'04 Prius involved in fatal accident

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thursday

They did not say if they were wearing seatbelts but did confirm that all airbags deployed.

The driver made a left turn in front of a truck that was unable to stop in time.

 

Here are the highpoints:

-Two Denton High School freshmen were killed and two others critically injured early Saturday when the subcompact car they were riding in turned in front of an 18-wheeler carrying heavy equipment.

-The car’s driver, 15, suffered minor injuries. He was driving the car with a learner’s permit but not a driver’s license, police said. The car’s driver had a learner’s permit that allowed him to drive with a licensed adult driver in the car. The permit was invalid because there was no one older than 21 in the car, police said. It also prohibited him from driving after midnight and having more than one passenger younger than 18.

-Police are investigating whether alcohol is a factor in the crash.

-"The trucker had a green light. Witnesses said the Prius had a green light but not a green arrow. He failed to yield right of way to the truck, and the Prius was struck broadside in the passenger side. There was no way that driver could stop."

-Blalock said parents of the boys said they did not know they were out.

I can't decide if I should be sad about this or not. The kid was driving in clear violation of his learner's permit, the parents didn't know the kids had the car, and there was the possibility that they were intoxicated.

Dave.

 

Re seatbelts, one of the two kids pronounced dead at the scene was wearing his, the other was not.

Very sad.

 

i guess the high voltage pack wasn't a problem for rescue workers. At least we know that works properly.
Sad story. Even though the kinds were in wrong, a punishment of death, or death of a friend is harsh for any type of crime or misconduct.

 

After the appropriate moments of silence.......... What junkyard is the car going to and are they going to be parting it out? I got dibs on the HID headlights and the fog lights.

Relax, I'm only kidding.

 

Thank god that of all the stupid things I did when I was 15, none of them led to death. I just consider this natural selection taking care of the rest of us.

 

Not true as the person driving was not one of those killed although I imagine he'll likely wish he had been if he recovers from his injuries. An awful thing to live with.

As a side note, when did a 2004 Prius go from being a mid-size car to a sub-compact?

 

Reminds me of how a friend of mine died. If you let a little air out of the tires of a car and prop the gas pedal down with a brick, you can drive on the railroad tracks without attending to the steering wheel. Around here it's so flat and straight you can see far ahead. So they climbed onto the roof of the car and got drunk. End of story.

 

Well, the other kids couldn't have been too smart, either. I know I certainly wouldn't have ridden with someone that didn't have a license.

Anyway, I kinda take it back now, since even the smartest of us probably did some really stupid things as kids, some of which could have gotten us killed.

 

I saw a commercial recently for the "new" (meaning I haven't heard about it until the commercial) about how it's now nationally required for seatbelt use, and you can get a ticket simply for not wearing a seatbelt nationwide, with or without other violations.

In a perfect society, this type of law wouldn't be required - personal responsibility is really all that needs to be taught - but in our society, when people bitch and moan about 'it makes me feel uncomfortable!' and etc, I am only saddend to hear how they put the families they left behind through unnecessary pain and torture.

I was in a car accident when I was 8. An olds 88 stationwagon. I was in the back seat, right where the bronco truck hit, dead on. It was wintertime, and it was warm in the car, so just one minute before, I had taken off my seatbelt to remove my coat. Like always, I pulled the seatbelt back on because it's what we were always told as kids. Then, I rested my elbow against the window/door, my head against that, and was just drifting off when I was pushed with a great force and glass sprayed across my face. I screamed, but was perfectly fine. I bumped my knee a bit on the door handle when we were hit, but other than the glass embedded into my ear canal and all through my clothes, my dad, brother and myself were unharmed. The bronco driver said he had a green light, my dad and brother said the same for us.

The cop told me specifically as I was sitting in the back of the cop car - "Good thing you were wearing your seatbelt, otherwise you'd have been thrown and plastered to the other side of the car. You would've been killed."

Just goes to show you how dangerous it can be - and how that could influence me as a child - to always, always wear my seatbelt and demand others do the same in my car. If we would've been hit just a minute before, I would've been dead all because I was warm. If you need to take a coat off, or get something out of the back, or anything to take your seatbelt off - just stop, pull off to the side and give yourself the extra minute you'd need.

-m.

 

As a previous poster said "when the the Prius go from a mid-sized to a subcompact?". I caught that also and assume that the media would like to drive that point into everybody's head. As though you would have totaled the semi (and walked away unhurt) if you had pulled in front of it in your ultra-safe Hummer H2! If it had been a Buick or something similar, no mention would have been made of the "size" of the car in the accident. If your car gets broadsided by a loaded tractor-trailer rig, the safest place to be is at home watching out for you children, not wondering where your children and car went.

 

when it was hit by the semi...

 

Bear in mind that the Prius is a few inches shorter than a Corolla. It is classed as a mid-sized by the EPA based on the interior voulume which is close to a Camry.

 

obviously interior space is not used to classify cars by anyone else.

 

I knew of someone in high school who refused to wear her seat belt. Her cousin had recently been involved in a bad accident in which his car was crushed but he survived because he was flung free before the crush. The medics said he would have died if he had been wearing his seatbelt. So she took that too literally and probably still doesn't wear one.

 

seat belts will save you about 93% of the time. if you wish to gamble your life on that 7% solution go for it. but realize this is not a fictional Sherlock Holmes life, it is your own.