Mike's Railroad Crossing Forum

Working at a state truck scale, we sometimes get called to assist officers dealing with an accident involving an 18 wheeler. In this case, the fault was 100% the owner of the car. The truck had slowed to 5 MPH in traffic thru a construction zone. A GT Mustang being driven by an eldery gentleman going way, way too fast, hardly had time to brake.

The Mustang stopped when it collided with the last trailer axle:

That has to hurt

gedunk wrote:Working at a state truck scale, we sometimes get called to assist officers dealing with an accident involving an 18 wheeler. In this case, the fault was 100% the owner of the car. The truck had slowed to 5 MPH in traffic thru a construction zone. A GT Mustang being driven by an eldery gentleman going way, way too fast, hardly had time to brake.

Why the hell would you go 5MPH through a construction zone sounds like your asking for trouble especially if its an interstate?
Also I thought the FHWA had set standards on these "Truck Underride Guards" if not they should.

TrainmanKight wrote:

gedunk wrote:Working at a state truck scale, we sometimes get called to assist officers dealing with an accident involving an 18 wheeler. In this case, the fault was 100% the owner of the car. The truck had slowed to 5 MPH in traffic thru a construction zone. A GT Mustang being driven by an eldery gentleman going way, way too fast, hardly had time to brake.

Why the hell would you go 5MPH through a construction zone sounds like your asking for trouble especially if its an interstate?
Also I thought the FHWA had set standards on these "Truck Underride Guards" if not they should.

Traffic was down to two lanes, and on I-5 on the Grapevine, that backs traffic up, even at 2 AM. The underride bar was in place, and is visible pushed out of the way. It's designed to prevent going under the trailer at reasonable speed differences, not an 80 MPH difference.

The construction zone was plainly marked and had lots of advance warning with mobile billboards, and that traffic was backed up. CHP cruisers were on the shoulder with the overhead lights on, etc.

Just going too fast...

And did the driver of the Mustang live through that?

cabman701 wrote:And did the driver of the Mustang live through that?

I'd probably say
Sorry, i've always wanted to use that smiley

cabman701 wrote:And did the driver of the Mustang live through that?

Ah..No. If you really want to know how violent these wrecks are, I can tell you there was hair and a few teeth on the back of the trailer. Pretty f'ing ugly, but at least it was over quick.

gedunk wrote:

cabman701 wrote:And did the driver of the Mustang live through that?

Ah..No. If you really want to know how violent these wrecks are, I can tell you there was hair and a few teeth on the back of the trailer. Pretty f'ing ugly, but at least it was over quick.

I kind of figured that would be the case. But I've seen crashes like that where you would think there was no chance the person lived, and they walk away with a few scratches.