That is one scary video!
Something like this happened to me while driving on the freeway near Washington DC. A semi in the lane next to my car had a blow-out and the tire literally flew inches in front of my windshield. It was pretty much the entire tire, and I saw it coming in slow motion, like when a rock is coming at the windshield, just a whole lot bigger. I seriously switched to autopilot at that point and somehow made it to the next exit to pull over and try to get over the shock of what almost just happened. It was a multi-lane freeway, and I have no idea if that tire hit anyone else or not. Was really just happy to be in one piece.
remind me of this
[quote]HolyMacaroni wrote:
remind me of this
Damn that would be scary. I would have moved after that first shot though. Isn’t a piece of bulletproof glass that’s been shot with a large caliber weapon a fair amount more likely to shatter/not stop the bullet if it gets shot again in the same place? (or I could be completely wrong)
[quote]RSGZ wrote:
Holy crap batman!
Talk about being lucky.[/quote]
HaHaHaHaHa!!!
That wasn’t luck. That was a shitty ass day. Dumbasses. That’s what you get with a 1 second following distance.
Idiot drivers. If he hadn’t been following so close he wouldn’t have 2x4 going thru his/her windshield. If all you can see of the road ahead is the car in front, then the response/reaction window is too small. S/He didn’t even keep space for an emergency lane change, what a of couple retards. There is tons of crap on roads. Sheared off tire treads of 18-wheelers, dead animals, live animals, crap (like 2x4s) dropped from other vehicles, etc… Remember this as a lesson to those of you with the same stupid driving habits.
Things done wrong.
- Left lane is for passing/flying. Right lane is for cruising/slow ass mudderfudgers.
- Following too close.
- No way out. No room to maneuver.
I’m no saint on the road. I drive much to fast. Probably too aggressive in my passing as well. Even I know and use the basic 5 rules of Smith driving.
-
Aim high in steering -
The farther down the road you see while driving (and he’s talking about “seeing, not just looking”), the less likely you are to have a wreck, he says, adding “Be aware of what’s going on around you.” -
Keep your eyes moving -
Eye movement helps keep you from getting into a driving trance, the fixed stare of the driver whose mind is elsewhere while her/his ton of metal is moving at up to a 100 feet a second. Eye movement makes drowsiness less likely, too, and makes it more likely you’ll frequently check your rear-view mirror. -
Get the big picture -
Practices one and two help you stay aware of what’s around you, but there’s more, including road conditions, weather, and any changes in the condition of your vehicle, including fuel level, engine temperature, electrical systems, and any abnormal vibrations or sounds. -
Make sure you are seen -
You can’t assume other drivers are aiming high, keeping their eyes moving, and getting the big picture. They may not have noticed that you’re hurtling in their direction. Having your headlights on makes you more visible and they take no extra fuel, Ronald notes, so, “Turn 'em on,” day and night.
Even then, though, don’t assume that other drivers have noted your presence or your turn signal that’s blinking or even, heaven help us, the red light facing them as you both approach an intersection. -
Leave yourself an out -
Where can you go (to the median? to the shoulder?) if something happens suddenly just ahead of your car? If you’ve been aiming high, moving your eyes around, and getting the big picture, you’re more likely to know what to do when faced with the need for a sudden change in flight path.
[quote]Bujo wrote:
That wasn’t luck. That was a shitty ass day. Dumbasses. That’s what you get with a 1 second following distance.
[/quote]
^I agree.
I remember watching some show on cable. Medical mysteries or I shouldn’t be alive or something. Passenger catches a footwide sheet of metal that sticks in his neck and pins him to the seat. Survives.
My friends father was killed by rebar through the windshield. My friend told me he cried himself to sleep every single night from seven years old until he was 14.
I’m always conscious of work trucks ahead of me and make sure I’m not directly behind them. I’m now adding horse trailers to my list of vehicles to not be behind.
I also echo Bujo’s sentiment in that I believe if you are alert and proactive you can avoid almost all accidents even ones that wouldn’t be technically your fault.
