Crash videos on YouTube

[MrSonicAdvance]

I will put my hands up and admit it. I watch loads of crash videos on YouTube.
It's not that I get a kick out of it, but I think have learned a lot about the situations that precede an accident. The videos often claim to have some sort of educational purpose, and not be just crash p**n, and whilst I think that's a bit of a get-out, I also think there IS much to be learned by watching them.

There seems to be some accidents you can't avoid, but there are some classic situations that seem to cause an awful lot of accidents that really could be prevented.

1) Whizzing past a car that's given way to a car turning into a side road and crashing into the turning car. Well duh!
2) Ditto but crashing into a pedestrian crossing the road.
3) Light jumpers at traffic lights crashing into each other and innocent and oblivious drivers crossing the junction.
4) Overtaking in poor conditions or when you can't see the road ahead.
5) Moving into a lorry's blind spot and then being suprised at getting bumped by the lorry. Lorries have blinds spots close to the cab and if you pull a "cheeky" lane move into one, you are asking for trouble.
6) Excess speed resulting in loss of control.
7) Poorly-maintained cars (or just plain lousy cars) losing control when being forced to make a sudden manoeuvre. Those Ladas (or whatever those horrible Russian box cars are) look like death traps to me. They always seem to get out of shape if the driver is forced to brake hard or swerve.

Harder to avoid are the nutters performing random U-turns, as well as people in the middle of three lanes taking a sudden turn off the road.

As for the maniac drivers going to fast and ploughing into stationary traffic, I can't see how you can avoid them without a dollop of luck. Likewise the wildly spinning out of control cars who come over from the opposite carriageway.

Having watched several people flung some way out of their vehicle in the event of an accident, I am also amazed that anyone wouldn't wear a seatbelt these days.

Judging by the high number of views these videos get, a lot of people seem to watch them so I'm a bit surprised dash cameras aren't more popular. Does anyone else on the forums watch these videos?

 

[kamkar]

yeah i follow 1 guy on youtube.

 

[MrSonicAdvance]

yeah i follow 1 guy on youtube.

I subscribe to a few channels. I marvel at just how bad things are on the roads in Russia. I don't think the road layouts help things at all, expecially the pedestrian crossings which seem like deathtraps for the unwary.
I'll confess I enjoyed the "Blyat on the road" series of videos. It does seem to be a pretty common Russian expletive in the event of an accident.

 

[kamkar]

We have the same kind of crossings here, but i have never seen one here without light crossing a 4 lane road.
Otherwise i think the rules are the same, if there is no light and there is pedestrians who like to cross the road the cars have to stop for them.
And danes are not good at stopping in those Places, normally you will have to wait 3-4-5 cars before some driver stop.

 

[MrSonicAdvance]

We have the same kind of crossings here, but i have never seen one here without light crossing a 4 lane road.
Otherwise i think the rules are the same, if there is no light and there is pedestrians who like to cross the road the cars have to stop for them.
And danes are not good at stopping in those Places, normally you will have to wait 3-4-5 cars before some driver stop.

I remember in Belgium they have an informal(?) rule where side road traffic can just pop out onto main roads regardless. Pretty scary for all concerned.

 

[extraoneya]

Reading this reminds me of something from waaayyy back.

In high school during the 1960s, (I think they did it also in the 50s & 70s maybe) they used to show real car crashes that were shot on 16mm film. There was a company that specialized in this type of movie & would race to all types of accidents & film them, the bloodier the better....crushed heads, body parts, dead children, etc. These were also shown in mandatory traffic offender schools. ..I wouldn't doubt if they're on youtube now. The purpose of course was to show you what happens if you don't drive safely & follow the law.

Speaking w/ others who saw these as kids was interesting ...they were basically 2 reactions. One group would make fun of the whole thing & yell "neat guts man, look at that brain", etc...others like me (although I sometimes pretended to laugh to be cool) felt sad & thought about the relatives or friends who won't be seeing their kin anymore...or how that pretty girl or child will never grow up.

Not making any value judgements here, just relating what happened.

 

[MrSonicAdvance]

Reading this reminds me of something from waaayyy back.

In high school during the 1960s, (I think they did it also in the 50s & 70s maybe) they used to show real car crashes that were shot on 16mm film. There was a company that specialized in this type of movie & would race to all types of accidents & film them, the bloodier the better....crushed heads, body parts, dead children, etc. These were also shown in mandatory traffic offender schools. ..I wouldn't doubt if they're on youtube now. The purpose of course was to show you what happens if you don't drive safely & follow the law.

Speaking w/ others who saw these as kids was interesting ...they were basically 2 reactions. One group would make fun of the whole thing & yell "neat guts man, look at that brain", etc...others like me (although I sometimes pretended to laugh to be cool) felt sad & thought about the relatives or friends who won't be seeing their kin anymore...or how that pretty girl or child will never grow up.

Not making any value judgements here, just relating what happened.

