I’ve read that Fridays during evening rush hour is the highest time for crashes (I refuse to call them “accidents”, a terrible misnomer in almost all cases). I’m not exactly into crash scene voyeurism, but when you see the whole thing unfold in front of you…taking a shot of the aftermath just seems part of the job. By the time I’d pulled into Jerry’s Home Improvement Center, parked and took this shot, it was obvious (and a bit surprising) that no one was badly hurt, as both drivers are out of their cars, the driver of the (offending) Ranger having just crawled out his window. The position of these vehicles does not reflect how they were traveling before physics intervened.
Jerry’s a very popular store, is located along a busy stretch of Hwy. 99 where the speed limit is 55. Turning right into it to get back into town is hard enough. But turning left can be very challenging when traffic is heavy. But the driver of this Ranger just went; perhaps he didn’t see the red Aveo because another car in the right lane was blocking his view? But He pulled out directly into the path of the Aveo, which knocked the Ranger on its side in a cloud of dust.
It also turned the Ranger almost 180 degrees from the direction it was coming (from that left-turn arrow painted on the road), and the Aveo got turned almost 90 degrees too. The Aveo seems to have come through pretty well, its front end doing what it was designed to do. The Ranger took it on the lower door and sill, and pretty hard. I suspect that Ranger driver may find himself to be sorer or more hurt than he thinks initially.
And so another stupid move puts innocent lives into danger.
That ain’t buffing out…
He’s lucky it was a small car that hit him. Also shows why it’s a good thing they don’t put gas tanks in the cab of pickup’s any more. Glad no one was seriously hurt. I once t-boned a 63 Dodge PU in my 77 Rabbit when the pu ran a stop sign. The speed limit was 50. I knew he wasn’t going to stop and I stood on the brakes, otherwise he would have t-boned me on the driver side. Lucky for him (and me) I slowed down to about 35 at time of impact and hit him on the empty passenger side of his truck. It caved in all the way to the frame, and my Rabbit folded up flat to the windshield. No one was hurt, seat belts work. His first words when he got out of the truck were, I really f**ked up, didn’t I?
When I lived north of Jerry’s I would simply avoid it during high traffic. Turning left was a hazard at best. Not surprised in the slightest to see a crash like this there.
The worst part about Jerry’s is the location; it borders the Beltline off-ramp, which has a turn signal. The two entry/exits to Jerry’s are too close to the light to allow another signal. I wonder if they could be allowed to an an exit-only to the Beltline offramp? That would allow people to get in the offramp lane and use the light. Currently (as has always been) when you leave Jerry’s you have no choice but to wait for an opening, which this driver didn’t do.
Pretty embarrassing having your truck knocked over by an Aveo.
I recall one down here where a Navigator got knocked over on its side by a big sport bike that was hauling ass, the people in the Navigator were alright, but the motorcycle rider, not so good.
This why safety is my first consideration when buying a car, followed by comfort. I buy as safe of a car as I can afford.
And things like this are why I don’t want an SUV or a truck (as a primary vehicle), and don’t want my wife in one either. Even though the driver of the truck was at fault here, if it was a car with a lower center of gravity rather than a truck, the likelihood is good that it wouldn’t have rolled.
Most rollovers these days, especially where the car doesn’t do a full rotation, aren’t such a hazard anymore with stronger roof structures and safety belts. But I still think it’s better not to roll in the first place.
Chris, I feel the same way. I`ve been in the towing, salvage & auto body repair business all my life and see this over & over. A incident that would be relatively minor in a modern well built car becomes a serious, life threating rollover crash in truck based SUV or 4X4. There`s not enough room here for my lecture I give my customers looking to buy a new vehicle on difference between ‘Active safety VS Passive safety’ but the short version is, A life time of experience has taught me that the safest vehicle on the road is a well engineered car driven by a competent ,alert driver that has ability to avoid a dangerous situation all together and that is certainly not a,heavy truck with a high center of gravity, poor brakes & poor handling.
Wow that is some cave-in!! Certain intersections I avoid due to traffic and people waving me through when I do not have the right of way is asking for trouble.
