Zero102
11-13-2007, 10:48 PM
So with everybody posting their accident stories and pics I figured I might as well put mine up too...
I was on my way to work on sunday, it was ~6AM, pitch black out but at least the weather was good. This is on hwy 97, between vernon & kelowna, there is a 1 lane stretch right beside the lake, the mountain is VERY close to the roadway and the other side of the road is only 20-30 feet off the lake in some places. When heading south there is a hard right turn (warning signs all over the place) then a gentle left, the mountain is literally 5-6 feet off the road in this stretch and it is a nearly vertical edge beside the roadway with a 6 foot deep shoulder/ditch immediately beside the roadway.
I was 3rd in a group of 3 vehicles, following 3-4 seconds back of the white focus in front of me who was 5-6 seconds back of this green chevy truck. Honestly we were going about 30-35 over (80 zone, we were travelling 110-115). We go around the hard right and as I enter the corner I see the guy infront of me hit his brakes hard, with distance to spare I held off on braking but eventually I had to slow as well. As we came around the corner I noticed that the truck at the front had gone off the road, he had 2 wheels in the air (over the ditch) and was basically riding on his belly pan, sliding into the ditch. Grinding on the road didn't slow him much, and his truck fell sideways into the ditch as he started to slow. After 1-2 seconds of this he struck an outcropping in the rock. The rock basically smashed the cab of his truck flat with the body, punching in the front-right corner as well. This caused his truck to go nose-down in the ditch and it ejected everything in the bed of the truck down the roadway as his truck turned around, landing on its drivers side in the road. It slid another hundred feet or so spinning slightly and came to a stop almost completely perpindicular to the road, on the drivers side with the undercarriage facing me.
I had to stop a couple hundred feet back due to there being debris all over the road (I have a VERY low car), so I got out, grabbed my phone and went running over. The guy in front of me stopped, then took off squealing his tires, ran over all the debris and blew right by the truck, so now my car was the only one sitting on the road, hazards on just past a blind corner (really, I had NOWHERE else to park, the road sucks here). I got halfway to the truck as I heard another guy come around the corner really fast, lock up his brakes trying to stop, skid around my car and he ran over the debris then took off as well.
I reached the truck to find a young male in his 20's out of the truck, up and walking around. I honestly have no idea how he got out. The only hole left big enough to fit a person through was the windshield and it wasn't really broken out, but smashed in. He had minor facial wounds and some broken ribs (he was stabbing his finger into his rib cage screaming about how it doesn't hurt). He was clearly disoriented and confused since all he could talk about was how he had to find his camera, apparently it had pictures of his vegas trip on them, and they were "his WHOLE LIFE!!!".
Paramedics and police were called however they took upwards of 25 MINUTES to arrive. We weren't even 5 minutes from the nearest town, or even 20 minutes from vernon OR kelowna. After they arrived on the scene the driver was treated and taken away, and I was allowed to leave.
Another amazing thing, remember the contents of his truck bed being flung down the road? He was a drywaller, he had a bed full of hammers, saws, saw horses, etc. Heavy dangerous tools. There was a truck coming the other way on the highway that JUST BARELY stopped without striking the truck that came to rest in the middle of the road. Myself and the driver of that truck were walking about afterwards and we found hammers, drywall saws, big pieces of metal, 200-300 feet down the road, past this truck on BOTH SIDES. This guy drove right through flying debris and was not struck by a single piece. Imagine a hammer coming through your windshield at 100km/hr???
That was a seriously crazy thing to watch. I've seen the aftermath of serious accidents and was even in one when I was much younger, but I have never witnessed something like this, I have never watched it happen. It was absolutely insane.
I have pictures as well, sorry they were taken with my cell and it had been in my pocket so the CCD was very warm, you can see the gradient all over the pictures :(
http://phpalbum.zero10.ath.cx/main.php?cmd=imageorig&var1=truck%2F11-11-07_0613.jpg
http://phpalbum.zero10.ath.cx/main.php?cmd=imageorig&var1=truck%2F11-11-07_0616.jpg
http://phpalbum.zero10.ath.cx/main.php?cmd=imageorig&var1=truck%2F11-11-07_0629.jpg
The first 2 are his truck, I don't believe I have the driver in any pictures, but the impact LITERALLY knocked his shoes right off. We never found them. Yes he was wearing his seat belt by the way. The last one is taken from beside my car before I was dismissed from the scene.
The official story is he had fallen asleep, but I overheard him calling his dad on a cell phone and let's just say sleep deprivation was not the only factor in this collision. I don't know how you can sleep around a HARD right turn then completely miss a gentle left not 2 seconds later.
