coolest wreck

svp

Well-known member
got called out to cover a wreck last night and it was impressive. a high school kid that just graduated went off the interstate, over a slight grass embankment and traveled 1/4 mile all around 65mph before jumping the embankment and landing in the oklahoma river. he really did a dukes of hazzard. car landed halfway across the river. okc dive teams rescued him and he's alright but the distance he traveled in the air was unbelievable. the producers decided not to air it in the nights newscast and i'm guessing they'll use it tonight. that allowed me to stick around and get video of the car being pulled from the river. really was amazing.
 

nozoom4u

Active member
I witnessed quite a few crazy car crashes in my day. Most impressive and odd was a ford ranger that was driving down the interstate about 80 when the driver fell asleep. His car veered near the median and right before he got to an over pass the drivers front end hit it causing the ranger to ramp into the air several hundred feet. The crazy part though is that the divided highway had a hole between the overpasses to a street below where traffic is running in the opposite direction at 45 well the ranger took a plunge into the hole at 75-80 and from approxiamately 40-50 feet high right into the top of a passenger van with two people in it. I was about a mile away when I heard it on the scanner and when I got there the ranger was sticking straight out of the top of the van. The driver of the ranger lived, but both in the van were killed. Wrong place at the wrong time a millisecond difference and the truck would have struck pavement.
 

LongTimePhotog

Well-known member
my crazy car wreck story was covering a car wreck on the interstate...i was getting cut aways when a car going 65-70 rammed the back of a fire chiefs car...i was shooting the chiefs car at the time...made qutie an interesting shot...the guy driving was looking at the wreck and didn't notice the chiefs car stopped in the fast lane.
He was bloody and brused, but was alive and very lucky.
 

JTFCM

Well-known member
Just hours ago,
An exchange student with a learners permit was learning to parallel park in the 'burbs, she hit the wrong pedal in her fairly new Merc Mountaineer (V-8 AWD). Took a hard right turn, jumped the curb, drove through the garage door into the garage on a 45 degree angle taking out half the kitchen on her way out...through the back yard and hit the neighbors house.

The funniest part was seeing the two bottles of booze that got stuck in the fender as the SUV. Amazingly nobody got so much as a scratch.
 

Natural Born Stringer

Well-known member
Earlier today we had this happen:


Truck ran into bus stop and hit a family of 4 as they waited for the bus. (Pic courtesy of KTVK)

Oops.

The family does have one thing going for them though... just moments before the crash, Dad saved a bunch of money on his car insurance by switching to Geico....

OK, I know I'm going to hell for that... but I couldn't help it.
 

Birdy

Well-known member
NoZoom4U: Your accident reminded me of one a friend, who works for Tampa PD, was involved in about 13 years ago. A car hit another while driving southbound down I-275 in Tampa. The car went airborne over the rail and landed on top of my friend's camaro, which was driving northbound. I can't remember all the details, except that the news followed it for at least 3 days and they never did get the story right.

Edit: Just wanted to add that my friend was VERY lucky. He escaped with just a broken leg. Real downside, he stayed with us for a few weeks afterward and had to eat my cooking. :D

[ May 31, 2005, 09:33 PM: Message edited by: Birdy ]
 

jbar

Member
Originally posted by Natural Born Stringer:
Earlier today we had this happen:


Truck ran into bus stop and hit a family of 4 as they waited for the bus. (Pic courtesy of KTVK)

Oops.

The family does have one thing going for them though... just moments before the crash, Dad saved a bunch of money on his car insurance by switching to Geico....

OK, I know I'm going to hell for that... but I couldn't help it.
Hahahahaha
 

queen of blue

Well-known member
Originally posted by Natural Born Stringer:
Earlier today we had this happen:


Truck ran into bus stop and hit a family of 4 as they waited for the bus. (Pic courtesy of KTVK)

Oops.

The family does have one thing going for them though... just moments before the crash, Dad saved a bunch of money on his car insurance by switching to Geico....

OK, I know I'm going to hell for that... but I couldn't help it.
It's ok, I laughed. So we can sit together when we get to hell.
 

TightShot

Well-known member
a few weeks ago, a driver of a semi carrying a pup (2nd trailer hitched to back of first) fell asleep at the wheel when traveling 80 mph on the freeway, right before an overpass, ran off the shoulder, taking out the guardrail, ran down the outside grassy slope, crossed the street, and jack-knifed up the side of the opposite slope on the other side of the street...both driver and passenger lived, but the truck's load was spilt all over the embankment and I got some great irony shots (i.e., semi-trailer busted and laying on top of the "stop" sign, debris from load and partially crushed trailer laying on top of a leveled "cross street traffic does not stop" sign)
 

SeattleShooter

Well-known member
Today I shot a story about a 15 year old with his permit driving a Chevy Silverado with his dad in the passenger seat. The kid, going 60, falls asleep and hits a ditch then rolls countless times. Both have to be taken out of the crushed truck with the Jaws of Life. The kid was not hurt, but the dad was.
 