I don't watch anything real that's gory, it's really not my thing at all. I once watched a report on seal-clubbing that traumatised me for months afterwards.
For me, there's a fascination in seeing events unrolling combined with the anticipation of what's going to happen and often I find myself being able to predict the crash before it happens. I'll admit (and this as someone who remains slightly broken after coming off my bike and falling nastily onto the road) there is a shameful, grim fascination in watching people flung from their vehicles and marvelling at how far they actually travel. I'm always amazed to see bikers smash into a car, fly over it onto the road, and then get up and walk back to their bike. But I really don't want to see a hurt mangled body at the end of it. It's also always upsetting to watch a big smash and then hear a child crying in the aftermath. But I suppose that's my dad instincts kicking in.

 

[extraoneya]

seal-clubbing
my fantasy would be to club the people who could do that to a creature.

Re: flying over cars
I was once driving down a slight hill & had to stop fast. An adult bicyclist who was screaming down the same hill behind me, hit my rear bumper, bounced off the roof, rolled over the hood & landed under the front bumper. ...got up, dusted himself off & said basically, "Oops, I was going too fast" That was long before everyone was wearing helmets. I was driving a government car otherwise I would been P-O'd, but it really didn't hurt the car.

 

[Reg dashcam]

7) Poorly-maintained cars (or just plain lousy cars) losing control when being forced to make a sudden manoeuvre. Those Ladas (or whatever those horrible Russian box cars are) look like death traps to me. They always seem to get out of shape if the driver is forced to brake hard or swerve.

The Lada Riva was in production from 1978 through 2012 in Russia (although it is still in production in Egypt). In recent years it was known for its dated styling and outdated mechanics, the latter of which was largely responsible for braking problems. One commenter noted that the Ladas seemed to have broken brake power distributors, which would make the driver spin out (often into oncoming traffic) at a high speed when the brakes were applied in wet/slippery conditions. I remember in 2012 and early 2013, these Ladas were still in so many Russian car crash compilations and they took quite a beating (also lack of crumple zones, resulting in higher probability of fatalities). But since these Ladas were put out of production, they have gradually disappeared from car crash videos all together over the past year. Apparently, road accident-related deaths in Russia dropped last year, which can probably be attributed to less Ladas on the roads there.

The strange thing is though, despite everything I just said above....I do like the styling of those old Ladas. They kind of remind me of 80s Volvos. The Lada Riva has since been replaced on the line-up with the more modern Lada Granta.

 

[MrSonicAdvance]

That's the one! If I ever see one of those behind me and I have to perform and emergency stop. I should be safe. Those cars couldn't brake in a straight line if they were on rails.

 

[kamkar]

Try a Fiat 131 supermirafiori

A fjew of my friends had one of those when we where Young, beefed up to +200 BHP they where nice sleepers back then

 

[Ipol]

The Fiat 124 had a near identical box shape to the lada I have owned both makes in my time. Another make I owned was aWartburg 3 cylinder 2 stroke. The name alone should have taught me something..........

 

[GJHS]

FIAT stands for "Fix It Again Tony" right?

 

[MrSonicAdvance]

The Lada Samara is more modern, but still pretty awful dynamically.

 

[Reg dashcam]

The Lada Samara is more modern, but still pretty awful dynamically.
View attachment 4006

That also ended production in 2013. AvtoVAZ finally seems to be modernizing their Lada line-up now.

I have to say, they made some strange-looking cars. These have also been discontinued over the past few years:

 

[kamkar]

FIAT stands for "Fix It Again Tony" right?

Not in the case of my friend,,,,,, ooo no mutch worse.

He heard of somthing called nitros oxide, that just needed to be blown into the engine along with the air and gasoline.

So what did ny friend do

Get hold of a tank of nitro, trow it behind the front seats of the car, fit tankt with a quick open valve.

Drill hole in manifold - insert copper tubing in hole in manifold - route copper tube thru firewall and connect to quick open valve on nitro tank behind seats.

Go to freeway with fiat 131, floor it, go to top gear full trottle - open quick valve on NOS tank, hear engine SCREAM a fjew seconds followed by strange sounds and a huge explotion.
The rest of the fiat 131 engine ended up under the car, and when he stopped sliding all my friend could see was clear blue sky

Too bad that was before the video age and the interweb.

 

[extraoneya]

priceless

 

[GJHS]

Ouch! At least he knew to open it at wide open full throttle. Am I understanding correct, that he blew the tank and the roof off?

 

[kamkar]

As i recall the Hood of the car was blasted open too, the engine room was more or less cleaned out by the engine faliure.

As i recall ( been some years since he told the story, and it happned just before i started to hang out with him on a regular basis ) the Fiat went straight to the scrapyard.

The roof of the car was still on but due to the engine ending up under the car it was at a angle when it stopped sliding, i assume the engine and tranny ended up under the firewall or just behind where the firewall meet the floor.

Funny thing is he still have the NOS bottle in his garage, i think it came from a dentist or somthing, its a large bottle not the small blue ones seen in boy racers these days.