Head -On Accident Developing Thoughts?

[Gale Hawkins]

As I am getting older I have begun to realize more than ever the inherent danger of 2 lane roads....whether they are in the country or not...When you really stop and think just a foot or two from you is another vehicle going in the opposite direction at least 55 mph...and just one dropped item, cell phone distraction, text message etc. separates us from life or death ...it gets unnerving...I find , I am always driving very defensively and anticipating where I could go should an oncoming car come into my lane....Dangerous roads for sure.

Bob am seeing the same thing. Phones and smart phones operated by drivers does not help this problem.

As for the bus accident the turn out 'OK' due to no loss of kids. These in the car was bad for all the families involved. I agree if it had been that car in front of the bus that got hit there may have been more deaths.

 

[tcartwri]

When you're driving a large heavy vehicle like that, you have one instant in time to make your choice as to where to go. It's not like a car where the suspension will settle and you may have time to correct again. I really don't see that the bus driver did anything wrong.

As for lap belts in busses, they can cause more injury to the spine and head than they would prevent. It's better to be thrown straight into the seat in front of you, than crash into it with your face.

 

[dmccarty]

As I am getting older I have begun to realize more than ever the inherent danger of 2 lane roads....whether they are in the country or not...When you really stop and think just a foot or two from you is another vehicle going in the opposite direction at least 55 mph...and just one dropped item, cell phone distraction, text message etc. separates us from life or death ...it gets unnerving...

Exactly. Remember that when anti gun people say you can't trust your neighbor with a weapon. I pass a few hundred people a day who have my life/health AND my families health in THEIR hands. Scares the scat out of me so I drive a big truck.

What one can't see from the video is the position of the car when the bus made the decision to change the line of impact/move out of the lane. There is a guard rail that limits what the bus driver can do as well. I had a similar accident when a lady accelerated into the intersection even though she could not see uncoming traffic. They only thing I could do was change the angle of impact and burn off speed by hitting the brakes, I do love ABS, and laying down rubber. Those two little things changed the point of impact and its severity. Even though both cars weighed the same, the car that hit us was spun around 180 degrees with deployed air bags while we just traveled through the intersection. Speed counts. Speed and mass counts even more. There was not much the bus driver could do but what he/she did. I would be curious if the occupants of the car had on belts and their speed at the time of impact. The belts might not have mattered as fast as they seemed to have been going. Certainly for the people up front.

Later,
Dan

 

[meburdick]

I believe that it is our "normal" reaction to move right when someone is in our lane because that's the side of the road we drive on. Over the years, we become conditioned that a driver entering our travel lane will more than likely attempt to get back to *their* travel lane, which is to our left.

This was unfortunate at best, and completely idiotic and avoidable at worst. Glad no one on the bus was seriously hurt.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Sat through a lecture by a Traffic Safety Expert one time. He advised when we meet someone traveling in the opposite direction on a two lane highway we are only seperated from them by eighteen to twenty four inches. He then asked the question how many would stand against a wall and let a random sampling of drivers currently driving down any two lane highway shoot a handgun at a target eighteen to twenty four inches from them. No one raised there hand to volunteer.

Boy, was that ever exaggerated for effect. Hard for me to sit thru lectures with a straight face when people do that.
larry

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Boy, was that ever exaggerated for effect. Hard for me to sit thru lectures with a straight face when people do that.
larry

SPYDERLK it may been exaggerated but after pulling home a used 10' x 16' storage building on two lane roads today with the F700 and 8' heavy equipment trailer 60 miles and 2.5 hours later I was very aware how close I was to mail boxes and car fenders.

 

[turnkey4099]

I believe that it is our "normal" reaction to move right when someone is in our lane because that's the side of the road we drive on. Over the years, we become conditioned that a driver entering our travel lane will more than likely attempt to get back to *their* travel lane, which is to our left.

This was unfortunate at best, and completely idiotic and avoidable at worst. Glad no one on the bus was seriously hurt.

Yes it is the normal reaction and is taught that way in safety classes. I had an 18 wheeler wipe out a car just up the highway from me. Gal went to sleep apparently crossed into his lane, he went left, she went right and he broadsided her - wiped the front axle and 5th wheel off the ttractor, couldn't even see the car under it.

It is such an automatic raction to 'go right' you don't even make a conscious decision about it unless you have some time to plan.

Harry K

 

[SPYDERLK]

SPYDERLK it may been exaggerated but after pulling home a used 10' x 16' storage building on two lane roads today with the F700 and 8' heavy equipment trailer 60 miles and 2.5 hours later I was very aware how close I was to mail boxes and car fenders.

Yeah, aint it the truth. Special cases that actually put you in that close zone ... and combine with less ability to control, are awfully tense.
larry

 

[meburdick]

SPYDERLK it may been exaggerated but after pulling home a used 10' x 16' storage building on two lane roads today with the F700 and 8' heavy equipment trailer 60 miles and 2.5 hours later I was very aware how close I was to mail boxes and car fenders.

How did you fit a 10' x 16' shed on an 8' trailer?

 

[Ridgewalker]

Z

It is not just rural 2 lane roads...
I was passiing another truck on the interstate , on a long curve and noticed headlights seeming to be in my lane. When I confirmed that miliseconds later, I just turned the wheel, figuring a side impact was better than a head-on. They got the drunk lady in a Buick 225 traveling at over 100mph stopped 20 miles south of where she entered the wrong Interstate ramp. She didn't hit anyone at 3am.
david from jax

I had the same thing happen to me a few years ago on 61 North heading up to Hannibal, MO. I was in the fast lane glancing down at a map, I looked up and saw the car and flung the wheel to the right and skidded across the slow lane and somehow ended up parallel parked on the shoulder. We missed by 50 yards at best and the other car just kept on going. A few minutes later I heard reports on the radio to be alert for a wrong way car.