Last week a motor home nearly got me. I saw it coming though when it and a pickup behind him towing a trailer (most likely full of motorcycles) got into the right hand turn lane for the bone clinic when they really wanted the next right turn lane. They made a U-turn in the driveway and headed back out. The motor home did not stop and I made a quick lane change barely avoiding a crash. I hope the motor home driver realized his blunder.
I got Tboned by one of those Aveos a couple of years by a woman looking the wrong way before crossing a one way street I was on. Her car looked pretty much like that one. My Mustang suffered damage to the door, fender, quarter , front wheel and suspension. After her husband and I tied up the dangling parts she drove hers home and had it fixed. I drove mine the 8 blocks home at about 3 MPH as it didn’t want to steer straight. Mine was fixed too. All in all it was bad luck as it was Christmas Eve and then the investigating officer lost my license down in the Panther’s radio console. I got it back a couple of days later after they had a technician pull the radio. Neither of us was hurt except I resprainged my wrist that had just healed from a fall on the ice. Of course that helped me get a rental car quicker from her insurance. They were hesitant to give me one before my car could get in the shop in January until I mentioned the wrist and that I was not going to seek medical damages.
Those Aveos must be tough little cars.
I refuse to call them accidents as well as they are seldom accidental. I prefer to call them collisions though.
As far as I can tell, “collisions” seems to be the current official word of choice.
According to Sgt. Angel calling it an accident implies there’s nobody to blame (click)
Quite a good hit the chassis rail on the Ranger is bent the driver of it should be gratefull of the Aveo’s crumple zone front, I bet he pays better attention next time.
That Ranger must be made of tin for an aveo to cave in the frame like that! Ive ridden in an Aveo once….the lightweight, tinny construction does NOT inspire confidence. If a tiny little Korean box can damage a BOF truck like that, then Ford really is clipping corners. Just hope no one was hurt in this.
I’d refuse to ride in a little car like the Aveo. It has one of the highest death rates in collisions.
Light trucks usually don’t have to meet the same crash standards as any car, particulary side impacts. If he had been hit by anything heavier than that Aveo he wouldn’t be climbing out…much as I love my LoLux, if I wasn’t being paid to drive it I’d be in something more crash worthy.
A BOF pickup is the worst thing to be in for a crash the design is totally for load carrying not occupant safety and the height of newer models does nothing for rollover stability.
The Ranger, much like my second gen Explorer, is a crapshoot of engineering. To me, the frame is too narrow, as it’s about two feet narrower than the cab, the framerails are under the middle of the front seats, they didn’t adopt the old BOF passenger car trait of widening out past the front wheels, these are built more like 60s trucks with that narrow frame.
From my experience in early morning and evening work time got to get there now driving, I no longer refer it to as rush hour. I now call it Crash Hour traffic.Ha Ha. Ya, You know it brother.
It’s truly amazing what imports are like. What looks and seems like a little tin can on four wheels is really a tiny-but-mighty performance vehicle. I wonder how fast the Aveo in the picture was going? Interesting to find that out.
I saw a collision the other day on a walk. Some genius pulled out in front of traffic and hit a car, just missing an oncoming cop car in the next lane. I’d say a cop makes a good enough witness; I kept walking after taking a pic.
I also despise the word “accident” when “crash,” “collision,” or “rollover” would be much more appropriate. “Accident” implies fate, bad luck or karma, or “my number was up.” NOT.
Dogs have accidents; people have crashes.
My experience in similar situations (near misses, fortunately) is that the Aveo driver was speeding. The Ranger driver looked, there was no car, and went. What more can you do?
The problem is that speeders think everyone around them is as hyper-attentive as they are. They forget that when you are not breaking the law there is no reason to be hyper-attentive. Case in point… Two of my best friends are tailgaters and each has been rear ended twice. They brake suddenly which catches the guy following them off guard.
In Calif. the guy who does the hitting is at fault so my friends are never to blame, legally.
You’re wrong. I was there, and I saw it. The Aveo was on a 55 mph highway, which means 65 would have been “legal”. He wasn’t going that fast, because traffic was thick.