Terry E. Toller

Well-known member
I covered one years ago where a young kid was drag racing on a busy city street. I couldn't believe my eyes when I got there. Three cars stacked on top of each other! On the bottom was a Pinto with a Lincoln upside down on top of it and the kid's Camero on the very top. Only the Pinto was touching the ground.

Kid's girlfriend dies. DA tried him for murder but the jury wouldn't go for it. He walked...
 

JTFCM

Well-known member
Two guys on crotch rockets doing around 100mph on inner-city streets when they hit a school bus broadside....no kids inside thank god.

Turned out the bikers were both cops.
 

Run&Gun

Well-known member
I don't think you can consider these "cool", but I have two that come to mind.

1: 18 wheeler is pulled over on the side of the interstate one rainy morning on a stretch that is known for accidents and the driver of a passenger car either fell asleep or just wasn't paying attention and runs underneath the back of the trailer and gets decapitated.

2: I was shooting ARCA practice at LMS one day because Kyle Busch was running and I was waiting to get some "fly-by's" of him(we didn't know, but he wasn't even on the track at the time) when another driver looses it coming out of turn 4. No big deal, he spins and gets stopped, other cars slow down and go low to the inside and I can see him moving in the car, he's OK. And for whatever reason I keep rolling, it's about 8+ seconds AFTER he comes to a stop and BAM, another driver(female) hits him in the drivers side at about 160mph to 180mph. He's killed on impact and from what I was told, that was almost the exact same accident the female driver had had before in another(lower) series(minus the death).

[ June 04, 2005, 12:08 PM: Message edited by: Run&Gun ]
 

Lost in Alaska

Well-known member
November afternoon, two vehicle ax in a two lane hiway. Dodge Ram vs. Subaru Legacy. The front bumper of the Ram was in the center of the Legacy from the drivers side. Both were going under the 55 mph speed limit. The driver of the Subaru swerved and over corrected into the path of the truck.
 

focusthis

Well-known member
Halfsies:

Late-70's Honda head on into a utility pole, split it down the center with the engine in the passenger compartment.

Chevy Corsica hit broadside by a semi, front half 50' from the back half.

Late night go-kart rider encounters a steel cable at shoulder height.

Over Easy:

90's Honda Accord off a five story parking garage landed on it's roof.

Gang Bang:

90+ car pile up on I-95 north of Baltimore. (photog unknown)

Ham and Eggs Please, Deer:

Truck hauling waste lost control and spill a God-awful amount of pig entrails on a major road.

Mid-August tractor trailer rollover, 5,150 killed, 8021 critcally injured, and 3098 chickens left flightless.

Two deer ruined three cars when one was flung up and onto the next car in lane.

********************************************

Nobody will want to hear my stories at my retirement home.
 

ewink

Well-known member
NBS, Bus stop crashes were the fad here for a couple of weeks. 4 killed at one stop.

And I laughed too (at his joke) so make sure you have a hell-train with a dining car because I am going to want to eat on the way.

--

There was a crash here where a car went off a road and down to an underpass that goes to the airport. No one knows why the vered off, but two feet in either direction and they would have hit a guard rail.

They flipped, fell 80 feet and landed on the roof. Both passangers were killed instantly.

It's not a COOL crash, but it was one of the oddest ones.

And I didn't get to shoot this one, but this was pretty cool. No fatalities and only minor injuries.

http://www.klastv.com/Global/category.asp?C=28259&nav=168X9LAx

I can't link directly to it, but it's about 10 down, Massive Wreck on US 95 or something.

[ June 10, 2005, 04:15 PM: Message edited by: ewink ]
 

Raptor

Member
#1 tractor trailer load of scrap steel, hits the grassy median, rins through median about 50 feet up over 15 foot dirt bank perpendicular to raodway, goes airborne, unfortunately teh dirt bank stop is due tto the river crossing uner the Interstate, truck drops about 70 feet vertically and completely crosses the river horizontally, with a flip thrown in there somewhere. Driver lived, but took some time for rescuers to cut him out.

#2 High speed 'vette ax, shears off utility pole, rear deck fiberglass is sitting on the roadway, vehicle sitting down embankment rear end into a tree, nothing behind the front seats is intact but the remnants of the rear are scattered throught eh woods another 50 feet. Double fatal.

#3 1 Vehicle into the woods along two lane road. Walking on the shoulder opposite the vehicle I encounter various pieces of the vehicle, like alternator, something twisted up from teh front suspension/ steering, front wheel including rotor engine and transmission - 30 feet past the vehicle. The really interesting thing is that the male passenger who was ejected through the rear window landed another 15 feet past teh engine. Both passengers survived, though teh male who was ejected was life-flighted with crit head injuries.
 
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