening news.
 
EJBasile said:
To sum it up a dump trucks brakes failed barreling down a mountain, got out of control, hit around 20 cars and a bus, killed 4 people, critically injured 4 other people, and involved 30 other people.
Click to expand...
Wow. This reminds me of Final Destination 2. Life imitating art.
 
I found some pretty amazing pictures of this accident.

Fox News

I suggest you check out all 24 pics. Its quite a frightening scene.
 
EJBasile said:
I found some pretty amazing pictures of this accident.

Fox News

I suggest you check out all 24 pics. Its quite a frightening scene.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the link, yes I looked at all 24 pictures. A scary scene from many angles. Interesting to see the "CSI" ones, one of my favorite shows. Just seeing the pictures makes it somewhat benign for the viewer. Can barley imagine the horror that occurred for those on the scene. That type of thing would definitely require grief counseling for the ER workers as well. :( :eek:
 
delton05 said:
You heard of the Toowoomba range?
Click to expand...


Nope. I'm guessing it's near Toowoomba, right? :D

Sure, we have a few mountain ranges but next to most place, ours are pretty small and very rare (mountains per area).

Our biggest road problems stem from long straight highways and sleepy drivers.
 
Reminds me of an accident on the M1 (IIRC) motorway in the UK a couple of years ago when a battle tank fell off the low-loader it was being transported on at 70mph and caused a massive pile up. Can you imagine seeing that happen in front of you at 70mph! I had a fuel tanker brake late in front of me on a holiday in California the trailer spun round ahead of the rig but amazingly no-one got hit or hit it on a busy freeway going into LA from the south (I5?)
 
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