Brian_R170

Anybody see this?

A 17-year-old driving a Corvette was racing a 19-year-old driving a CLK430 when both broadsided a Grand Cherokee. The Grand Cherokee was ripped to pieces and both of its occupants were killed. The Corvette and CLK drivers survived, and both cars faired well, relatively speaking.

http://news12.com/CDA/Articles/View/...532-20,00.html

[Edit: Link is fixed]

Arnee

http://news12.com/CDA/Articles/Trans...532-20,00.html

There you go...

Safet

Charges now filed, 2nd degree manslaughter:

http://news12.com/CDA/Articles/View/...663-20,00.html

JamE55

Another example of racing gone bad...

quaz

There is nothing wrong with racing your car....BUT YOU MUST DO IT ON A TRACK.

You have every right to put your life in danger.....but not everyone else's.

This is horrible.

Two teenagers racing $50,000 + cars...and two fewer people on the planet.

Horrible.

I hope the kids at that high school learned a valuable lesson from all of this. The drivers will have to live with this for the rest of their lives.....but atleast THEY get to live.


Please excuse the rant.

ryson

I can't stand stupidity. Money can't buy you intelligence as these 2 idiots have shown. High power attorneys or not, I hope they get their fair share if not more.

Arnee

LOL

Newbie

I'm not going to comment on the personal aspect of this accident, but I'm very impressed with the CLK's crashworthiness, as I have been in the past. I'm always a bit interested to hear about CLK crashes to see how they fared, and usually they do very well- makes me feel a bit safer.

TNH

It pisses me off when the racers or the drunk drivers end up ok, but the people who did nothing wrong end up dead. Punk kids driving $50K speed machines, their parents should be beaten for it. There is a reason it costs $500 a month to insure a 17 year old in a corvette.

dtclk320

Im still trying to figure out how a 17 year old got his hands on a 2000 vette....goddamn parents should be arrested.. as for a clk in crashes....on valentines day 2001 i was driving on the belt prkwy,right b4 brookville blvd theres a curve thats stated on the signs 45mph, i was doing about 70 ( i no it was dumb please dont remind me) , now im on the outside lane and i try to get onto the lane to my right when all the sudden my car starts to fishtail, i fishtailed across the whole highway, the whole time im thinking just crash already because the car wont straighten out every time it did, it would just fishtail again, so finally the car is sidways on the highway right under the brookville blvd overpass the front wheels straighten up and bang i hit head on into a concrete wall , i didnt have my seatbelt on, the airbag went off and my sweatpants caught on fire but i patted them out quickly, long story short 10gs worth of damage. i had a tiny scrathc on my hand and ****ed up sweatpants. Everybody that saw my car told me i was lucky that i was in a german car otherwise i wouldve had at least a brken nose.. i learned my lesson i dont really speed anymore, especially since my son was born, and i always wear my seat belt.

Martin

Disgusting, the rich kids get high powered attorneys the victims families have to make funeral arrangements.

What’s wrong with this picture.

I have a 17 year old son, I bought him a 6 year old truck when he got his license. No drag racing for him.

I might take him to the track soon so he can learn to go fast where it is safe!

WyattEarp

I'm glad you're allright. Did you ever think about what you did wrong apart from committing to the curve too fast.

Here's an analysis of what I think happened:

1) As soon as you felt the rear end start to drift (oversteer) you panicked and lifted of the throttle. (Weight Transfered forward making your oversteer worse)

2) Right after you lifted off the second thing you did was put your foot smack on that brake to try and slow down ( More weight transfer forward this probably committed you to the oversteer)

3) Your steering input (countersteer) was too late and too agressive.

4) When you were countersteering you were not looking in the direction you wanted to head.

5) When you hit the wall you were looking at it and your wheels were pointed in that direction.

Here's how I think you could have gotten out of it:

1) Rear end begins to drift ( Countersteer )

2) Keep your eyes on the road in the direction you want to go and always countersteer in that direction.

3) Reduce throttle by 3 to 5 % (Transfer weight forward to give the new steering input some bite)

4) Repeat steps 1 thorugh 3 in smaller increments each time

I had a similar accident about 4 years ago and after attending a rallye racing school and learning car control I realized the mistake I had made. What do you think?

LILRAJA

that's just damn right shows you that even the world's best judicial system has loopholes. Who cares what lawyers they hire, how can they be acquitted? They were speeding and took two peoples life. How can one justify anything to that?
17 & 19 driving such cars without proper experience, that is tragic. I am in my mid 20s and i can afford to get a M3, but opted for a 330ci since I know even with years of driving experience the M3 is too much power for me too handle. It's crazy, people should not buy something that they can't handle. It's easy to get tempted.

control

LIL Raja

Newbie

Did it ever occur to you idiots that the couple who died could have been ENTIRELY at fault? Judging by the damage, they were not going THAT much faster than the speed limit. But naturally, everyone blames the kids with nice cars and assumes they were drag racing. I'm guessing the Jeep pulled out unwisely, judging by the fact that they didn't have the right of way.

