High-speed I-95 crash kills seven

[MaineDem]

CARMEL — Seven people, including at least three young children, were killed Sunday when their sport utility vehicle crashed on Interstate 95 after speeding into the breakdown lane to pass two cars, Maine State Police said. The accident occurred around 2:45 p.m. in the northbound lanes about 10 miles west of Bangor.

The Ford Explorer went out of control after clipping one of the cars it was trying to pass, said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety.

The Explorer then turned sideways, became airborne, slammed into some trees in the median and came to rest on its roof, McCausland said

http://www.pressherald.com/news/state/040510fatal.shtml

Three adults, three children under 10, and a teenager killed. It was a beautiful afternoon yesterday so we can't blame wet roads. Sad.

[Submariner]

1. That's one major idiot gone from the gene pool

Too bad he had to take 6 innocents with him. Passing on the right in a breakdown lane at high speed! What an idiot!

[Spinzonner]

2. Actually, with children along

there's probably a strong possibility that they shared his genes so there may have been a compounded effect of terminating the gene line

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

3. That's some fucking sick thinking

Just because you're a fucking idiot doesn't mean that people should rejoice at your death

[Spinzonner]

4. Who's rejoicing

Just observing the probable implications

[saigon68]

6. Good Morning

Lets all have a nice day :-) :-) :-)

(no I'm not criticizing any comments)

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

11. Thanks - I'm a little crancy today

Thanks for putting some perspective in!

Pax!

:)

[DrDan]

15. ok Rush

probably a fraternity, prank. Right?

[benfranklin1776]

21. Passing in the breakdown lane at high speed. The depth of assininity.

Killing people because he was in a hurry. Unfortunately this type of insanely aggressive driving is seen all too frequently these days on our highways. Tailgating, swerving sudden, signallless lane changes, weaving in and out of traffic while blaring horns and shaking fists and consistently driving thirty and forty miles an hour over the speed limit. It is borne of a supremely arrogant selfishness on the part of these jackasses and a perverted belief that "they own the roads and everyone should get out of their way." Stupid ignorance and callous disregard for human life that is nothing short of criminal negligence. I would hope that this senseless tragedy might cause others who drive this way to reexamine their puerile behavior, but I won't hold my breath since such reexamination requires the capacity to think rationally.

[nolabels]

5. Traffic reports at DU ?

People sometime have a hard time connecting the dots, but some of or a good part of traffic accidents with fatalities can be traced to political motivations of others. Our family picked up one of those Explorers in 2000. We were shocked after we heard about the tire problems Ford had with Firestone and all the deaths they were causing.

Ford didn't want anybody to find out because it would hurt their business on one of the bright spots of the business. Once people found out about, the sales plummeted and Ford probably got it worse in the end. Politics with peoples safety another fine thing Corporate America does for the people

[wicket]

7. Ford

After seeing how Ford tried to keep that info about the tires from the public, I'll never own a Ford ever again. It made me so angry that profits were more important than people dying to them. Corporate America at its "best".

[Spinzonner]

9. You would have thought the Pinto debacle

would have taught them something

Oh wait, they're probably Republicans.

[PfcHammer]

10. ah yes, Ford. a few words.

Fix Or Repair Daily
Found On Roadside Dead
Driver Returns On Foot (backwards)

[Blue_Tires]

18. Fucked On Race Day...lol

GM Racing > FoMoCo racing

but anyways the driver was obviously a complete jagg off...just HAD to get there a few minutes earlier, huh?? Betcha now they'd trade the few mins for all their lives back...

[LeftHander]

8. Speeding is not safe in SUVs

Or any car for that matter...Probably more dangerous in SUV...think of the potential energy! All that mass....traveling at 85 m.p.h.

No lateral manuverability, top heavy. Flabby weak tires and suspension designed for a mid size truck with 1/2 as much steel...

Once a SUV loses it 85 they are gone...

Sur ethey look great moving 25 mph up a mountain road on TV....

When they go hurdling past me at 85-90 or tailgating with a cell phoned distracted driver they are truly scary.

