Accident pictures (Dial-up warning)

[flyingcheesehead]

Decided to separate this thread so dial-up folks don't have to put up with the size of these...

Getting back to the road:

Looking back toward the tractor from roughly the same spot:

View from the road:

How we came to rest:

Initial point of impact. I believe the marks that are lighter than the mud came from the fake wood paneling on the car:

Mustard, anyone?

Drive tire got knocked off. Note the scrape on the bottom of the trailer where we went over the end of the concrete wall:

Fuel tank strap loose. We leaked 200 gallons of diesel fuel after the accident:

What a cement wall and some trees will do to the front end of a truck:

Crunch.

Underneath the tractor. Both fuel tanks and both air tanks are hanging loose:

Here's the mess in the interior. As if the carnage outside wasn't bad enough, stuff was raining down on us inside throughout:

Bent landing gear crossbar, complete with some of the grass from the median:

Antilock obviously failed when we were in the left lane. I'm not sure where the controller is located on the tractor, but on the trailer it's just in front of the trailer axles and if these marks came from the trailer there was an electrical issue up front causing it to fail. I'm guessing these marks came from the tractor:

Initial impact with the cement wall:

What's left of my laptop screen:

 

[ScottM]

Gheesh. It looks pretty bad, glad everyone mad it ok. Of all the pictures the one I enjoyed most was the interior shot where you can see the AOPA magazine on a pile of stuff.

How did the car the hit you fair? Worse than these pics?

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

Hey I see the cause, someone was reading those aviation mags!
j/k!

I was impressed that barrier didn't seem to budge, they must have considerable mass.
Any rough estimates of the total damage? Seems like tens of thousands of $.
Sickening but its all replaceable I bet, whereas if it was flesh....

 

[fgcason]

I think I see part of the cause. You were lost when you crashed. There's not a sectional in sight in all the interior debris. If you had your sectional out like you're supposed to, you would have noticed the shipwreck symbol on the highway before you got to it.

Anything that can do that kind of damage to a truck would wad up and kill anything less. I know what you mean by stuff raining down on you inside. The one bad smashbanger I was in, there was stuff flying around inside that I didn't even know I had. Everything gets tied down securely nowadays.

When I was growing up, we drove all over this country and into Canada on month long+ summer vacations every year. Car wrecks is like counting stars on a clear night - a pointless task. I guess there are idiot truckers out there too but of all the truck related ballups I saw, I think exactly two of them were the truckers fault..and one of those two was likely a brake failure on a hill where another trucker helped push him into the ditch and rock wall in a controlled crash vs going over the guard rail into empty air.


P.S. Here ya go:
http://www.aerostich.com/catalog/US/Aerostich-Roadkill-Combat-Stickers-p-16800.html
There's a few car stickers you can put on the door of your truck.

 

[DeeG]

Kent,

Glad you and your trainee came out OK. I'm not sure what interior mess you're talking about, the inside of the cab looks like the interior of the teenagers car and bedroom........

Got a lot of respect for you truck drivers. My ex owns a company that makes the air cans for your brakes, and going to the truck show every year and seeing the CHP's wall of 'Kodak Moments' gets kinda depressing knowing that most of them are caused by cagers that think a fully loaded semi handles like a sports car.


Not a job I would want, considering there's at least 6 cars a day that try to kill me on my 13 mile ride to work.....

Dee

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Gheesh. It looks pretty bad, glad everyone mad it ok. Of all the pictures the one I enjoyed most was the interior shot where you can see the AOPA magazine on a pile of stuff.

Yeah, and I think it was under some stuff in an overhead cubbyhole. Not all of the "stuff" that was on top of it came down either, I don't think... Haven't really looked up there yet.

How did the car the hit you fair? Worse than these pics?

It was messed up some, but remember that it only hit us - After it separated, it spun out going straight down the westbound lanes, ending up in the right lane. It never hit any of the walls/terrain/trees that we did.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

I was impressed that barrier didn't seem to budge, they must have considerable mass.

Actually, it's not the mass... It's the fact that they're not the regular Jersey barriers, it's a wall that's part of the bridge we were coming off of. I'm glad to know they actually work, because going off a bridge would have been even less "fun" than what did happen.

Any rough estimates of the total damage? Seems like tens of thousands of $.

Gotta be. The car's roof looked bent up, and of course it has a big dent in the left side. I didn't get that great of a look at it, as I was six lanes plus a median away from it. It got flat-bedded out.

The SUV, I couldn't really see. It was in the median, and it was black, and it didn't have all the emergency vehicle lights illuminating it.

The truck... Well, the trailer will need quite a few new crossmembers underneath. Probably a couple thousand right there, considering the time it'll take to put them in. It'll also need new wheels on the left-hand side.

The tractor will need new fuel tanks, maybe new air tanks (at least they need to re-mount the existing ones), new hood, new bumper, new battery box, new AC condenser, new tires, new wheels (tho tires & wheels would have been replaced in another 75,000 miles anyway), possibly a new steering box, probably a new front axle. Again, could have been a lot worse. The drivetrain seems to be intact, and most of the body behind the hood seems intact as well. In front and underneath took the brunt of it.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

I'm not sure what interior mess you're talking about, the inside of the cab looks like the interior of the teenagers car and bedroom

I've got to admit, my car used to look that way too...

Got a lot of respect for you truck drivers. My ex owns a company that makes the air cans for your brakes, and going to the truck show every year and seeing the CHP's wall of 'Kodak Moments' gets kinda depressing knowing that most of them are caused by cagers that think a fully loaded semi handles like a sports car.

Yeah. We were VERY lucky. There was nobody in the left lane, and we went across the opposite side during a break in traffic. 9 times out of 10, there would have been a fatality.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

I think I see part of the cause. You were lost when you crashed. There's not a sectional in sight in all the interior debris. If you had your sectional out like you're supposed to, you would have noticed the shipwreck symbol on the highway before you got to it.

Yeah, I should have filed a flight plan too. After all, we were airborne for a portion of that ride...

Everything gets tied down securely nowadays.

I was not impressed that all the cabinet doors came open. Freightliner Columbias are the Geo of trucks. Cheap and made of too much plastic.

I guess there are idiot truckers out there too

Just like there's idiot pilots... But, the idiot truck drivers usually have a lot of small accidents early on (mostly backing into things and cutting corners too close) and can't get a job after that happens at a couple of companies.

P.S. Here ya go:
http://www.aerostich.com/catalog/US/Aerostich-Roadkill-Combat-Stickers-p-16800.html
There's a few car stickers you can put on the door of your truck.

Heh... I wonder if that would keep more of them out of my way!

 

[bruno]

Wow. Lucky you are still with us. Something or someone is looking out for you. Get well and enjoy the important things in life!