Quick test. If you have to stop quickly for one reason or another, what is the first thing you should do, even before you’ve completed your stop?
[quote]on edge wrote:
My friends father was killed by rebar through the windshield. My friend told me he cried himself to sleep every single night from seven years old until he was 14.
I’m always conscious of work trucks ahead of me and make sure I’m not directly behind them. I’m now adding horse trailers to my list of vehicles to not be behind.
I also echo Bujo’s sentiment in that I believe if you are alert and proactive you can avoid almost all accidents even ones that wouldn’t be technically your fault.
Quick test. If you have to stop quickly for one reason or another, what is the first thing you should do, even before you’ve completed your stop?[/quote]
Profile the vehicle and driver behind me in an attempt to gain knowledge of their probability to have insurance. And remember, after the initial impact, your neck already hurts!
I gotta agree with following distance. I follow pretty far back unless I’m weaving through traffic in my little sports car. I follow so far back just to not get my front end sandblasted.
Some guys I knew back in high school were following this work truck, a piece of rebar fell off, bounced off the ground in front of them, then impaled the windshield right in the middle.
[quote]Tyrant wrote:
[quote]on edge wrote:
My friends father was killed by rebar through the windshield. My friend told me he cried himself to sleep every single night from seven years old until he was 14.
I’m always conscious of work trucks ahead of me and make sure I’m not directly behind them. I’m now adding horse trailers to my list of vehicles to not be behind.
I also echo Bujo’s sentiment in that I believe if you are alert and proactive you can avoid almost all accidents even ones that wouldn’t be technically your fault.
Quick test. If you have to stop quickly for one reason or another, what is the first thing you should do, even before you’ve completed your stop?[/quote]
Profile the vehicle and driver behind me in an attempt to gain knowledge of their probability to have insurance. And remember, after the initial impact, your neck already hurts!
[/quote]
A+
[quote]on edge wrote:
My friends father was killed by rebar through the windshield. My friend told me he cried himself to sleep every single night from seven years old until he was 14.
I’m always conscious of work trucks ahead of me and make sure I’m not directly behind them. I’m now adding horse trailers to my list of vehicles to not be behind.
I also echo Bujo’s sentiment in that I believe if you are alert and proactive you can avoid almost all accidents even ones that wouldn’t be technically your fault.
Quick test. If you have to stop quickly for one reason or another, what is the first thing you should do, even before you’ve completed your stop?[/quote]
I repaired a truck once that drove over some rebar on the road. The rebar was bent or something and punched right through the floor board. Much like the picture of the Jeep on the previous page, a couple inches this way or that and it could have been very bloody.
[quote]Tyrant wrote:
Profile the vehicle and driver behind me in an attempt to gain knowledge of their probability to have insurance. And remember, after the initial impact, your neck already hurts!
I gotta agree with following distance. I follow pretty far back unless I’m weaving through traffic in my little sports car. I follow so far back just to not get my front end sandblasted.
Some guys I knew back in high school were following this work truck, a piece of rebar fell off, bounced off the ground in front of them, then impaled the windshield right in the middle.[/quote]
I got a wake up call years back. While driving thru Houston I managed to swerve and miss some metal shrapnel on 610, but the guy behind me wasn’t so lucky. His tailgating ass never had a chance to maneuver, the piece of metal took out both left side tires, and he went right into the barrier wall. He must slid against the wall for 30-40 feet, and the whole side of the car was scraped clean.
[quote]Bujo wrote:
[quote]RSGZ wrote:
Holy crap batman!
Talk about being lucky.[/quote]
HaHaHaHaHa!!!
That wasn’t luck. That was a shitty ass day. Dumbasses. That’s what you get with a 1 second following distance.
[/quote]
This would never work outside of the US in countries in the Eastern European block. People will cut in front of you like a mother fucker. On only a two lane highway.
Although I do agree with everything you wrote about being a good driver.
[quote]Tyrant wrote:
[quote]on edge wrote:
My friends father was killed by rebar through the windshield. My friend told me he cried himself to sleep every single night from seven years old until he was 14.
