Woman killed after debris on Hwy. 1 near Stoney Tr smashes through windshield

[urban.one]

Scary stuff.
There is a pic of the vehicle if you click on the link to the article.

A 25-year-old woman has died in hospital after a piece of debris flew off the road and through her windshield, striking her in the head.

Police say the woman was driving westbound on Highway 1 near the Stoney Trail exit at about 9 p.m., following behind a semi truck, when the vehicle hit an unidentified piece of debris on the road.

"It's sobering," said Calgary police duty inspector James Hardy.

"You can imagine that 15 seconds one way or 15 seconds the other and there would be no issues. It might have hit the car, or the hood or something. It's really sobering," he said.

EMS transported the woman to Foothills Hospital "in critical life-threatening condition," a spokesman said, but she passed away on Tuesday morning.

CPS truck and traffic investigators are investigating.

Hardy said the driver of the truck that struck the debris stopped at the scene, but noted the debris was already on the roadway, likely from another vehicle.



Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Wo...#ixzz0sudsJnqs

[beyond_ban]

There is a thread about this right... here.

[GoChris]

Makes me wonder how close she might have been following the truck in front of her. Either way, that sucks, what a freak accident.

[bignerd]

Well I would imagine a semi running over anything at 100 km per hour is going to heave it into the air pretty well...

Shitty deal though. Like the article says, a few second, a few inches would of made all the difference.

[thetransporter]

Originally posted by GoChris
Makes me wonder how close she might have been following the truck in front of her. Either way, that sucks, what a freak accident.

that wouldnt matter. debris can fly a mile




i think canada should hang the person who is behind her death

[thetransporter]

[DonJuan]

Drove by this yesterday evening. Was wondering what was up.

RIP

[CalgaryAS]

Its funny because last week I was driving on deerfoot and something hit my windshield and came soooo close to breaking through, there was glass inside my cabin. Luckily it hit the passenger side and nobody was sitting there. But after that happened to me and then I heard this on the news... I really tripped out.

[D. Dub]

Reason 172, to keep your distance from the rear of tractor trailers.

[syritis]

on the news they showed a brake drum sitting in the grass. and mentioned that the friction surface with very clean with no rust, suggesting that it was likely on the vehicle and came off rather then being dropped from the cargo area.

I can't think of a vehicle where the wheels doesn't hold the brake drum on and this theory would suggest that the vehicle that lost the brake drum would be driving on 3 wheels? kinda hard not to notice that.

A more likely event is that the individual that lost the brake drum would be returning from somewhere like auto value that recently turned the drum. and that is was cargo that was not secured in the cargo area. this seems to happen at least a couple times per year.

[Supa Dexta]

Not even 15 seconds.. 1 second either way and this likely wouldnt have happened.. I've seen an entire wheel/tire come off a semi on the highway before and it probably went the better part of a km before it stopped. It went in the median for a while, and then came back up on the road.. Thats gotta weight a couple hundred pounds, be pumped up to a 100 and some pounds and be traveling at 100km/h..

I wonder if she even seen it coming and tried to duck.. I've ducked for stones before.. I had one just last yr come off a dump truck coming towards me, that was the size of a golf ball.. Him @ 100kmh and me at the same = a rock coming at you at 200kmh.. I ducked way down cause I thought it was coming thru the windshield.. It didnt, but it made a LOUD sound and cracked the shit out of it.. Amazing they are that strong...

[R!zz0]

Shitty way to die R.I.P

[JustGo]

That really does suck... terrible, tragic accident.

But it's been said earlier in this thread, people in this town love their tailgating, and this is a sobering reminder of what can happen.

Not to say she just didn't see it, or wasn't looking ahead. Many other possibilities, but I suspect following too close to react.

[inline6turbo]

You think you'd be able to react in time to swerve and avoid a relatively small projectile like that shooting towards your car? That's like saying you could avoid a bird flying into your windshield, you can't tailgate a bird, it flys outta nowhere. But I'd put money on there's no way you could avoid it. What if she did try to avoid it and that slight change of direction is what made it land in the exact spot that it could kill her and if she hadn't of moved it would have hit the A piller instead? Who can say, no one should even consider for a moment it was her fault she died or "if she'd done that" or "well she shouldn't have been doing that". Ridiculous.

I doubt she was following behind the truck, there were reports she was in the lane beside him. What probably happened, like flicking quarters by their edges, is the truck hit the very edge of the drum and sent it up and sideways into the next lane.

IMO this was a completely tragic accident where in that instant she was doing nothing wrong and no amount of "rule following" or "proper driving" could have avoided.

The only party at fault in this situation would be the idiot who was the reason for there being a drum on the road at all.

RIP

[Kloubek]

Originally posted by D. Dub
Reason 172, to keep your distance from the rear of tractor trailers.

Yeah, but the fuel mileage improvement is worth it....




ok... maybe not.

[JustGo]

Originally posted by inline6turbo
You think you'd be able to react in time to swerve and avoid a relatively small projectile like that shooting towards your car? That's like saying you could avoid a bird flying into your windshield, you can't tailgate a bird, it flys outta nowhere. But I'd put money on there's no way you could avoid it. What if she did try to avoid it and that slight change of direction is what made it land in the exact spot that it could kill her and if she hadn't of moved it would have hit the A piller instead? Who can say, no one should even consider for a moment it was her fault she died or "if she'd done that" or "well she shouldn't have been doing that". Ridiculous.

I doubt she was following behind the truck, there were reports she was in the lane beside him. What probably happened, like flicking quarters by their edges, is the truck hit the very edge of the drum and sent it up and sideways into the next lane.

IMO this was a completely tragic accident where in that instant she was doing nothing wrong and no amount of "rule following" or "proper driving" could have avoided.

The only party at fault in this situation would be the idiot who was the reason for there being a drum on the road at all.

RIP

I did say there were other possibilities, and you could very well be right... but I have also seen how people in this city drive, and most people can barely see the rear tires of the car in front of them. I'm saying your scenario is possible, but I'm also noting that my scenario is also possible, and to me, seems more likely.

I might be wrong, you might be wrong, but it is what it is.

[stevieo]

If she was following close enough to "barely see the rear tires in front of the car in front of them" then i doubt it would have smashed the windshield if anything it would have hit her front bumper first?

[JustGo]

Originally posted by stevieo
If she was following close enough to "barely see the rear tires in front of the car in front of them" then i doubt it would have smashed the windshield if anything it would have hit her front bumper first?

I never said she was.

I said that's how most people in Calgary drive.

[stevieo]

I was just going by
"I'm saying your scenario is possible, but I'm also noting that my scenario is also possible, and to me, seems more likely." that.

[JustGo]

Originally posted by stevieo
I was just going by
"I'm saying your scenario is possible, but I'm also noting that my scenario is also possible, and to me, seems more likely." that.

The scenario with the woman being killed, and my comment about Calgary drivers were two separate thoughts.

At any rate, no matter what the speed, there is supposed to be a 2 second gap between vehicles, which would obviously be a greater gap at higher speeds. I have driven on the highway next to cars that are less than 1 second behind the car in front of them, and it's a pretty regular occurrence. It's a terrible habit that a lot of people are getting into in this town.