I just saw the worst accident I have ever seen.

[Coventina]

A 4-Runner (or something similar, didn't get a good look) slammed into another vehicle, flipped 4 times & burst into flame. It was like a frickin' movie.

I suppose a car could have done the same, but I think the high center of gravity had a lot to do with it. And why did it explode? Was it packed full of dynamite?

Two guys crawled out of the wreckage, singed & probably with lots of soft tissue damage. They were carted off on gurneys to ambulances, once the EMTs arrived.

Okay, I have to go have a stiff drink now...

[onethatcares]

1. just stay off the road after that drink/

:toast:

[Coventina]

3. Well, I'm actually having a stiff Root Beer

It's really too early for much else. I still have work to do...but I'm finding it hard to concentrate...

[kestrel91316]

15. I can relate. Years ago on a remote stretch of highway in NorCal

a car with two young Navy guys in it flipped over just in front of me and one guy was thrown through the windshield and lost part of his head and face but didn't die right away. Thank heaven another car happened along going the other way a minute later and went down the road to the fire station a few miles back. This was long before cell phones.

I got to hang out by myself with the wreckage and victims for a few minutes and it shook me up pretty good.

[Coventina]

16. gosh, that's really horrible

I am starting to feel extremely fortunate, this could have been so much worse...

[slackmaster]

2. SUVs are not appropriate for inexperienced drivers

I would wager that excessive speed had something to do with it. Maybe even talking on a cell phone, or TEXTING while driving.

(BTW in the interest of full disclosure, I drive a Nissan Pathfinder.) :)

[Coventina]

5. The guys were very young (it was right by the college where I work)

and yes, they were speeding, through a construction zone, no less....

[AzNick]

24. Neither are souped-up Honda/Scion/Toyotas

I got rear-ended by a kid in a souped-up Scion TC.

These things do the 0-60 under 8 stock, which is too much for a 20 year old like him, who was speeding in heavy traffic.

[louis-t]

4. I have noticed traffic reporters saying "roll-over

accident" quite a bit in the last 10 years. I suspect all of those SUVs with high center of gravity.

[AzNick]

21. SUVs have a higher CG and therefore roll over more easily

Cars almost never flip over, unless very high speed was involved on top of something acting as a ramp.

[TheWraith]

6. The impact probably compression-popped the fuel tank, which caused the explosion.

Big, flashy burn-off of the vehicle's gas.

[Coventina]

8. There were several impressive fireballs & lots of dense smoke

So dense that it completely engulfed the entire street. It was crazy. I always thought that movie & tv special effects were overdone to look flashy. This was as theatrical as anything I've ever seen.

[Xithras]

11. Actually, TV explosions usually use gasoline.

Gasoline produces very large and impressive fireballs if compressed correctly, but generates a relatively low power/low heat explosion.

I was witness to a fairly spectacular crash several years ago where a guy had a few gas cans in the back of his car. The explosions were dramatic, but sadly the driver didn't make it out like yours did.

[Downtown Hound]

7. Horrible isn't it? Take it easy for awhile.

I once saw a car that had a family of four in it veer over the freeway into oncoming traffic from far away. By the time I got to the scene, there was a severed human leg on the road, a body that had had its clothes completely torn off from sliding on the pavement as well as a good portion of its skin, and mashed piles of guts. It turns out that none of them were wearing their seatbelt. I always tell that story to people that insist on not wearing their seatbelt. They all would have probably lived if they had been.

Never seen anything like that before and I hope I never do again. If you need to, talk to somebody. It helps.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

9. Yeah, I saw one of those once.

Bodies on the road and everything - not pretty. Excuse my French but seat-belt deniers are fucking idiots.

[Coventina]

13. oh, that is beyond horrible!

I'm so sorry you had to experience something like that. Did you have nightmares afterwards? I probably would have.

These guys must have been wearing seat belts, or they probably would have been thrown out of the vehicle in all the flipping.

I'm a little shaken, but feeling thankful that it was not worse. Thanks.