Safet

Oh sh*t, I just saw the video (couldn't see it at work due to the firewall) did you guys see the couple's Jeep? TORN TO PIECES. The Mercedes? Hood crumbled up, front damage, but intact in one piece.

My thoughts?
1) Why would you buy your kid such a high-powered machine when the kid is 17 or 19 years old? First of all a car is NOT A F***ING TOY, it is a machine. That is why we all bought Mercedes, because they are well engineered MACHINES. They are not Legos or Nintendo or Monopoly.
Secondly, I don't care what anyone says, a person of age 17 does not even come close to having the practical driving experience to be responsible with such a high powered machine. Just because the kid got their driver's license only means they read a 30-page book to pass a written test and could parallel park.
2) Aside from the accident and what happened, it is sad what happened to the couple, but I am glad to see how well the Mercedes stood up to such a crash. The Jeep torn apart, the Corvette major front damage and windshield, the Mercedes the least of them all. The driver of the Mercedes survived with only minor injuries.
3) Who's fault is it really now? The parents fault for buying them these cars? The kids fault for speeding? The government's fault for allowing 17 year old kids to move 2 tons of steel capable of going 160 mph? Yeah you could say maybe the Jeep moved into the traffic somehow, but I don't care what anyone says, if you are doing 55 mph, you would be a lot more capable of handling yourself than speeding. I know because I've thought about this plenty of times and how stupid it is to speed on public roads, when you are speeding past cars, you are ASSUMING that these cars will stay their course and not suddenly change lanes, etc. Cmon, all of you, with the 320's and 430's and 55's, you know you have at least on one occasion pushed the car a little harder, thru traffic, remember one of those times, and God forbid one of those cars was some old lady or idiot driver and swirved into your lane. When I see pictures of accidents and hear stories like this it always makes me want to buckle up and slow down.





Just my thoughts,
Safet

Safet

Newbie,

They could've been entirely at fault, but you know what, if these kids were the least bit speeding, they were breaking the law, and they were involved in this accident while breaking the law, which resulted in double homicide. They wouldn't need high-powered lawyers to prove their case if they were within range of the speed limit, and cops know pretty much how fast you were going by various factors such as skidmarks, etc.

Right now nobody knows the definite facts, so it's no use guessing. You could take any potential jury member and tell them the facts we have so far of: 2 teenage drivers driving high powered sportcars got into an accident with a Jeep, what do you think their first question will be? "Well were they speeding?"

Brian_R170

LOL! That's funny coming from someone thats "not going to comment on the personal aspect of this accident."

Since the two kids have both been arrested, my money is on the kids being at fault and testimony from the passengers in their cars are probably what prompted the arrests.

dtclk320

Actually wyatt i didnt hit the brakes but i did let off the throttle, i was only trying to countersteer, you sound like you know what your saying so you could be right on the $$...I didnt realize you were from NY, my baby momma's (fiance ) parents live in the bronx also.

Newbie

You're a clever guy, figure it out. Obviously I changed my mind and decided to comment on it. What is this, 2nd grade?

nickm

Leaving the horrific accident details and who is at fault aside, I always wondered - since all cars have ABS, there aren't supposed to be any skid marks. Unless the needles were stuck at for e.g. 70 mph when the accident happened, how would anybody know how fast they were going?

Brian_R170

I saw a later report that said the two cars were going in excess of 100mph (speed limit is 55mph).

BTW, ABS does leave skid marks. Each wheel will leave a dashed line in the forward direction. It can look like a solid line when the dashes from the rear wheel and front wheel line up just right. Also, if the cars slide sideways, you can't prevent skid marks.

sungulent

dawm that sad

no more speeding for me

gotta another ****en speeding ticket yesterday

but clk look like doesnt have major damages now thats a safe car

quaz

Come on dude.

Are you saying that you honestly believe that two people...regardless of their age...travelling at TWICE the posted speed limit...crashing into a vehicle at nearly the SAME TIME...were not racing?

Give me a break....they were going over 100 mph in a 55 zone. This means that the deceased driver had 1/2 the time to react to the two vehicles approaching and suffered roughly 4 times the impact that would have occured at 55. Remember....the impact squares with increase in speed...it's not linear.

Crash your car into a wall at 10 mph and compare that to the damage at 20 mph. And if it happened at night...clearly it would be even more difficult for him to judge the distance of two pairs of headlights coming at him at 100+ mph.

One cannot say for sure....but the outcome might have been different if they were not racing.

What they did was STUPID simple and plain.

Young or old...it was stupid. Your comments would make many of us believe that you must be young yourself and are reacting to the fact that people are angry that young drivers were given such a responsibility.

If you drive carefully...good...and don't take was was said by anyone personally. If you drive recklessly...STOP...before YOU hurt someone or yourself.

Frederick

More great comments from Newbie. What do you expect from a kid.

Like I said in other posts when people talk about drag racing on streets, Take it to the track.

This easily could have been any one of you who race on public streets.

Safet

Yeah, slow down before you wrap that beautiful car around a pole.