Drive Safely Folks...

My daily commute into the office typically includes a quick stint on the Parkway and this morning was no different except that a moment after I entered the roadway, an MR2 convertible (with its top down) about three or four car lengths ahead of me, lurched to the right (perpendicular to the road), ran off into a ditch, and flipped over. I immediately pulled over along with several other cars and rushed over to the car. Thankfully, the driver was conscious and wasn't complaining of pain (she was in shock) except that one of her hands was pinned underneath the car. The car was upside down and had its roof down before the accident so her hand was lodged between the ground and the top of the windshield. The A-pillars were also slightly crushed so there was very little space between between the body of the car and the ground. A volunteer fireman and physicians assistant were among the witnesses who pulled over so they were very helpful in keeping her calm and repositioning her in the car (after determining that her neck was okay). Emergency crews showed up quickly and were able to extract her from the wreck after prying the door open and propping up the car. All of the witnesses who stopped to help were asked to leave the scene before she was completely free so I never actually got a real assessment of her injuries. The fact that she was conversant and, from what we could tell, appeared okay (other than her hand), however, was a miracle. I don't think the story would have been the same if she wasn't wearing her seatbelt. We read about these kinds of things all of the time and maybe our senses become dulled to the stories, perhaps as a self defense mechanism but, suffice it to say, witnessing an accident is a sobering moment to say the least. While the result in this case could have been much, much worse, I thought I'd share my story in case it might serve as a reminder of how quickly things can change and how fragile life is. Drive safely. -Eric

So true. Everytime I see an accident I think the same thing, it always happens before you know whats happening. I've been in a few (none in the last 20 years or so), but I'm always hyper aware of whats going on around me. I think riding a bike does that to you and you take that attitude into the car with you.

I alway feel safer with the hard top on. God forbid a roll over with the top down. Only ever had one roll over in my life time. A large ford saloon car back in the 70s. I lost it on a bend and as it started to roll I automatically balled up into my seat belt, grabbed around both knees with both arms as I shouted 'Jesus Christ'.. He must have been listening as the car bounced over and over and was totalled. Only one window left on the drivers side door. The others all gone. I walked out without a scratch on me. whoa

Sad story, but credit to you for stopping to help.

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I'm not sure if she would have been better off with the top up or down. Since I've got a cab it really made me think about it. Would the light structure of the top have done anything to shield the driver or would all of those cross supports have turned into weapons as they were crushed against the Earth and broken into pieces? That said, I kind of wonder whether she instinctively placed her hand against the top of the windshield to brace herself from impact when the car ventured off road out of control and if that is why her hand got pinned. -Eric

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I would go straight to hell for what id have said!.

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No I didn't mean the soft top up or down. I have a cab with a hard top as well and I was reffering to my hard top. Better with the soft top down as against a soft top up. as you say the framewrok of the soft top could really make a mess of a driver I would think as it got bent out of shape by the roll over. The high backs of the porsche front seats would help protect the head somewhat in a roll over. Plus I believe that the roll bars would shoot up from behind the rear seats as the wheels left contact with the road surface. What a time to find out if the roll bars actually worked.

I knew what you meant about the hardtop. I, too, have one with my cab and its shell clearly seems stronger than any soft top could ever be. Between top down and hard top on, having the hard top on certainly seems like it would be the safer bet. I'm just not sure whether the soft top alone provides any additional protection or would just be an impediment in a crash. -Eric

Semi came through the median on the Interstate the other day and missed me by less than 50 feet. When I looked in my rearview mirror I was looking at his taillights in my lane. It sure makes a guy think...

Oh, and I wouldn't kid myself about rolling a car with a hard top being any better than the soft top. I have a coupe, but I'll assume the 996 cab's hardtop is basically like the hardtop on my Miata, which wouldn't do anything to protect me in a rollover.

Sorry to hear about the accidents. Mine was out of the blue last year on the bike. I needed the titanium plate and screws I guess. I'll always wonder what makes some of the cars we hear about that take sharp turns on hwy's loosing control. For the MR2 what do you think caused it to crash?

