A friend of mines daughter was killed locally last week while driving on a local highway (82). She was rear ended by a doped up guy driving 129 when he hit her. Surprisingly, he survived. She was DOA and, besides a husband, she left two children in local school systen, one in 6th, one in 8th grades.

Her speed was 54. It can happen to any of us in the blink of an eye.

Absolutely true. You can be doing everything correctly and still get killed. Several head on collisions around here due to people driving the wrong way on a divided highway, misjudging distances while overtaking another vehicle etc. Just crazy stuff.
Peter.

Condolences to your friends family and yours.

Condolences to that family.
Nothing can bring a mother back to the two young children.
As a doper it will likely not even get the survivors attention.

It doesn't have to be a doper. Just someone who decides that his/her time is more important than someone else's. Guess I am just getting old, but this stuff just isn't worth it!
Peter.

Terrible and very sad news!

Condolences to the family.

Had a friend in Brownsville, Texas, who lost a son just out of college with a head on accident, by a Mexican, driving the wrong way.

He died too.

Sometimes I get people ask how safe it is to make my own ammo, and hunt dangerous game, and go to Africa where there are all sorts of nasty diseases.

I always tell them my worst fear is being hit by a drunk on the road!

We had probably one of the worst death rate on the roads, per capita, than anyone else.


Lots of accidents were caused by Pakistani truck drivers.

Then the government brought in drastic penalties - going through a red light costs you several thousand dollars, and a ban, for instance.

Trucks breaking speed limits or driving on third lane of a high get taken off the road for a month!

Caught drunk driving, banned, and a jail plus hefty fine.

Exceed the speed limit by a large margin, and your car is confiscated.

Not surprisingly, the death rate took a nose dive, thank goodness.

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:
A friend of mines daughter was killed locally last week while driving on a local highway (82). She was rear ended by a doped up guy driving 129 when he hit her. Surprisingly, he survived. She was DOA and, besides a husband, she left two children in local school systen, one in 6th, one in 8th grades.

Her speed was 54. It can happen to any of us in the blink of an eye.

Sad state of events and a tragedy for whole family.

The world is brutally random and fundamentally unfair.

Let’s hope the dope head is put away for a long time.

Mike

We have another member here that lives close to me + told me his story. He + his wife,mother-in-law + baby were driving back north on I35 coming from Cabelas @ 3:00 in the afternoon on a Sunday.Right where I 35 makes the upper/lower split in Austin he looks in his rear view mirror + KNOWS this guy is not gonna stop. He was doing 80 when he rear ended them.He hit so hard that he sheard the motor mounts + dropped his engine.Everyone in my friends truck were O.K. but shaken + a bit whiplashed. The driver of the other truck was a wet with no license,no insurance,no green card,+ no money, He was 3 times over the drunk limit at 3 in the afternoon.I told my friend that I'll bet they put him under the jail.No,he said,since he had no money they let him go on personal recogizanse.(sp)

I think the most obvious lesson is to hug your kids and wife and tell them you love them every time they leave, it could be the last.

We lost a daughter 15 years ago north of Houston.

I drive as little as possible, and virtually never at night. Last major road trip was about five years ago. We drove to Pensacola, Florida from Dallas. Nearly got killed in a rainstorm east of Texarkana when a fool coming towards me pulled out to pass the car in front of him without seeing me coming straight at him. I'm not sure yet how we avoided that head-on. A matter of inches. Nearly had another wreck a day later in Jackson, Mississippi. As more States legalize marijuana, I wonder how the accident rate can not help but go up.

Paying attention to your own driving is simply not good enough, you have to pay attention to everyone else.

I agree. Last week I was almost t-boned by a truck coming as I was leaving the HEB. I was trying to turn left + he turned on his right turn signal so I went;he locked it up with a great screeching of brakes + tires;very near miss. He had no intention of turning or just changed his mind.Another wake up call + I won't be doing that again.

I never trust turn signals. Ever. If I'm at a stop sign or similar, I wait until the turn signal is obviously committed to turning.

The old saying is that if you see a car in the South with a turn signal on, it was purchased that way.

Yeah,I knew better.Like I said it was a wake up call. Looking back over the years on any "accident", vehicle or otherwise,if one looks back honestly;what could you have done to prevent it.I remember swinging from a purlin by one hand holding my drill after a 10' ladder went out from under me because I did'nt stop to move the ladder for that one last screw.etc.

A friend has a theory that when it's your time, it's your time.

He has told a number of people about a man he knew that had cancer. He fought it for years. It would go into remission, then re-appear. Finally he received treatment that eliminated any sign of cancer. His brother drove him to his last doctor's appointment in Plano where the doctor told him he was essentially cancer-free. Needless to say, the man was thrilled. They were driving home on Dallas North Tollway when a car going the opposite way got "loose" and tagged the concrete center barrier throwing a chunk of concrete through the car windshield heading the other direction, killing the man that had just been declared cancer free.

I don't believe your death is preordained, but I do believe that YOU are responsible for YOU. I should have died many times growing up. Only luck saved me. Working in the oil industry I learned to stop relying on luck. You can't put a number on it, but I feel sure I've added years to my life through risk awareness, and staying "in the moment".

Almost daily I see someone in a fog; not noticing they point a pistol at someone else, not seeing a car accident occurring ahead of them (yesterday), etc. I pride myself in being aware of what is happening around me. That is the least we can do.

quote:

A friend has a theory that when it's your time, it's your time.

I have believed that for about 35 years.

I think I have related this on here before in other discussions on this subject.

When I first started working at the Fort Worth Zoo, I worked in the Bird Department.