I’m always conscious of work trucks ahead of me and make sure I’m not directly behind them. I’m now adding horse trailers to my list of vehicles to not be behind.
I also echo Bujo’s sentiment in that I believe if you are alert and proactive you can avoid almost all accidents even ones that wouldn’t be technically your fault.
Quick test. If you have to stop quickly for one reason or another, what is the first thing you should do, even before you’ve completed your stop?[/quote]
Profile the vehicle and driver behind me in an attempt to gain knowledge of their probability to have insurance. And remember, after the initial impact, your neck already hurts!
[/quote]
I also instinctively hit the hazard lights when suddenly stopping or slowing.
I call bad day, compounded by some unwise moves, one of which resulted in a record, topped off with luck.
Reminds me of a windy spring afternoon some years back.
I was headed to Napa from Marin, had just passed Sears Point (it’s named after some shit tech company now). CA 121 winds a bind, then heads up a short hill, past a cherry stand that’s been there at least 50 years, and a stand of eucalyptus trees on either side of the 2-lane highway. As I crest the hill, I see a tree off to the left start to fall.
I hit the brakes, as do the four cars in front of me.
The fifth driver up wasn’t so lucky. Large American convertible, she’d driven straight into the trunk at 50+ MPH. The impact smashed the top of the windshield and broke the back of the drivers seat shoving it toward the rear seats. She was quite obviously dead, though not too badly mangled (her head didn’t quite look right, but no blood or visible wounds).
The person most shaken up was the first driver coming the opposite direction, also a woman, who was pretty much non-functioning at that point.
Can’t find the original article but there’s a reference to it (woman killed on Arnold Drive) here: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090223/NEWS/902230985
You can practice defensive driving, safe following distance, and situational awareness, but some things happen a lot faster and bigger than you are.
So you’re saying 5 drivers managed to avoid an accident caused by a falling tree, while a 6th driver managed to plow into one of the stopped vehicles at 50mph? I can probably think of a dozen things the woman in the convertible could have done to avoid crashing into a parked car at 50mph. Obviously the folks in the stationary vehicles had limited options.
Well, yes it’s definitely stupid but the 2x4 missed the driver by a foot.
2 things.
- Don’t be a moron and film yourself while driving because then if you have an accident, you deserve it.
- A 3 second following distance, as you said, would probably avoid this.
Who’s to say that with the trajectory and speed of the 2x4 it still wouldn’t have hit the window at a further distance? The wood wasn’t casually tossed into the air - it was propelled end first like a javelin.
Luck is luck, regardless of how bad the driver is.
ed- actually, just watched it again carefully and it looks like it’s bounced off of the front grill and along the hood at 0:33, so not like a badly thrown javelin. But still, no one can say with certainty that it wouldn’t have done the same thing with a bit more distance. Likely, but not certainly.
[quote]Dr. Pangloss wrote:
Pic 2[/quote]
Automatic ball-sack amputation… Very lucky indeed.
[quote]k-dingo wrote:
I call bad day, compounded by some unwise moves, one of which resulted in a record, topped off with luck.
Reminds me of a windy spring afternoon some years back.
I was headed to Napa from Marin, had just passed Sears Point (it’s named after some shit tech company now). CA 121 winds a bind, then heads up a short hill, past a cherry stand that’s been there at least 50 years, and a stand of eucalyptus trees on either side of the 2-lane highway. As I crest the hill, I see a tree off to the left start to fall.
I hit the brakes, as do the four cars in front of me.
The fifth driver up wasn’t so lucky. Large American convertible, she’d driven straight into the trunk at 50+ MPH. The impact smashed the top of the windshield and broke the back of the drivers seat shoving it toward the rear seats. She was quite obviously dead, though not too badly mangled (her head didn’t quite look right, but no blood or visible wounds).
The person most shaken up was the first driver coming the opposite direction, also a woman, who was pretty much non-functioning at that point.
