Bungee cord failure on the hood results in multi-car crash with a rolled over semi

[GTA Driver]

Well this is one of the craziest dash cam videos with a crash that I have ever seen

Click here for futher details

 

[Borg]

Stopping in the shadow of a bridge in the fast lane.
Self-awareness index zero.

 

[SawMaster]

Stopping in the shadow of a bridge in the fast lane.
Self-awareness index zero.

It must have been contagious. The white minivan and the dark SUV/Minivan to it's left had just passed the semi with the cam seconds before, but weren't looking for it behind them when they were pulling off the roadway onto the shoulder. I'm not too sure that anyone was paying attention to traffic in this one Anytime I have to brake hard on the highway, the first thing I do is grab a glimpse of my mirrors to be sure that whoever is behind me is not going to run me down- that has saved my hide more than a few times.

Phil

 

[kamkar]

Well when people get their view taken away from them at speed panic ensue = slamming brake.

Not really a big deal but sure i would not like to cross the highway like that, also that black car coming barreling up from behind that was probably the trigger.
you can see the hood flip up some way before the bridge, so evaluating further i will blame it all on that black car going fast and not really paying attention.

 

[SawMaster]

Well when people get their view taken away from them at speed panic ensue = slamming brake.

Braking seems to be the instinctive thing, but it's often the wrong reaction. Before ABS people were more wary of locking the brakes and losing control, but now that you can't do this people have lost the understanding that braking can be bad. The white minivan could have saved themselves easily by getting off the road more quickly without slowing but I'm sure they weren't paying that much attention to the obvious and so..... CRASH!

Back when I was on two wheels I developed the habit of always trying to envision every vehicle around me doing the most stupid thing possible at the same time, with me thinking how I'd avoid them or at least lessen the impact with me. You can't trust anyone to do or not do anything on the road- vou can only watch and hope.

Phil

 

[kamkar]

People brake all the time, it is one of my major gripes when i am out driving, often you see their brake light come on but they are braking less than my little car can engine brake by just letting off the throttle.
I can drive the 35 Km to my friends place and use my brakes for a total of 20 seconds, which are what many cars i meet on the road use for 1 slight bend in the road that you could easy do at the speed limit for the road.
Most often when i use the brake it is forced upon me by another car and often for no reason, and then me some times "sleeping" and not keeping a distance to accommodate the stupid of other drivers.

 

[Borg]

It must have been contagious. The white minivan and the dark SUV/Minivan to it's left had just passed the semi with the cam seconds before, but weren't looking for it behind them when they were pulling off the roadway onto the shoulder. I'm not too sure that anyone was paying attention to traffic in this one l

This is why I do my best to stay away from packs. Most are not paying attention and are just playing follow the leader. As soon as one screws up, the whole pack has to perform emergency maneuvers that they either don't have the skill or time to implement.

The white minivan could have saved themselves easily by getting off the road more quickly without slowing but I'm sure they weren't paying that much attention to the obvious and so..... CRASH!

There was a crash on the DC beltway over a decade ago where a woman in a minivan got herself in front of a semi in the fast lane. When she came upon some tire debris in the road, she came to a complete stop in front of the truck. He didn't have time to stop and she was killed.

My wife hates when I tell her stories like this but I use them to drill into her situational awareness when she is on the road. She knows to never swerve to avoid animals and to make sure that the car behind can stop in time if she needs to stop suddenly.

 

[DT MI]

This is why I do my best to stay away from packs....

That's my #1 strategy when on the highway if at all possible. Unfortunately people must be 'pack animals' by nature because I'll either pass a slower vehicle and they'll speed up to form a pack of 2, or a faster vehicle will catch up to me and slow to match my speed creating a pack of 2. A pack of 2 will eventually grow to 3, 4, 5,..., so in general I can expect to be 'alone' in my space for a disappointingly short period of time.

 

[DashcamDPR]

the blame obviously lies with the person who can't be bothered to properly maintain their car. it's very difficult not to swerve as a reflex but it happens all the time, a car swerves and now there are two smashed up innocent parties ready to start the chain reaction of unavoidable devastation.... and around half a million $ in twisted metal, all for a bungee cord bodge job

 

[SawMaster]

All the bungees I've ever bought say to not use them in any safety-critical application I do use them a lot myself, but never singly or where one failure can cause another one to fail. And never where a bungee failure can create a serious hazard.

The way things work where I live, each vehicle in a multi-car crash is liable only for the direct damage it does. For instance, you're stopped at a light and someone hits you from behind, pushing you into the car ahead. You pay for the car you hit, and the guy who hit you pays for you. Once insurance limits are exceeded or after the settlements have been made the fracas begins. The guy in back will end up with the bill for all that, but all the courts can do is lodge claims against any real property they own and issue judgements against them for the rest. They cannot be forced to pay if they have no money or real property, and after ten years the judgement expires unless you pay to have your Lawyer renew it for another ten years. I have no real property of any worth- you can't get one dime out of me other than the limited cash I have on hand at the time of judgement. Most people are much like me so in most crashes the claimant gets screwed by the system which is supposed to prevent that from happening And if they have no insurance you get screwed twice unless you have your own coverage for such things. And because your insurer had to pay out, your rates will go up even though you did absolutely nothing wrong or illegal- in effect you're being made to pay for guy who hit you

Welcome to SC USA, where a few years ago the State government announced that 1 in 5 cars licensed here were not insured, and they're still not actively trying to fix that. Only when someone gets pulled over for a ticket or winds up in a crash do they ever prosecute for uninsured vehicles here, yet they know who those people are and where they live too. They just don't care about you, me, or anyone else either as long as you pay your taxes

Phil

 

[DashcamDPR]

The way things work where I live, each vehicle in a multi-car crash is liable only for the direct damage it does. For instance, you're stopped at a light and someone hits you from behind, pushing you into the car ahead. You pay for the car you hit, and the guy who hit you pays for you

Is that until you recover your costs from the guy that hits you, or are you completely held financially responsible for the damage to the front car, despite it clearly not being your fault?

Here it would be that the rear car (at fault) is solely financially responsible for the damage to all vehicles, if hypothetically the front two were completely stationary a reasonable distance apart and therefore no contribution to damage (i.e the middle car driver accidentally stamping on the accelerator after impact)

on a side note, it still shocks me that some countries don't have compulsory insurance!

 

[SawMaster]

You and your insurer are responsible for the guy in front of you. After settlement, your insurer may sue the guy in back to recover their losses, but if they determine that it's not going to get them any money they just drop the matter and take the loss. Which is covered with their next general rate increase and your own rate increase because you were involved in a crash

I got a letter from my car insurance company advising me that my rates were going up because of the losses they took with the recent hurricanes even though there were no losses here where I live, Once again those who do no wrong and who do not cause losses get to pay for all those who do It's a scam, pure and simple.

Phil

 

[Gibson99]

at least the white van has a tiny excuse as to why they stopped the way they did - the black car tried to go around the guy who stopped, and hit the front left corner of the van, pushing it in front of the semi. that distracted them enough to not look at what was behind them and thus get plowed by the semi.

not sure how/why the other semi rolled unless he was trying to avoid the "hood car", black car and anything else off to the left that we couldn't see. that gray honda suv was lucky to squeak out of there without a scratch.

i wouldn't place any blame on the semi with the camera, as the van clearly cut in front of him and stopped, leaving him nowhere to go.

i hope the black car (and hood car) was hit by the semi that rolled.