I was on my way to work on sunday, it was ~6AM, pitch black out but at least the weather was good. This is on hwy 97, between vernon & kelowna, there is a 1 lane stretch right beside the lake, the mountain is VERY close to the roadway and the other side of the road is only 20-30 feet off the lake in some places. When heading south there is a hard right turn (warning signs all over the place) then a gentle left, the mountain is literally 5-6 feet off the road in this stretch and it is a nearly vertical edge beside the roadway with a 6 foot deep shoulder/ditch immediately beside the roadway.
I was 3rd in a group of 3 vehicles, following 3-4 seconds back of the white focus in front of me who was 5-6 seconds back of this green chevy truck. Honestly we were going about 30-35 over (80 zone, we were travelling 110-115). We go around the hard right and as I enter the corner I see the guy infront of me hit his brakes hard, with distance to spare I held off on braking but eventually I had to slow as well. As we came around the corner I noticed that the truck at the front had gone off the road, he had 2 wheels in the air (over the ditch) and was basically riding on his belly pan, sliding into the ditch. Grinding on the road didn't slow him much, and his truck fell sideways into the ditch as he started to slow. After 1-2 seconds of this he struck an outcropping in the rock. The rock basically smashed the cab of his truck flat with the body, punching in the front-right corner as well. This caused his truck to go nose-down in the ditch and it ejected everything in the bed of the truck down the roadway as his truck turned around, landing on its drivers side in the road. It slid another hundred feet or so spinning slightly and came to a stop almost completely perpindicular to the road, on the drivers side with the undercarriage facing me.
I had to stop a couple hundred feet back due to there being debris all over the road (I have a VERY low car), so I got out, grabbed my phone and went running over. The guy in front of me stopped, then took off squealing his tires, ran over all the debris and blew right by the truck, so now my car was the only one sitting on the road, hazards on just past a blind corner (really, I had NOWHERE else to park, the road sucks here). I got halfway to the truck as I heard another guy come around the corner really fast, lock up his brakes trying to stop, skid around my car and he ran over the debris then took off as well.
I reached the truck to find a young male in his 20's out of the truck, up and walking around. I honestly have no idea how he got out. The only hole left big enough to fit a person through was the windshield and it wasn't really broken out, but smashed in. He had minor facial wounds and some broken ribs (he was stabbing his finger into his rib cage screaming about how it doesn't hurt). He was clearly disoriented and confused since all he could talk about was how he had to find his camera, apparently it had pictures of his vegas trip on them, and they were "his WHOLE LIFE!!!".
Paramedics and police were called however they took upwards of 25 MINUTES to arrive. We weren't even 5 minutes from the nearest town, or even 20 minutes from vernon OR kelowna. After they arrived on the scene the driver was treated and taken away, and I was allowed to leave.
Another amazing thing, remember the contents of his truck bed being flung down the road? He was a drywaller, he had a bed full of hammers, saws, saw horses, etc. Heavy dangerous tools. There was a truck coming the other way on the highway that JUST BARELY stopped without striking the truck that came to rest in the middle of the road. Myself and the driver of that truck were walking about afterwards and we found hammers, drywall saws, big pieces of metal, 200-300 feet down the road, past this truck on BOTH SIDES. This guy drove right through flying debris and was not struck by a single piece. Imagine a hammer coming through your windshield at 100km/hr???
That was a seriously crazy thing to watch. I've seen the aftermath of serious accidents and was even in one when I was much younger, but I have never witnessed something like this, I have never watched it happen. It was absolutely insane.
I have pictures as well, sorry they were taken with my cell and it had been in my pocket so the CCD was very warm, you can see the gradient all over the pictures :(
http://phpalbum.zero10.ath.cx/main.php?cmd=imageorig&var1=truck%2F11-11-07_0613.jpg
http://phpalbum.zero10.ath.cx/main.php?cmd=imageorig&var1=truck%2F11-11-07_0616.jpg
http://phpalbum.zero10.ath.cx/main.php?cmd=imageorig&var1=truck%2F11-11-07_0629.jpg
The first 2 are his truck, I don't believe I have the driver in any pictures, but the impact LITERALLY knocked his shoes right off. We never found them. Yes he was wearing his seat belt by the way. The last one is taken from beside my car before I was dismissed from the scene.
The official story is he had fallen asleep, but I overheard him calling his dad on a cell phone and let's just say sleep deprivation was not the only factor in this collision. I don't know how you can sleep around a HARD right turn then completely miss a gentle left not 2 seconds later.