:pals:

[Downtown Hound]

18. Actually, the ironic thing was, I kind of shook that one off

Mostly because not six months earlier, I saw a 19 year old kid in an SUV swerve right into an oncoming truck and die. That was the first fatal accident I've ever seen, and it was all the more traumatic because at one point the truck swerved after hitting the SUV and almost hit me. I still remember the truck coming right for me, in slow motion. I've always heard about how adrenaline can make things move in slow motion, but I'd never experienced it before then. Fortunately the driver of the truck kept on turning his wheel and he ended up missing me, but he stopped in the middle of the road, sideways. I slammed on my brakes and stopped not ten feet in front of him, barely missing him. When it was over there was a big ass truck basically sprawled out blocking the entire road.

Even though the other accident was far gorier, the first one traumatized me more. I don't know if it was the fact that it was my first one or the fact that I was almost in it myself, but I was really shaken by that. The second one was very unpleasant, but I guess I had already been baptized by fire at that point, so to speak.

That was in 2006, a year of witnessing bad accidents for me.

[gkhouston]

39. Yeah, I've had the "time slowing down" thing, too.

I can remember thinking, "A Chevette? We're going to get hit by a Chevette?" I don't remember screaming, although a friend of mine remembers it clearly. After the wreck (no one was injured seriously), she said to me, "You know that dream most people have where you're screaming and no sound comes out? You don't have to worry about that." :blush:

[Hawkowl]

40. Adrenaline

I've had several near death type accident experiences with the associated time dilation. I think that the reason your first experience affects you more is due to the "hyper awareness" your adrenaline catapulted your entire being into. It is a very, very intense experience and your brain, indeed your entire nervous system, has put a big explanation point right next to this experience. Colors can appear brighter, sounds imperceptible before now come in Dolby stereo, and your reflexes have accelerated to superhuman speed.

When people are subjected to many of these experiences with the associated adrenaline bursts and release of other stress hormones over a period of time, they are prone to develop PTSD. You can begin to see that how these experiences can physiologically change a person's nervous system. I think this was probably evolutionary advantageous in outwitting predators, but in modern society it can be a burden.

[ailsagirl]

20. How horrific... takes a long time to get those images out of your head

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

10. Large Marge?

sorry - totally inappropriate, but the first thing that came to mind

[JVS]

14. LOL! It sounded like a garbage truck being dropped off the empire state building.

And when they finally pulled the driver's body from the twisted, burning wreck, it looked like...

[smirkymonkey]

34. That's exactly what I was thinking!

Sick, I know, but I have seen Pee Wee's Big Adventure about 40 times. (not an exaggeration - part of my personal cult collection)

[JVS]

12. WOW!

[AzNick]

17. It does not "explode" but indeed busrts into flames really fast

Which is why you need to GTHO if you smell gasoline, because it will probably catch fire on a hot header and once it starts burning, you have 20 seconds maximum to get out, before it turns into an inferno, and I mean the type you don't want to approach at less than 30 60 feet.

Pity those who pass out or are too injured to get out, or even just trapped, and the vehicle turns into that.

As for the explosion, usually it's explosions and it's the tank, the tires and the glass.

I saw a pickup truck burst into flames once and people were driving by in total oblivion of any danger.

I am glad these people got out. Also it shows that the vehicles of today have improved their crash protection greatly. Just 15 years ago these people might have been killed on impact.

Toyota has a really good history for that matter.

[Coventina]

22. In this case, there were multiple large fireballs.

There was a UPS truck nearby, and the UPS man ran up with his fire extinguisher to try and put it out. He was greeted by another large explosion, almost engulfed by it. So he gave up and ran away. (The guys had already exited the vehicle by that point).

[AzNick]

23. Huh that's a bit bizarre

Several large fireballs?
I will take your word for it.

[Coventina]

25. It was bizarre. Each time I thought "Well, that must be the worst of it"

:shrug:

Eventually, it did quit exploding, and just burned briskly until the FD got there. They had it out pretty quickly.

[AzNick]

26. Those might have been "cookers" you know

Some of the stuff they use for cooking meth is very capable of exploding like that, especially fertilizers.

And two young guys in a $30K+ SUV can also fit the profile.

