Guess I never got around to thanking MB for saving the lives of me and my family...

Was driving my dad's S500 almost 10 years ago from Los Angeles to Vegas. Dad was in the passenger seat, mom was seated right behind me, and my wife was seated right behind my dad.

Was cruising at about 75-85 on a perfectly sunny day about 45 minutes out from Vegas and it started to sprinkle rain. I was driving in the fast lane (left lane) and felt the car hydroplane a bit. The car kept straight and I started to slow down the car, not by braking but by letting go of the gas. When the car got down to about 70, the car hydroplaned again. The car spun off the road to the right and down the side of the highway. There were some huge rocks/boulders off the right side of the road, hit the rocks/boulders while in the spin, and the car rolled at least 3 times.






Thank God, everyone was wearing seatbelts and nobody died. I gashed my head and needed about 5 staples on the crown of my head. My dad grabbed the door handle to brace himself and his elbow jammed into his chest and broke 2 ribs. Over time the ribs healed without any hospital time. My mom, who suffered the most damage, had swelling on her head to the point where the swelling looked as if she was wearing a helmet. My mom also broke her neck. My mom was eventually released from the hospital after 3 days and had surgery on her neck a month or so later with no permanent damage. My wife grabbed the oh-***** handles on the roof of the car and braced her legs and suffered no damage except for some stiffness.

Long story short, I drive slower than I used to drive. Regardless of how good a driver you might think you are, something can and will happen that can change your life forever. When I drive and notice myself hitting 75+, I slow down. I thank God that I was driving a strong car and nothing very serious happened. I don't think I would be able to live with myself knowing that I killed someone that I loved let alone killed anyone; driving unnecessarily fast.

I dunno why I'm posting this. I just heard today that my uncle in Korea passed away from cancer yesterday. I guess it's just me thinking. That life is short. Why f--k with it. If this post possibly makes someone think twice the next time they jam on the gas, I guess it's been worth it.

 

Sorry to hear about the accident and glad that everyone made it relatively okay (although it sounds like some major injuries.) And my condolences to you and your family in respect to your uncle.

Why would the car hydroplane like that? The S Class is very stable even at high speeds. And in the wet. Especially in a straight line. But looking at the second to last image and seeing the rear tire, it's pretty obvious. Drive safe, yes. Also never skimp on replacing tires when it's time. They're what connects all that weight to the road.

 

My condolences to your family for the loss of your Uncle. I agree with 220S that as you describe the injuries sustained, it sounded like a pretty bad accident. Again, glad all did not receive major injury.
An Ad is on TV about MB and it's safety in an accident situation and every time I see that Ad, I thank my lucky stars my family is kept safe by the MB we drive.
I know from personal experience that those roads in SoCal and Nevada get pretty slippery when it rains.

 

It is probably difficult even to write about such an accident although all survived with no major injuries. Perhaps you were driving a bit too fast first but you did the right thing when slowing down. If only the car had been equipped with ESP, perhaps all damage could have been avoided.

 

We also had a 1995 w140 s500 in our family which was passed down to me when I turned 17. There was traction control, from listening to your story everything you said seemed like you did correctly. Only thing is a car does not hydroplane without force. Meaning your brain told you keep off break but instinct may have done otherwise. Could you have possibly hit gravel while slowing down? Thank god everyone survived the awful crash and the w140 may has well have been bullet proof.

 

Just so no one gets false confidence, ESP can fail completely when a car is hydroplaning. In many cases of hydroplaning, the tires lose contact with the road, and in these cases there is nothing ESP can do to help.

I have hydroplaned in my 2010 E550. I did not lose control of the car, but ESP was no help until I regained contact with the road.

 

Glad everyone made it out OK! Yup even my old cars with ESP have hydroplaned, luckily no one has got hurt so far.

 

"Why would the car hydroplane like that? The S Class is very stable even at high speeds."


A vehicle hydroplanes when tire tread depth is not deep enough to handle the water layer thickness on road with a given speed. Any car will hydroplane if driven too fast in a puddle of water as water does not have sufficient time to flow from underneath the tire. And this gets worse when tire tread depth is less.

I remember from very long time ago seeing a test in TV where cars were tested for hydroplaning with new good tires. If water was deep enough the cars would hydroplane at 50 mph speed so if you drive 70 mph and it really rains heavy be aware of the possibility of hydroplaning especially when tires are not new any more. Tires wear grooves on roads which fill with thick layer of water and driving on those grooves with high speed can be very dangeous when raining. No ESP can help during hydroplane as there simply is no friction between tires and road surface.

 

"Was cruising at about 75-85 on a perfectly sunny day about 45 minutes out from Vegas and it started to sprinkle rain. I was driving in the fast lane (left lane) and felt the car hydroplane a bit. The car kept straight and I started to slow down the car, not by braking but by letting go of the gas. When the car got down to about 70, the car hydroplaned again."

It was a rain sprinkle, obv there was oil build up on the road since there is not much on the way to vegas. There 100% had to be a driver mistake, when the car made it to 70 mph why would it serve out, a momentum had to force the car to slide after that.