Can’t find the original article but there’s a reference to it (woman killed on Arnold Drive) here: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090223/NEWS/902230985
You can practice defensive driving, safe following distance, and situational awareness, but some things happen a lot faster and bigger than you are.[/quote]
That’s the last straw! See, trees are dangerous and all of them must be removed from the planet!
[quote]postholedigger wrote:
[quote]Tyrant wrote:
[quote]on edge wrote:
My friends father was killed by rebar through the windshield. My friend told me he cried himself to sleep every single night from seven years old until he was 14.
I’m always conscious of work trucks ahead of me and make sure I’m not directly behind them. I’m now adding horse trailers to my list of vehicles to not be behind.
I also echo Bujo’s sentiment in that I believe if you are alert and proactive you can avoid almost all accidents even ones that wouldn’t be technically your fault.
Quick test. If you have to stop quickly for one reason or another, what is the first thing you should do, even before you’ve completed your stop?[/quote]
Profile the vehicle and driver behind me in an attempt to gain knowledge of their probability to have insurance. And remember, after the initial impact, your neck already hurts!
[/quote]
I also instinctively hit the hazard lights when suddenly stopping or slowing.
[/quote]
I’ve got to give this response a F. It’s all about controlling your own fate. Putting the hazard lights on is no better than the brake lights plus it’s an extra thing to do that is not neccesary. More importantly, you are relying on others to see it and respond. You do want others to respond to you but you don’t want to count on it.
Whenever you come to a stop or slow down, you should check your rear view and be ready to move if someone is looking like they might be plowing into you. Even sitting at a stop light you should check and be sure you have room to cut between cars ahead of you or drive up onto the curve or make a quick right into the intersection. Even at a dead stop you should have an out.
[quote]on edge wrote:
[quote]postholedigger wrote:
[quote]Tyrant wrote:
[quote]on edge wrote:
My friends father was killed by rebar through the windshield. My friend told me he cried himself to sleep every single night from seven years old until he was 14.
I’m always conscious of work trucks ahead of me and make sure I’m not directly behind them. I’m now adding horse trailers to my list of vehicles to not be behind.
I also echo Bujo’s sentiment in that I believe if you are alert and proactive you can avoid almost all accidents even ones that wouldn’t be technically your fault.
Quick test. If you have to stop quickly for one reason or another, what is the first thing you should do, even before you’ve completed your stop?[/quote]
Profile the vehicle and driver behind me in an attempt to gain knowledge of their probability to have insurance. And remember, after the initial impact, your neck already hurts!
[/quote]
I also instinctively hit the hazard lights when suddenly stopping or slowing.
[/quote]
I’ve got to give this response a F. It’s all about controlling your own fate. Putting the hazard lights on is no better than the brake lights plus it’s an extra thing to do that is not neccesary. More importantly, you are relying on others to see it and respond. You do want others to respond to you but you don’t want to count on it.
Whenever you come to a stop or slow down, you should check your rear view and be ready to move if someone is looking like they might be plowing into you. Even sitting at a stop light you should check and be sure you have room to cut between cars ahead of you or drive up onto the curve or make a quick right into the intersection. Even at a dead stop you should have an out.
[/quote]
Dude, I said ALSO. In addition to what’s already been said. Of course I check the rear view first and check for ways out. Even at a dead stop at a light or in full stop traffic there’s enough room to bail out without hitting the car in front of me. The reason I hit the hazards is it’s not a steady light like the brake light. Flashing lights draws more attention. I wasn’t saying that it’s a substitute for all the other things mentioned.
[quote]Bujo wrote:
So you’re saying 5 drivers managed to avoid an accident caused by a falling tree, while a 6th driver managed to plow into one of the stopped vehicles at 50mph? I can probably think of a dozen things the woman in the convertible could have done to avoid crashing into a parked car at 50mph. Obviously the folks in the stationary vehicles had limited options. [/quote]
I believe what he’s saying is there were 6 cars, 5 in the back all saw the tree and stopped. The lead car didn’t stop in time and hit the trunk which entered the cabin of the convertible.