I drive the Merit Pkwy all the time...it continues to amaze me the idiocy of people on that road...I have seen the same thing as you described above (too many times), and it scares the hell out of me to be on the road with them.

With all the distractions people have while driving (GPSs, cell phones, LCD screen displays for sound systems, etc...) it's a different world out there. Somewhere I saw a quote that went something along the line of saying how stupid we are about not being able to tell the difference between what we are capable of doing and what we should do while driving. Just because you can doesn't mean you should, so to speak. Riding a motorcycle on todays roads keeps my mind sharp (I'm 47). I always take the attitude that every person driving a car is trying to kill me, they just don't mean to.

I also started off on a motorcycle and then moved into to cars. It does seem to give you a different attitude about other drivers. I am also very curious about what caused her to go off-road.

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Here's the story we put together from the various witnesses. The guy driving in front of her was very concerned he may have caused her to lose control. He was one of the people who pulled over. He said he started braking when the driver in front of him started to slow down and then started to turn into the right lane (which I believe was open at the time). He said he then looked into his rear view mirror and noticed that the woman driving the MR2 behind him was also pulling into the right lane so he pulled back into the left lane. The way he described it, nobody was driving wildly and there weren't even any near misses or light taps on the bumpers. His account was confirmed by another witness driving behind him who also stopped. Both he and the other witness then said that they saw her car spin around almost like it hit a patch of ice (it was dry and 50 degrees) before heading straight off the road into the woods and flipping over. I only saw the car slide strangely before it headed off road when it turned over. Even then I was shocked to see the car flip over. She must have cut the wheel after hitting the grass either fearing she would hit a tree or maybe the car was just completely out of control. I don't know. Surprisingly, I didn't see anybody driving at crazy speeds or recklessly when it happened. It was just completely out of the blue for everyone. This is so true. I remember riding my bike all over the place with my father as a child even with my sister in a baby seat behind him. When my wife and I had our first child we bought a baby trailer for my bike. I had visions of riding all over the place with my kids -- and then, after our daughter was born, the thought completely freaked me out since many of the roads near our home are relatively narrow and people tend to drive very fast. It is a different world. There were always bad drivers, inattentive drivers, drunk drivers, etc. on the roads but today, with so many people texting, talking on phones, etc. while driving, I think the number of inattentive drivers has grown exponentially. The problem isn't with cars being faster and it isn't solved with better brakes or airbags. The problem is that the people behind the wheel just aren't paying attention! I love new technology just as much, if not more than, the next guy but maybe it's time we shut off our phones while we're behind the wheel. Hands free laws all miss the point. Holding the phone is only part of the problem. It's the distraction caused by the conversation the driver is having with the person on the other end of the call that is the problem. -Eric

Eric, very well written. Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns. Life is to short. Drive safe

Sound to me like the person at the front of the line was in the fast lane driving too slow and any number of people were pulling into the slow lane to get around him. This is my number 1 problem on North American roads today. "Stay right except to pass" and "slower traffic keep right" Its like these signs are invisible to people. A-holes.

Mmmmmmm....not sure that's the case. Nobody was driving that fast because it was during morning traffic. If anything it may have been because people were driving too close. Traffic typically starts to slow down, sometimes very quickly, as it hits the crest right before the next exit. My guess is that at least one or two of the drivers was caught off guard by the abrupt slow down. The MR2 driver (who was probably one of those surprised...maybe or maybe not) probably overreacted. -Eric

Stumbled upon this older thread while in search mode and felt compelled to reply. Yes, the MR2 driver was EXTREMELY lucky, especially with regards to her neck...I was involved in a rollover on an offramp 4 weeks ago in a closed car (not a Porsche) and came away with 2 neck fractures resulting in nerve issues that hopefully the doctor will tell me aren't permanent, as well as 3 rib fractures. That's bad enough, but all the work I put into this offseason keeping myself in shape to withstand another 30+/- DE and open track days this season has now gone to waste, as well as now beating myself up mentally as to how I could have let something like this happen (please don't ask). And this after setting an all-time personal best laptime at the event I did get to attend before all this happened; I was completely geeked for this season. Just remember: Live your life, but things can and do happen in the blink of an eye that can/will change your life.