 

I realize that. It was a rhetorical question on my part

Look at the rear tire in the second to last photo. It's past its time. I was try to (politely) say that the OP was running on bad tires. The accident may very well have not happened if they had been fresher tires.

But it did happen, and again I'm glad to hear everyone survived and sorry that some injuries did occur.

 

MOCKBAM5... My post was not to state that I was not at fault...

EVERYONE ELSE... Thanks for the read and the condolences...

 

Lots of reasons a hydroplaning car could go into a slide or spin. Different tire contact left to right, different tread depth, different water depth, crown in the road, a dip in one side of the road, etc. Yes, the momentum might be going forward, but the friction where the rubber meets the road or water need not be even.

 

I'm not blaming you, thats why its called an accident. You obv didn't mean to put your family in a dangerous situation, and you did the best you knew how to get your self out of the the hydroplane. It just didn't work out as planned. The most important thing is everyone came out alive. If you were not in the vehicle and in another it could have been a different story.

 

If it was just rain sprinkle, i.e. just wet road you were not hydroplaning.

You lost control of the car on wet pavement, which indeed is odd unless you did some sort of a quick move on steering wheel. Or tires are just carbage, which the photos don't really show. yes, they are worn but you can still see tread pattern so if the road is just wet and don't have standing water puddles hydroplaning ain't happening.

 

I missed the sprinkling rain bit above, and now understand better what mockbam was saying. When it hasn't rained in a while, oil builds up on the road. When you get enough sprinkling to get the road wet, that oil floats on top of the water. It can be like driving on ice. A barely wet road after a dry spell can be much more slippery than the same road after hard rain.

But I maintain that there are several influences on the direction of a car that can put it in a slide even without driver input. The crown in the road, for instance, or perhaps better traction/drier pavement on one side of the car. Dips or bumps. Not driving in a perfectly straight line. Uneven weight distribution. But it all comes down to driving too fast for the conditions, which is important for us all to remember.

 

Good story and thanks for sharing. In a lesser car, it could have taken a turn for the worse. Glad to hear you guys made it out unscathed in the long run.... That's your whole family in there!

It does sound very odd, but odd things happen behind the wheel, and it's pretty freaky that a car could just hydroplane like that in a light initial drizzle, even with bad tires.

Considering the car rolled over numerous times, that is incredible protection and safety cell strength. Safety is still the #1 reason that draws me to Mercedes. I also agree about speeding. Somebody recently asked me "how fast have you taken it up to?" in this "ooh, I want hear a cool story" way. I said "I dunno, 90?"

I bought an E350 for a reason, and I've done way too much crash research to trust being in anything at high vulnerable speeds. Just not worth it, even for an adrenaline rush.

 

EPS does need some tyre grip but if there is no grip. the car keeps going straight. ESP has its limits but if tyres touched the road momentarily, ESP could have had good opportunities to keep it going straight (easier than making it turn). I don't think the car was fully aquaplaning until it had turned 90 degrees.

In your example, how do you know ESP had any task to do and how did it fail if you did not loose control to start with?

 

You are assuming that all 4 tires have equal grip. This is true only if the direction is perfectly straight, all 4 tires have equal access to the road, all 4 tires have perfect tire pressure considering the weight of the car including passengers, all 4 tires are in perfectly equal condition, the alignment is perfect, the road is perfectly flat and perfectly straight,... You get the idea. What do you think would happen if all 4 tires are hydroplaning, the driver lets of the accelerator, and then one -- just one -- tire gets grip. You're going to rotate around that tire. That's a simple example.

Heck, there's a thing called "bump steer," where one of the front tires hits a bump. You start steering in that direction, even though you did not intend to. Having the water deeper on one side of the car could cause bump steer.

I knew ESP was not helping because I was doing a lot of sawing at the wheel and modulating the throttle to keep the car going in the intended direction. The car was always going in the intended direction -- in fact, I was on a tight curve with a BMW in the inside lane and a big curb on the outside -- so I did not lose control. Granted, I might have been on the ragged edge of control... I've spent quite a bit of time on racetracks in non-ESP cars, so this sort of thing does not bother me.

 

Ya this was definitely the main reason for the hydroplaning. The temp was around the 90's and the roads were probably pretty hot before the sprinkle of rain. It's pretty much driving 101.

I also never noticed the rear tires, but from the looks of the pics, they obviously weren't new tires and had a lot of wear on them. This being my dad's car, he doesn't really concern himself with tires and tread wear. I will be checking the parents car every now and then to make sure the tread is at least safe enough for driving in the future.

The S500 was a tank. Any other car and it would have been a different story.

What irks me are 2 things.
1. Why none of the airbags didn't deploy.
2. Why on the side of the road all the way from Los Angeles to Vegas, there are huge boulders right off the side of the road. If the road was smooth, we probably would have just slid down the side and done a few more 360's instead of rolling...

 

Weird that the Airbags didn't deploy indeed. I don't know if those early versions of side bags were as refined as the modern versions?

You'll be happy to know that there isn't a better car in the world to "rollover" in than your W212 btw. If that provides you with any added comfort. Check toward the end of this Video :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75TL8ryNfns