Distracted Driving

[98G]

While driving my M925 home from dropping off a M35A2 in Phoenix yesterday evening, a bad thing happened.

I was driving in the right lane on the interstate, about 60mph, soft top removed. Headlights approaching from behind. He changed to the left lane abruptly at the last moment and went left far enough put his left front wheel in the sandy median. He went by my rear tandem sideways. He over corrected and went sideways the other way with me standing on my brakes to give him my lane to play with as well. He missed my winch by some small margin that I couldn't see. As he continued off the right side of the road in front of me I had decided I wasn't going to stop. He had not impacted anything and couldn't have been injured.

I changed my mind when his car began flipping and tumbling, scattering pieces. On one of the flips, midair, he exited the sunroof involuntarily. It was not open at the time.

I got the M925 stopped and another car stopped right behind me. A young woman was getting out and running towards the wreckage. I stopped her and told her to call 911 and identified myself as an ICU nurse. My phone was dead so I couldn't make the call and further, I didn't want her to face the shock of what she was likely to run up on.

Fortunately there had been only one occupant of the car. He was attempting to get up and look for his cell phone. Shock does strange things to people's sense of priorities.

He was able to converse with me. After my initial assessment I tried to keep him talking to keep his attention from wanting to get up, while I held pressure on the worst two of the bleeders and we waited for the ambulance.

I asked him if he fell asleep at the wheel. He said he hadn't, that he was reaching down into the passenger floorboard for something and that when he raised up he saw he was approaching me too fast and over corrected.

Medics arrived, took over my pressure dressings, put him on a backboard and flew him out.

I'm not going to catalog the list of injuries. This will be a life changing event for him.

It could have been avoided entirely by more diligent attention.

It could have been vastly decreased by the use of seat belts. There's plenty of room in the mangled wreckage of his car to have remained ininjured.

 

[Recovry4x4]

Very lucky to walk away. Murphy seems to have a way with involuntary exiteers and cars crushing them.

 

[Valence]

God bless you for helping. This is why, while legal, I try not to drive my deuce on the main interstate here. At best, I'm going 15 MPH less than almost everyone.

 

[98G]

Pic sent to me..

 

[98G]

Walk away? I'm confused.....

 

[98G]

God bless you for helping. This is why, while legal, I try not to drive my deuce on the main interstate here. At best I'm going 15 MPH less than almost everyone.

This area was 65mph, so I was only about 5 under. The other car was well over.

I frequently run flashers at night if I'm 15mph under the speed limit. Although not precisely legal, it strikes me as best-practice.

I got pulled over once and the cop asked me why I had my flashers on. I told him, "I'm in a large heavy vehicle that is by its nature designed to be difficult to see, driving 15-20 mph less than what people expect. Anything I can do to be more conspicuous seems to me to be a step to the good."

 

[swbradley1]

Well, carried away with a pulse.


Thanks for looking at for him.

 

[dilligaf13]

Sunroofs are like vacuum cleaners, when cars begin to roll. I don't know why but I've seen more people "exit the vehicle" via them then any other window. He's extremely lucky you were there to apply pressure and control his movements. Too often individuals, in shock, wander off and get struck by passing vehicles or are difficult for EMTs to locate and quickly render aid to.

 

[Recovry4x4]

Walk away? I'm confused.....

I mistook attempting to get up to look for phone as ambulatory.

 

[bonedoc]

People don't often understand how much force is involved with an impact or how high the centrifugal force is in a roll. Between the impact and those forces and with shock on top of it what people will do...or try to do is very eye opening.
Glad to hear that you were unhurt and able to help. Hard lesson learned.

 

[frank8003]

spatial disorientation!?

We Thank You, 98G, for your proper actions.

 

[dmetalmiki]

That driver is fortunate you were present. I so hope he (at least) got to medical attentions ok, and satisfactory attentions.

 

[wreckerman893]

Driver inattention, excessive speed, no seatbelts=bad juju.

A state trooper buddy of mine told me that he had never been to a wreck with a fatality where the seat belts were in use. With the air bags they have now and the high speed restraint systems in cars today it is stupid not to use seat belts.

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

We pray for this driver, for you 98G, and for all who responded and will/are/did render aid. We pray that from this event and your sharing it that others will heed its safety message.
We are thankful that you (and your MV) are undamaged, at least in the physical state.

Thanks for sharing this. It IS an EYE OPENER !

 

[tim292stro]

Good reminder to pay attention to our own driving (because it's not us we need to worry about, it's the other people, right?), and well done 98G on the evasive maneuvers to avoid becoming directly involved in the collision, and letting him live to learn something from this.


Another reminder we can take away from this is a little lesson on vehicle dynamics.

Your tires have a certain amount of traction given the coefficient of friction for the rubber compound and the surface it's in contact with, along with the size of the contact patch and the weight on the patch. When you steer, brake, or accelerate, the weight of the vehicle will shift away from the direction of force applied to the vehicle (steer left, weight transfers right, brake and weight transfers forwards).

The above is important to remember if you find yourself in a situation where a tire or two leave the pavement. The coefficient of friction for dirt, grass, or gravel is about and order of magnitude less than that of pavement. If you make a rapid steering input to steer away from the shoulder of the road, your weight will transfer away from the steering input meaning that your vehicle's weight will transfer to the tire(s) with the least traction.

In performance driving, there is a concept of "the circle of traction" - which is to say that for any given tire patch, coefficient of friction, and weight on the patch you will have a certain sized circle which represents your available traction or adhesive limit. If you apply force against that circle you must stay within the boundaries of that circle to retain grip on the road - go outside the circle and you start sliding.

If you turn sharply while tires are on a low traction surface, your circle gets much smaller, so you need to impart smaller forces to your vehicle controls to remain in traction and control of the vehicle's path. This means that if you put a tire or two off the pavement at speed you need to slowly correct your line to get back on the road - this could result is you going off the road completely first. Remember that if you also panic and release your foot from the accelerator pedal, the weight will transfer forwards meaning there is less grip on your rear tires, so if you make a rapid steering input the rear tires are more likely to step out (oversteer/spin-out).

The key is to not panic if you screw up, think it through, and understand what the vehicle is doing and telling you. If you need to swerve to avoid something on pavement, give the maximum circle of traction to each step of your swerve. Brake first to transfer weight forwards, release the brakes and steer away from the hazard, straighten out and brake again to retransfer the weight forwards, then steer to grab the next lane (so you don't run off the road) straightened out again and then brake to a stop. It seems like a lot of work and steps, but realize the alternative is sliding into something/someone, or rolling over.

Even for you guys with ABS trucks, you should still learn threshold braking, the point of maximum braking force before the tires start to slip/scrub - this is even before ABS kicks in when the wheels stop spinning from being locked up. You need to know how far you can push your brakes.

I'd rather know what the vehicle CAN DO, than have my vehicle protect me from what it can't do. It's my opinion that the modern safety systems are quickly relieving the interest and concern of the driver to the hazards and responsibilities of driving...

 

[turnkey]

Thank goodness you where there at the right time.....Goes with out saying, god was your copilot that day.

 

[infidel got me]

I agree with you guys 100%. I recovered my 923a2 yesterday from Hunter air field near Savannah. I drove at 55 to 57 mph. I have come to the conclusion that most drivers on the road are fools with a death wish. I traveled in the right lane as much as possible and left plenty of distance, cars cut in front of me with no signal, rode in my lane for 3 seconds and then would hit the off ramp. IDIOTS, these fools don't realize that we are not driving a Toyota, that can stop and maneuver in a panic situation. I would never make it as a o.t.road truck driver. Driving is a privilege not a right-- not all enemies carry a gun they drive Toyotas. I made my 330 mile trip home with no problems, and kissed the ground when I got out of my truck lol--- Drive safe and god bless

 

[CUCVLOVER]

I'm glad you where you able to help someone, you did your good deed for the day. Unfortunately there are many many more idots then there where 10 years ago. I think if everyone had to retake the driver exams every time they renewed their license many would fail.

People now days have no understanding of weight, mass, and velocity. In my truck I have people stop, cut in, pull out in front of me and more. My dad runs a big crew cab Chevy and pulls a 20 ft gooseneck trailer a lot. People seem to think that they can win a head but contest in their rice burn.
You can be the best driver ever but some idiot will always be there.

 

[Mike929]

I run a camera system on the front of my daily driver these days. I have managed to brake and/or avoid multiple bad drivers so far, but it feels good to have video that shows what happened if I can't brake fast enough or avoid the bad driver.

 

[peteybabes]

I had a lady slam on her brakes as we turned left from an intersection and there was a fire engine coming towards us which not only made me lock up my brakes for the first time, but left half of my truck in the middle of the intersection!!

i tried to blow my horn, which just made a hissing noise much to my chagrin. (I believe i need to disassemble the horn and clean it as the diaphragms and entire horn assembly appear dirty)