[Coventina]

31. Interesting thought.

I'll have to see if I can find the news report on the local news. If "stuff" was found in the vehicle (whatever was left of it) that would probably make the local news...

[ailsagirl]

19. I'm still shaken up by one I missed by about fifteen minutes...

I was heading west on Interstate 80 (California) and a car going East just sailed over the median and smashed into three west-bound cars. Four people were killed and the freeway was shut down for six hours. I was so shaken up. The CHP was making people turn around and go back. I managed to get home the back way but it haunted me for a long time.

Then, later, it occurred to me that had I left about 15 minutes earlier, I could have been involved. Yikes.

You can still see the burned part of the freeway when you pass there.

Driving is the most dangerous thing we do and car accidents scare the hell out of me.

:scared:

[RevolutionStartsNow]

27. Last night with my daughter at the wheel, we came upon...

a motorcycle accident on the freeway. This was her first time driving to San Francisco, on a big fast freeway. We were in the carpool lane, and traffic was slow but moving. Suddenly we saw a motorcycle down in the lane, just totalled.

The driver was sitting against the center divide, helmet still on, couldn't tell his condition. Another car was stopped in front and the driver was standing outside.

My daughter took a deep breath and drove around the accident. Later she told me it freaked her out but she had to focus on her driving. Scary. I read later that the motorcyclist wasn't badly hurt, for which I was relieved.

I saw a horrible accident once, car flipped off an overpass (driver had a seizure) and landed on another car. I saw the driver half out the window, clearly dead, just after it happened. That one will haunt me for a long time.

I agree with whoever on this thread said that driving is the most dangerous thing we do. I am a confident driver but sometimes it hits me that the potential for great injury or death is very high out there on the roads.

[ailsagirl]

36. I said it-- it's something we have to do and tend to take lightly--

(that is, as a matter of course) until we see the horrible toll it can take. I don't understand how anyone could be a paramedic, police officer, or fireman. But thank God there are such people!!

[YellowRubberDuckie]

28. That is how my sister was killed.

Her sports car was hit by a pickup, flipped, and she and the driver were killed. She and my nephew, whom she was pregnant with at the time, were killed instantly. He was driving way too fast down a country paved road. Speed limit was 45, he was going somewhere around 65. He broke his leg, and no one ever thought to check him for alcohol.
People are not careful and don't give a shit about anyone else when they drive. They are rude, stupid and petty.
Duckie

[Coventina]

30. I'm so sorry for your loss...

It's very true that many (if not most) drivers do not consider that they hold other people's lives in their hands when they drive.

:hug:

[ailsagirl]

37. I'm so sorry

:hug:

[Lex]

29. People think SUV's are "safer" but they are actually more dangerous

due to the high center of gravity--it's hard to keep them under control if anything goes wrong.

Sorry you had to witness such a horrible accident. :(
Hope those in the accident will be okay.

[conspirator]

32. Remember the Canyonero: "Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts" nt

[NuttyFluffers]

33. was gonna ask if its choco-laxative, prune pudding at a GOP convention, but inappropriate now...

:( you spoil my fun.

oh well, stiff drinks for everybody!
:toast:

[B Calm]

35. I watched a woman with three little kids pull out in front of a dump truck

hauling a load of gravel. The dump truck had the right away and was driving 60 mph. I was right behind the woman with kids at a stop sign. She didn't see the dump truck and pulled right out in front of him. The truck killed the small infant in the back seat and the rest of the family had to be removed by the jaws of life but were still alive.

I drive an 18 wheeler for a living and have seen my share of bad accidents over the years. Many of my co-workers have been in accidents that end with deaths. It is something that changes a truck driver and it's very hard to shake off.

[nadinbrzezinski]

38. Fuel line ruptured and there was a spark

as a former EMT I saw that ONCE in ten years. It is not that often that you see that

And the high center of gravity leads to more SUVs rolling over than other vehicles...

Those guys WERE lucky... and probably wearing seat belts

[lpbk2713]

41. I can imagine how you feel.

I arrived at the scene of an accident right after a train hit a car at a R/R crossing.

It wasn't pretty. :eyes: