Prius head-on Accident

[bwilson4web]

Hi,

In aviation, there was a quarterly summary of accidents that I read to remind myself about how easily one can 'get behind the power curve' ... get into a bad-place and handle it poorly. It is a question of situational awareness. But I also realize not everyone shares my interest in using 'lessons learned' to prepare for the unexpected. So this is a recent, fatal Prius crash near Bakersfield CA.

Infant, 3 Others Killed In Head-On Crash - Bakersfield News Story - KERO Bakersfield

. . .
According to the CHP, the crash happened around noon Friday when a Chevy Cavalier hit a Toyota Prius on highway 46 just east of highway 33. The CHP said that the driver of the Cavalier was trying to pass a big rig when the Prius was coming in the opposite direction.The two cars hit head-on, killing a total of four people.
. . .

Two lane road, clear and dry. Someone pulls into your lane trying to pass a double-trailer truck. What do you do?

Use Google Maps for "Blackwells Corner, Kern, CA" and look at highway 46, Paso Robles Hwy, to the west of the 46 and 33.

Would the collision detection system reach out far enough to begin braking? Does it have the resolution to detect a car in your lane as a risk versus the tractor trailer in the adjacent lane?

Bob Wilson

[TonyPSchaefer]

I can't tell enough people about the book "Traffic: How we Drive and What it Says About Us." The author explains how things like this happen. How the Cav driver can easily miscalculate distances, how it's difficult to know how fast an oncoming vehicle is traveling, that we misjudge the distance required to pass a vehicle traveling in the same direction as we are, etc.

It's a great book and even explains how the majority of collisions happen on sunny days with sober drivers. When I think back to how I used to drive I often think that I was just lucky.

[Rokeby]

A truely saddening and unfortunate accident. Any driver's worst
nightmare.

Could happen to anyone, anywhere, in any vehicle. "Lessons learned"
would be applicable to all drivers, in any car.

The article has a picture slide show. Photo coverage seems more
than a little lopsided:
* Four clear shots of masssive damage to the Prius.
* Only two shots of the Cavalier, taken from the right rear quarter,
that don't show the full extent of its damage on the front, driver's
side.

So, it looks like the Prius got all smashed up, but the Cavalier was
hardly damaged. The implication is that the Prius is an unsafe vehicle,
which we know is not true.

I wonder if this grossly skewed depiction was intentional.

[bwilson4web]

I'm just wondering if I would have the sense to drive on the shoulder soon enough to avoid the collision.

Still, I wonder how the accident avoidance system might deal with the situation or if it could even be used on a two-lane road.

Bob Wilson

[DaveinOlyWA]

sorry, but its important to me to know the details. which car were the passengers in? which car was the baby in? which car was the survivor in?

**edit**

checking out the pics. the Pri suffered much more front end damage. guessing the only survivor would have been the passenger in the Pri. and that the other 3 were in the other car. but only a guess. it looks like rear passengers in a Pri, especially if properly secured with 3 point harness setup for a car seat would have survived as the passenger zone in the back looks intact.

**edit** as i always do, i prerused other articles on the paper and found this

http://www.turnto23.com/north_county...59/detail.html

apparently all the feedback concerning the dangers of this stretch of road may have an extensive base. granted, human impatience and stupidity is still the biggest factor, but the biggest reason why our lives have become safer over time is not advances in medicine or knowledge. its making life "idiot-proof" either thru technology or laws....

[fuzzy1]

Originally Posted by DaveinOlyWA

... checking out the pics. the Pri suffered much more front end damage. ...

How do we know? The picture angles are not at all equivalent. I can see no way of judging from just this set of slides.

[Croft]

Originally Posted by DaveinOlyWA

apparently all the feedback concerning the dangers of this stretch of road may have an extensive base. granted, human impatience and stupidity is still the biggest factor, but the biggest reason why our lives have become safer over time is not advances in medicine or knowledge. its making life "idiot-proof" either thru technology or laws....

I think medical knowledge has had a huge impact, but I grant you that it is advances in car technology that are saving so many lives on the road. I understand one of the main reason why the UK has such a low fatality rate vs the rest of Europe (and a quick check on Google reveals better than even the US where there were 1.6 fatalities per 10,000 vehicles in 2007 vs the UK with 0.9) is because there is such stringent testing of older vehicles that it quickly becomes uneconomic to repair them, ensuring that there is a constant demand for newer, safer vehicles. Japan, which I understand uses punitive taxation to encourage car turnover, has a fatality rate of 0.8 per 10,000 vehicles.

http://www.monash.edu.au/muarc/repor...rs/fatals.html

[DaveinOlyWA]

that is our problem. every day i see cars that should not be on the road. our inspection system to continuously license older vehicles in many cases, simply does not exist. imagine my joy at the C4C program only to hear about its major limitations. i was hoping this would be the chance to take all unsafe, inefficient, older vehicles off the road.

fuzzy; i agree, the pics do not tell the whole story so i do not "know" anything, hence the first line of my post. obviously there were 5 people involved. 2 in one car, 3 in another. now, the real assumptions come in. 3 have spanish surnames, the other does not. look at the age ranges, its not a real stretch to imagine the scenario here.

so what would you think?? an 80 YO would be in enough hurry to try to pass a slow moving truck?? so have to think it was probably him and his wife out for a drive in the Pri. they did not avoid the collision probably due to his failing eyesight and slower reactions.

so his wife was in the back seat?? or probably the passenger. its easy to see why he did not survive as there is major penetration thru the windshield on his side. its doubtful that anyone in the rear seat on the drivers side would have survived either.

[bwilson4web]

Another report indicated the Chevy had the younger couple and baby and was trying to pass the double-trailer truck. That suggests the older couple were in the Prius. However, I can't tell who was driving.

Second fatal wreck on Highway 46 claims three lives - Bakersfield.com

. . .
In Friday's crash, a Chevrolet Cavalier with a man, woman and infant tried to pass at least two trucks. But it struck a Toyota Prius with two people inside. The man and infant in the Cavalier were killed as were a man and woman in the Prius. The woman in the Cavalier was airlifted to the hospital. Officers have said that inappropriate driving, not the highway, are to blame in these tragedies.

http://www.bakersfieldnow.com/news/local/65828322.html

. . .
An infant and the driver were reportedly killed in the Cavalier, and a man and woman were killed in the Prius. The names of the victims were released early Saturday by the coroner's office. The infant and driver in the Cavalier were identified as 1-year-old Nathaniel Sanchez and 25-year-old Jose Alberto Sanchez of Avenal. The Prius' driver was identified as 84-year-old Walter Elliott of Los Osos. 62-year-od Shirlene Ann Soto, also of Los Osos, was the right-front passenger who was also killed.
. . .

This is what I mean by taking the shoulder. There is no barrier so I'm thinking the Prius might have taken the shoulder and avoided the accident. Looking at the area, I would expect this to be a highway with higher speeds.

A video report indicated that road is scheduled for widening into a 4-lane and the accident occurred on the first segment that was to be done. We used to have a road from Scottsboro to Bridgeport TN that was 2-lane, no shoulder and 10-15 ft. drainage ditches on both sides. I was always nervous on that stretch. Now it is divided, four lane ... I'm only nervous when my lead-footed wife drives.

Bob Wilson

[TonyPSchaefer]

At this point, I do not know how far up the side of the semi the Cav was. There are multiple options:
It was just popping out to pass
It was almost passed
It was half way up

It's so sad that we have to even talk about things like this.