At that point in time the zoo had a fairly large paddock with a pool in it and we displayed abnout 2 dozen or so Chilean Flamingos.

One busy afternoon the flock was walking toward the shelter we housed them in at night and this one flamingo reached a popint and stopped and was simply standing there, there was no high winds to cause it, maybe a squirrel caused it, but a limb in the oak tree the bird was standing under, about 4 feet long and 3 inches or so in diameter broke loose and fell 30 feet or so and hit that flamingo square in the head and killed it graveyard dead on the spot.

I have personally written off 3 cars, and the worst I got was a stiff neck!

I hit a camel at high speed as he crossed a highway through the desert.

There no barriers, and trees on the divider.

He just appeared as I was driving along.

Luckily I was going very fast, as he hit the roof, and summetsaulted over the top.

The car was a BMW 635.

The whole body of the car moved in all sorts of directions.

The rear wheel arches were bent, the boot floor was bent, and the car was totaled!

Another was I hit a Catepillar earth mover, as he turned while I was overtaking him.

The driver had no license to be on a public road!!

The car was a BMW 730.

Even the engine block cracked! And the car was totaled.

One was in a BMW M1.

I was with a friend driving out of town.

He asked if the car would do 200 k/hr.

I hit the gas.

He was calling out the speed indicated.

210, 220, 230, 240, 250, 260 BANG!

Both tires on my side blew up!

We skidded to the left, crossed the other side of the highway - no divider. Continued into the desert.

Total distance travelled almost 400 meters!!

Both of us walked away totally unhurt!!

Yes. When it is not your time, it is not.

Just goes to prove there's nothing to the old saying about the good die young.

This is a long story apropros of nothing, but years ago when I was a serious trap shooter, I used to drive from Shreveport, La to Vandalia, Ohio every year to attend the Grand American Trap Shoot. As such, there is a long, very long, straight stretch of I-40 between Little Rock and Memphis. This particular year, Saeed was there as well, in his usual winning ways. He had, rumor had it, the ONLY model of this particular BMW in the US. He had, again by rumor, had it imported for his use on a diplomatic passport. It was one of the fastest cars in the world at that time with a top supposedly well over 200. At any rate, I'm returning from the Grand, tooling along about 80 in my Nissan pickup and far in the rear view mirror I see this speck. Thinking it might be a cop, I slow down to 70 and, about that time, the speck blows by me going well over 100. all I see is a mouthful of teeth, which was what you saw when you saw Saeed, and his girl friend's blonde hair. He did move his hand like he was going to wave but by then he was in the next county. I mean, he was rolling.

God rest her soul. Awful story. I don't want to mention what I believe the doper deserves.

quote:

Originally posted by Gatogordo:
I think the most obvious lesson is to hug your kids and wife and tell them you love them every time they leave, it could be the last.

I made a point of not leaving anything unsaid or undone starting at the beginning of this year. Damn glad I did.

My condolences to the family o their loss. As you said, it can happen just that fast.

Turn signals? In my neighborhood they are generally a fake out. Almost always wrong.

As I said,it was a wake up call. We have so many transplants coming here daily + damn near none of them drive Texas friendly.A pity that that seems to be a thing of the past;but not for me. I still wave to passing vehicles even when the califoricators only responde with a finger.

I remembered this post this evening and thought it was appropriate considering how quickly Charlie was taken.

I am still shocked. He was a fine man, always wanted to know how my girls were doing, always telling me about his kids. Just damn.

I agree Charles,it is always hard when you lose a friend.

I investigated hundreds of motor vehicle crashes.

I seen people walk away from some very nasty ones and seen people die from some what minor ones.

I firmly believe in wearing seat belts.

A lot of people are killed by being thrown out or half out of the vehicle they were in.

quote:

Originally posted by NormanConquest:
As I said,it was a wake up call. We have so many transplants coming here daily + damn near none of them drive Texas friendly.A pity that that seems to be a thing of the past;but not for me. I still wave to passing vehicles even when the califoricators only responde with a finger.

Sigh...you can keep that kind, I'm glad they moved. Too bad there are so many still here.
Maybe the Tejas governor should have been more specific about what kind of jobs he wanted to poach.

Back to the point of the thread, Gatogordo was right, our time can run out with very little notice.
Awhile back, there was a fellow who passed away in his sleepy bag, camped in Yosemite.
The newspaper portrayed it as a tragedy, but he had a nice walk in a spectacular canyon, a quiet evening by the fire, and a well-deserved night's sleep.

I'll say he won the lottery.

quote:

Originally posted by NormanConquest:
As I said,it was a wake up call. We have so many transplants coming here daily + damn near none of them drive Texas friendly.A pity that that seems to be a thing of the past;but not for me. I still wave to passing vehicles even when the califoricators only responde with a finger.

It is not just the transplants, I see lots of native Texans in the 50 and younger crowd in rural areas and even on dirt roads that drive like bats out of hell!

It is simply a sign of the times, too many people are simply in too big a hurry and drive too damn fast.

True that. Every road to my place is a back road. When I moved here in 1970 we had single lane roads + when you saw anyone coming one of you pulled over to the side;everyone was polite. (we also still had crank phones then as well FWIW).Today as this is "prime" property,at any given time I am seeing many Mercedes + BMW's on a regular basis,+ yes they are driving like a bat out of hell + worst of all,they are taking their half out of the middle.

quote:

Originally posted by Charles_Helm:
I remembered this post this evening and thought it was appropriate considering how quickly Charlie was taken.

I am still shocked. He was a fine man, always wanted to know how my girls were doing, always telling me about his kids. Just damn.

Damned ironic, actually!

.