V
UPDATE: SEE #17 Six Teenage Girls Killed in Car Crash With Semi
- Thread starter The Fed
- Start date
daconchslop
Autocross Champion
- Location
- SC
- Car(s)
- ACS SE/Tech
Chevy Spark. 4 Seater car with 6 girls...Most likely on their mobile phones.
cb1111
Newbie
- Location
- Virginia, USA
You see the (virtually undamaged) back of the car and ask if it is a VW?
Unbelievable tragedy that could have been easily avoided. There are at least seven victims here (the six girls and the semi driver) plus the first responders.
Yeah, I said to myself it wasn't. Years ago, I was in Philly getting my car serviced when I saw a Chevy Cavalier make a U-turn in front of a trash truck. BIg guy, as in obese was alone. The car was only 1/2 the width afterwards. His seat looked like it was sheared off, and it and the guy were the back. He wasn't wearing his seat belt, or he would have been crushed because the truck hit his door. The fire department needed to cut the roof off. The guy looked liked he wasn't hurt at all.
Overloading was the cause for everyone dying, given the weight of the truck hitting them. Probably squashed them together, squashing their ribcages.
cb1111
Newbie
- Location
- Virginia, USA
I'm not even sure how you can get 6 people into a spark.
I can only mean that there were 4 in the back - so nobody was belted.
This is the type of story that needs to be highlighted when people get their first license, showing the actual carnage, the reasons why and how multiple "simple" bad decisions add up to a catastrophic event.
No, I'm not talking about the movies we saw in high school, just a simple discussion of these types of accidents happen.
I can only mean that there were 4 in the back - so nobody was belted.
This is the type of story that needs to be highlighted when people get their first license, showing the actual carnage, the reasons why and how multiple "simple" bad decisions add up to a catastrophic event.
No, I'm not talking about the movies we saw in high school, just a simple discussion of these types of accidents happen.
cb1111
Newbie
- Location
- Virginia, USA
Yeah, but that was with three on the tree and the emergency brake under the dash.
You'd need one hell of a pillow for that handbrake. and that shifter is in an awkward position.
Unless there was an alcoholic beverage involved, one of them really should have said "this isn't a good idea."
Peer pressure is a powerful thing nowadays, especially with teenage girls. Add an underdeveloped sense of mortality.
StealthGTI
Autocross Champion
- Location
- Newport News, VA
- Car(s)
- 2017 GTI Sport
It's tragic, but not unheard of in small towns. My family is from a small town of similar size. There, it was often a ritual to pile-into a car or pickup truck at lunchtime to go anywhere but the campus for lunch. Small towns can have what may be a false sense of safety. So, seat belt laws may be ignored (no rear seat belt law for passengers over 7 years old in OK) and common sense flies to the wind for "just a quick run" for fast food. "These crashes are things that happen elsewhere, never to me..." Kids die in crashes all the time; I think we're reading about it only because so many died in a single accident.
I despise government over-reach, but some laws are good. For example, young drivers in Virginia are not allowed more than one passenger, except for family members. My daughter knew to never violate this since the consequences from me could be steep. She still managed to total a new-ish Jetta when she was almost 18, completely her fault. She was fine, as were the other cars involved. Had that not been the case, at least she wouldn't have taken-out a bunch of friends with her.
I can see and imagine what went wrong at that intersection. It's easy to assume, perhaps incorrectly, that the very young driver of the car pulled out in front of a truck that couldn't stop. Those close to victims seldom want to admit fault. The small town from my youth had a brother and sister die when they rear-ended a school bus that was turning left. Apparently, the vehicle in front of them saw the bus, moved to the right lane to pass, and the kids didn't react soon enough, probably because they were either talking or following too closely for 70 mph. It was very much their fault, but no one was allowed to say it. Back to this story, the driver of the rock truck will be scrutinized for a long time, may lose his job, and will likely be in and out of court, even if charges are never filed. And that doesn't even consider his own emotional trauma. He'll be totally screwed if it comes out that he was even barely exceeding the 50 mph speed limit there. Commercial drivers often get nailed with full fault if even one thing is not quite right.
I hope they post a follow-up. Something tells me they won't update if the girl was at fault.
I despise government over-reach, but some laws are good. For example, young drivers in Virginia are not allowed more than one passenger, except for family members. My daughter knew to never violate this since the consequences from me could be steep. She still managed to total a new-ish Jetta when she was almost 18, completely her fault. She was fine, as were the other cars involved. Had that not been the case, at least she wouldn't have taken-out a bunch of friends with her.
I can see and imagine what went wrong at that intersection. It's easy to assume, perhaps incorrectly, that the very young driver of the car pulled out in front of a truck that couldn't stop. Those close to victims seldom want to admit fault. The small town from my youth had a brother and sister die when they rear-ended a school bus that was turning left. Apparently, the vehicle in front of them saw the bus, moved to the right lane to pass, and the kids didn't react soon enough, probably because they were either talking or following too closely for 70 mph. It was very much their fault, but no one was allowed to say it. Back to this story, the driver of the rock truck will be scrutinized for a long time, may lose his job, and will likely be in and out of court, even if charges are never filed. And that doesn't even consider his own emotional trauma. He'll be totally screwed if it comes out that he was even barely exceeding the 50 mph speed limit there. Commercial drivers often get nailed with full fault if even one thing is not quite right.
I hope they post a follow-up. Something tells me they won't update if the girl was at fault.
miikez.
Autocross Newbie
- Location
- Los Angeles, CA
- Car(s)
- '18 GSW 4mo 6MT
shovelhd
Autocross Champion
- Location
- Western MA
Stop obsessively focusing on seat belts. Seat belts are a piece of the puzzle, but seat belts aren't going to save anyone from a crash like that. Focus on things that had a material contribution to the crash. Driver experience. Driver distraction. Phone usage. History of accidents at the location. Speed. Visibility. Road conditions. Drug and/or alcohol use. Accident reconstruction.
Improper U-turn.
StealthGTI
Autocross Champion
- Location
- Newport News, VA
- Car(s)
- 2017 GTI Sport
Seat belt use, or lack thereof due to overloading, is about the only point of fact that was released in the article. Readers can only speculate from there. Most don't want to jump to "blaming the victim," which would preclude assuming driver inexperience, distraction, phone use, etc. Looking at the scene, it's hard to imagine how she possibly could have thought that she could make the turn safely. One plausible explanation could be that the rock truck mistakenly had its right turn signal on, indicating an intention to merge onto Rt 22. As an experienced driver, I would not trust a turn signal at that junction.
Judging from the damage to the truck, she had just barely made it into the lane before the nearly head-on collision. Initial reports mistakenly say that she was doing a U-turn. Legally, she was executing a right turn, if she was actually turning in that direction (witnesses?). But a right turn at that intersection is about 160-degrees, almost a U-turn. Their direction of travel has me wondering two things: Why not make the safer right turn just 1500 ft sooner? Also, if they were headed back to school from lunch or home, she would have been attempting a left turn at that intersection. A left turn could be dangerous since checking for cross traffic from the right is likely difficult, especially with a car-full of passengers. There were no witness statements that I noticed. So, how did they know what she was doing unless the truck driver reported her right turn signal? Regardless, that truck should have been VERY easy to see, if the car's driver was paying attention. Without more info, my blinker theory is the only thing that makes sense... that and paying no attention at all, unfortunately.
Another thing to consider, as we think about friends and family, is how the parents of the passengers will look toward the parents of the driver. I think that family will feel more pain from many directions for a while (people assigning blame). It comes with living in a small town. I've known people to pack-up and leave town for far less.
Judging from the damage to the truck, she had just barely made it into the lane before the nearly head-on collision. Initial reports mistakenly say that she was doing a U-turn. Legally, she was executing a right turn, if she was actually turning in that direction (witnesses?). But a right turn at that intersection is about 160-degrees, almost a U-turn. Their direction of travel has me wondering two things: Why not make the safer right turn just 1500 ft sooner? Also, if they were headed back to school from lunch or home, she would have been attempting a left turn at that intersection. A left turn could be dangerous since checking for cross traffic from the right is likely difficult, especially with a car-full of passengers. There were no witness statements that I noticed. So, how did they know what she was doing unless the truck driver reported her right turn signal? Regardless, that truck should have been VERY easy to see, if the car's driver was paying attention. Without more info, my blinker theory is the only thing that makes sense... that and paying no attention at all, unfortunately.
Another thing to consider, as we think about friends and family, is how the parents of the passengers will look toward the parents of the driver. I think that family will feel more pain from many directions for a while (people assigning blame). It comes with living in a small town. I've known people to pack-up and leave town for far less.
shovelhd
Autocross Champion
- Location
- Western MA
I was not intending to "blame the victim". The rock truck should get the same level of scrutiny. The advantage he has is that he gets to testify.