Those poor people trusted in thier SUV....

[nolabels]

12. Really you can pick your poison

A Volvo or a BMW can be expensive, but offer a modicum or more of safety. The left side of the vehicle is very vulnerable because you only have the door in between and what hits you.

I wouldn't feel safe with one of them mini vans either. They seem smallish, are too fast, squirrelly and leave little in front of you from what you might impact. Plus if or when you do impact at unsafe speeds, all that metal will be following after you.

A couple of weeks ago a lady got creamed locally. She died as they were trying get her out of the crushed mess that was her her Dodge mini-van. She ran into the side of a truck at 70 mph while talking on a cell phone (she probably never seen it). The bone headed truck driver decided make a ill advised U-turn and pulled out from a blind of trees on the freeway. I learned some about it because the CHP had to check out the truck and our shop because it that does the scheduled maintenance on it.

http://emagazine.credit-suisse.com/article/index.cfm?fuseaction=OpenArticle&aoid=10382

Crash tests prove packed mini-vans dangerous

12.07.2002 Mini-vans are in vogue. Mini-vans are veritable marvels of interior space and serve as a light truck and family vehicle rolled into one. But do the quick-change artists meet all safety requirements? Dekra and Wintherthur Insurance looked into the question in conjunction with their accident research event held on 3 and 4 July 2002 in Wildhaus, Switzerland.
>> to the photo gallery

At last count, there were 237,000 mini-vans on the road in Switzerland (6.5 percent of all registered motor vehicles) and 1,181,871 in Germany (2.7 percent). Mini-vans are popular because of their spaciousness and their extremely versatile interiors. But this versatility and the vehicles? large cargo capacities are exactly where the safety risks lie, as evidenced by the crash tests conducted by Dekra and Winterthur Insurance in Wildhaus.

The entire mini-van is trunk space
"Passengers and cargo sharing the same space is particularly dangerous," explains Jörg Ahlgrimm, the head of analytical assessments at DEKRA. For a mini-van is basically one giant car trunk. Vehicle occupants are separated from the cargo by one or more rows of seats at best, rather than by a solid partition panel like the ones found in sedans. Since the seats can also be removed individually, it is easy to position a washing machine or bicycle right next to passengers. However, a sudden slam on the brakes is enough to set the cargo in motion. The crash tests showed that in the event of a collision, passengers run a considerable risk of being seriously injured by flying objects.

Rotatable, removable seats ? is that as wonderful as it sounds?
Whether the lightweight, easily turned and removed seats in mini-vans are sufficiently stable remains an open question requiring further investigation.
(snip)

[shrike]

13. Ah, passing in the breakdown lane -- sounds like New England

Don't mean to be flip, but I saw it so many times when I lived there. Traffic gets backed up, and some idiot decides to take advantage of that piece of pavement far to the right.

RIP to all the victims.

[MaineDem]

14. Sounds like Massachusetts to me

I don't see it much here in Maine. I used to see it ALL the time when I lived in MASS. In fact, it's even legal at times there.

[Tiberius]

16. On 128

But I would never do that unless traffic was at a crawl or standstill. At high speeds a concealed breakdown could do you and a tire changer in.

[chookie]

19. Sounds like FL to me

I saw idiots do this any number of times when they felt they were being "inconvenienced" by other drivers on the interstate. They will sandwich you between them and a enormous truck and give you the squeeze at high speed. Sick, and sad.

On a related note, here's another crazy FL driver story: about 3 cars were stopped at a red light. A 4th car came up behind them, went into the opposite lane, passed the 3 cars, and then cut in front of them to make a "right turn on red." Unbelievable.

My pet peeve is idiotic drivers.

[Nadienne]

17. Speeding, tailgating, reckless

jackasses with a bloated sense of self-importance... I encounter them from time to time. Their complete lack of consideration for other drivers makes me believe they must be Republicans.

[nolabels]

20. They should make a law to ban driving while Republican

:D



http://www.webwombat.com.au/entertainment/humour/Grumpy_Old_Coot/65more.htm