bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

(i'm posting this as a warning to all of us. a few years back i'd met these two brothers a few times and their parents)

... somehow the older brother who was driving lost control of the car. they were likely going very fast. the older brother was 18 i believe.

the car after the accident.



as you might imagine, one of the brothers, the older one, who was driving, is dead. the accident was about 3 weeks ago.

the younger one sustained major injuries including the complete destruction of a large section of one of his femurs (thigh bone) and some partial paralysis which may or may not stay. he's off the ventilator now but is still fed by a tube.

not posting the link for funding, just for background, and to let everyone know that bad things can happen... we're not invincible.

http://www.gofundme.com/n0j4ig
(click show all updates to see more pics and the 'journey' the parents and their remaining son have been on.)

another article with the background:
http://www.ocalapost.com/one-teen-de...ing-car-crash/

Pamperme

So sad. It looks like the car is a 2000-2006 Nissan sentra. I'm not sure of the crash tests of this particular car cause I don't know what year this specific Sentra was, but I wonder if there was anyway the driver could have survived if a car with stronger crash results was substituted, like say a Tesla Model S or a Volvo s80. May the driver RIP.

mmarshall

So you knew these guys. My condolences if the driver was a friend of yours......or even a casual acquaintance. And I hope his brother recovers as much as possible.

Just simply driving too fast for conditions, or were any drugs and alcohol involved?...or don't you know?

Yep...looks like a Nissan sedan from that era (either Sentra or Altima) from the door handles and surviving body panels. But I'm not sure those are stock wheel rims and tires.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

thanks, they were kids, older one was 18 i believe. their parents were a client of mine for a while.

i don't know. i believe the accident happened after midnight on an empty road.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

I'm amazing the younger brother survived. That is mangled . Be safe everyone

lobuxracer

iTrader: (2)

I hate to disagree, but speed in and of itself does not kill. Uncontrolled stops from speed definitely can kill. If speed alone kills, I would have been dead many times over already.

It is unfortunate to see automobile wreckage knowing the accident was fatal. I just watched a 10:28 video on LiveLeak showing the http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1e5_1279584384 in which they compiled some of the most horrific wrecks in the last 20 (may 30) years of racing. Many of the accidents, filmed live, resulted in fatalities. I was specifically looking for Jeff Krosnoff's accident as I remembered it being one of the most awful Champ car wrecks ever.

I seriously doubt seeing accidents up close and personal would ever change my attitude about driving at speed. I watched all the gory movies way back in the'70s in driver's ed at my high school, and was myself involved in an accident as a passenger at age 13 where my sister was nearly killed sitting in the middle seat of a '63 Ford Falcon because in '63, seat belts were not required. I got to see her skull shining brightly through a large diamond shaped hole in the skin on her forehead while we waited for medical attention to arrive. It didn't slow me down. It only improved my resolve to not make that kind of idiotic mistake. It didn't scare me.

RIP to the driver, and I hope his brother's suffering is brief, although it's unlikely to be with a shattered femur.

mmarshall

Well, that's true of course, as astronauts orbiting the earth at 18,000 MPH prove....speed alone doesn't kill, if you don't hit something. But, in most driving situations, all else equal, the faster you go, the greater the impact force (kinetic energy) will be if you DO hit something, and the worse the damage will be to both the vehicle and its occupants. That's why, until very recently, larger, heavier vehicles tended, in general. to be safer in accidents than smaller lighter ones. But recent safety advances and crash-ratings in small cars have made them somewhat more survivable in impacts with larger ones. Still, given the choice, I sure wouldn't want to be inside a Smart-for-Two if a Suburban hits it.