The idiot in the Ranger pulled out because there was a stopped car in the slow/right lane. He just bolted out, on a fool’s prayer, without having any visibility of the left/inside lane. Kapow! He was 100% in the wrong. You don’t make a left turn across a four-lane highway without making sure it really is clear.
Oh I don’t doubt you I’m just saying what my experience has been witnessing similar maneuvers. Personally, I can’t wait for those 360deg cameras that capture everything going on around the car on the hard drive. It will be great seeing a-hole drivers get busted (not saying the Aveo guy was one). Knowing the technology is out there should be an effective deterrent.
Some kill-joy legal staff will no doubt ruin it all and insist there needs to be a very visible “you are being videotaped” sticker on the car.
My recent near miss (see above) did not involve me speeding, in fact I was well below the 60 MPH speed limit. The clown driving the motor home simply goofed getting off on the wrong right turn only lane. I would have thought that he turn around so that he could see on coming traffic better. But then to just roll through the stop sign with me coming was a surprise. I sort of expected them to pull back onto the highway from the turn lane.
A lot of drivers here intentionally run red lights to “save” a minute of waiting for the next green.
Crashes. Accidents. Accidental crashes. Call them what you want. You can also call them near misses. Just barely dodged the bullet? That’s a near hit. A near miss? You’d know about it.
It looks like the RR tire is off the Ranger, how did that happen?
The Ranger went up in the air some, spinning, and came down hard, that tire being the first thing that touched ground. It tore it right off. This was a pretty nasty collision; I saw the Ranger go up and around and down in a cloud of dust. I was surprised the driver wasn’t hurt more.
I strongly suspect if he had been hit innocently, he would have stayed in the cab and waited for the ambulance.
I passed right by that location last Saturday after attending the Scandinavian Festival in Junction City. While stopped for the light at the Beltline on/offramp, I was thinking that it would be pretty difficult getting out of there. I’ve only gone to THAT Jerry’s once, and I only have to turn right.
Reminds me of how old-timers used to say, “Need a light at that intersection!”
Which may or may not be the case here…
More like a RIRO – right in, right out, no left turn.
Had something similar happen to me as well once, but at a much lower speed.
Lady came out from between two vehicles in Chicago as I was slowing down for a red signal in a left turn lane. I couldn’t stop completely in time and ripped off the bumper of her 626 (I was driving a PT Cruiser at the time). She was hopping mad and screaming at me, “you was speedin'”. Well, the cop came out and looked at it, asked my story, and asked hers. She told him that the drivers waved her out and she thought it was clear to go. Cop turns to her and says, “lady, you know you’re supposed to look first”.
Welcome to my life. I deal with these every day. I have often said that if not for left turns, I wouldn’t have much to do. I have seen this scenario countless times. Even worse are the ones where the guy making the left gets waived out by the car stopped in the first lane, only to get blasted by someone in the second lane.
In all seriousness, I have long made it a practice to avoid left turns as much as possible.
you and me both, I hate left hand turns – my old car used to stall when turning left as well…..its now just second nature to me to avoid turning left
Your future as a NASCAR driver is looking bleak.
Yup, I never trust people waving me onward when I can’t see what’s coming.
And I have become very uneasy about left turns in poor visibility areas. If traffic is really heavy I’ll usually only make the left if I have a left arrow light or oncoming traffic has alternating green. Otherwise I’ll find another way to get there. It isn’t worth the risk of the accident plus everyone in this area of the world starts laying into their horns if you don’t move instantly and I’d rather not deal with it. A favorite move is to pull into some business past the light on the right that has an exit onto the other road so that I can make a right onto it that way.
I was t-boned May of 2011 and still have ptsd issues. I agree w/ not turning left and would never drive a pick-up, suv, or any car with a fixed plastic console between bucket seats. Mine broke three of my ribs and collapsed my right lung. Just call me “lucky-to-be-here.”
Another excellent article by P. N.
I’ve been known to go out of my way to avoid a left turn, and I’ve also been known to go out of my way to enter a highway at a traffic signal rather than try to get out the Safeway driveway that has another store driveway across the highway from it, and is only a couple of hundred feet from a major intersection.
I pay attention in traffic but apparently the people behind me don’t. I’ve been hit from behind three times since 2007. All three of the miscreants ran from the scene. License plates were obtained on two of them by witnesses. I’ve been thinking about getting one of the video cameras like they have in Russia since Oregon and Washington have front license plates.
I was actually happy when the Aveo came out as the bottom feeder rental, replacing Geo/Chevy Metro. More power, a fourth gear, sometimes cruise, several decibels quieter, tin can vs tin foil body, seats not quite as Sadistic. This one looks fairly together for the accident. The Aveos high fatality rates may be more related to driver demographics: very young or old, DUI history, future Darwin Award types and such.
And honestly the Metro is the only worst car of the same era I can think of.
Did anyone here watch the CNN show, The Hunt, a couple of weeks ago? The one about a head on collision on the freeway. The offending drunk driver got into the freeway via an exit ramp and hit a Mustang with three young men. One was killed on impact the other two were severely injured. The drunken driver suffered a broken ankle. What amazed me was the police video of the aftermath. The Mustang was unrecognizable the other car was intact from the firewall back. The front end was gone but amazingly the rest survived. My question is does anyone know what kind of car the drunken driver was driving?
One advantage about where I live now (Virginia) is that the vast majority of 4-lane (or more) roads have grassy medians. This means that you can make left turns on non-freeways much more easily when you are entering from a minor crossroad with only a stop sign. You check primarily on your left first, glance to the right, and then pull into the median and yield for traffic coming from your right.
US Route 1 is the exception, with usually only a double yellow line separating opposing traffic. It may very well be the first major road in VA to have been widened to 4 lanes decades ago.
Is the driver of the Ranger the one with the greenish/yellow shirt hopping down out of the truck? I see some men wearing similar blue shirts so was wondering if they were rescue squad members?
And is the Aveo driver the man with the brown shirt talking on the phone?
I recall seeing a crash somewhat similar. vehicles were different and I was not sure what happened as we had passed by it after it had occurred and rescue vehicles were on scene but it appeared no one was hurt and it was somewhat amusing to see a car knock over a larger vehicle.
Anybody remember the “Crashmobiles”? These were toy cars in appx 1-25th scale. Popular in the early 60s, these plastic cars had a mousetrap like device inside the chassis, a spring powered motor and 5 body panels thgat were attached to the chassis. Left side, right side, hood, trunk and roof. When the car was put together, you would aim it for a wall. When the front bumper hit the wall, the car would break apart! They also came with stick on decals to customize them . Very cool toys, a million laughs. Unfortunately, parents and driving instructors complained, believing it would cause accidents in real life.Naturally, they were “pulled” from the market. Some people just have no sense of humor.
Wasn’t it the Kenner (?) Smash-Up Derby? I had one. IIRC, the 2 cars were a 57 Ford and a 57 Chevy.
Not familiar with that one, but I`ll google it. The Crashmobile kinda looked like a `57 Cadillac, and another one looked like a `59 Pontiac
History eventually (sort of) repeats itself. If you fast forward to the mid 80’s, Hot Wheels brought out a sub-series called “crack-ups” that simulated crash damage. For those, the whole car didn’t come apart, but they had a rotating body panel that was caved in on one side and normal on the other, and when you ran into it with another car, it would trip a spring and the crashed side would “roll” into position. Also usually the hood/hatch/cap (for trucks) would pop open. An interesting gimimick; I had at least 4 of those.
Also worth a note that, while most Hot Wheels were models of a specific real vehicle, all of the “crack-ups” cars were generic designs that didn’t represent antyhing specific. Probably because it would be difficult to get a manufacturer to agree to license their product for a crashed version…
Interesting. I`m not really into Hot Wheels, but I build scale model cars in 1-25th scale , collect die cast in 1-18 or 1-25th scale , and also have a few “toys” that are so well designed that they are practically models..Gonna Google it, and, who knows? Maybe I`ll buy a few if they aren`t ridiculously overpriced on Craigs or E Bay.