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An affiliate club member was on his way back from Good Guys in Del Mar Saturday when something went terribly wrong. The guy following him said the car just made immediate right turn and that was it, it flipped and went threw a fence. He is lucky to be alive, several broken bones and burns I guess from being dragged.
I think this is just another reminder to keep rechecking your car. Always looking at it from a safety stand point.
Ken
I definatly wish him the best in his recovery
WOW, that just makes a guy sick. I am glad he wasn't hurt too bad. I hope he heals quickly. The ride can be fixed. A life cannot be brought back.
yes we all need to be reminded that this hobby can be dangerous. may he have a full recovery and come back better than ever. our pryaers are with him. jonathan
Ahhhhh.....Ken you just ruined my day! These pictures make me ill. But good to hear that he lived through the crash.
I agree we all need to learn and be reminded through accidents like this that we need to think "safety first" during construction and constantly recheck for suspension tightness and possible problems on a regular schedule.
All I can think about is having an accident like that with my wife, or one of my grand kids in the car.
Wow, I'm glad he is on the mend. Any ideas on what broke to cause this? I've seen and heard of steering rods coming out or breaking. It happens more than one would think ..................
Kitz
Wow... Hope your friend heals up quickly.
My first thought from seeing the pictures, what happened to make the entire front suspension come off the car?
That looks like the Boyce Asquith car!!!
Your buddy is very fortunate to have survived!
Just this past Sunday, a guy took his 67 Avanti out for a cruise, same thing happened to him the car went to the right then rolled he was thrown from the car. He was not as lucky as the guy you are talking about he died at the scene. He was like all of us he loved cars. He did a lot with the Studebaker Club in South Bend, In. The guy was getting ready for the big event held at the old Studebaker Plant in 2012.
I keep saying I’m going to put seat belts in the cars we drive for the Grandkids and also for my Wife and myself.
Good Luck to the guy, prayers our sent that he will recover and get back to what he enjoys.
Richard
.................
man that is terrible my heart goes out to him and the family. his gardian
angel was ridding with him. gives me the willies, is very lucky to be alive.
here is another re-size of pic's
It is the old Boyce Asquith roadster.
From what is being said on some other boards it was a severe gust of wind caught the car.
Mick
Yes accidents do happen,and it doesn't matter who you are or what you are driving, things like this reminds all of us too build to a high safety standard. One of our wellknown rodders down here is a personal friend with the owner of the car( Boyce Asquith car) and it is believed a gust of wind blew the car sideways resulting in the rear wheel running off the edge of the seal and when he tried to correct the car went sideways resulting in it rolling. All my prayers are wth the family.
boy that s to bad . looks like. i blown bbc with two 4500 holleys . looks to have had a cage if so were did the main loop go .lucky he did not bust his back or crush his head .in a open car with what much power
Thanks for all the well wishes. They thought at first he was going to lose a arm, but doesn't seem to be the case now. He is doing much better.
Pat, it has a bolt in funny car cage he puts in when he would race it. I first thought that it might be a good idea if he would of had it in but changed my mind thinking about it, he may of had more serious head trauma getting rattled around in it with out a helmet on.
Ken
yep i under stand that well .it just looks very bad upside down .very lucky guy .the lord just did not want him yetQuote:
Originally Posted by Ken Thurm
Ken please tell him for me I wish him all the best.When things like this happen makes you think.
I have a buddy here in NZ that always worn a full face helmet when driving long distance in his T bucket. I'm guilty of giving him a hard time:D about wearing the helmet but he believed that it had multiply advantages,eg,keeping the bugs out of ones mouth/nose, easier on the eyes,and most important.....the BIG IF SOMETHING WENT WRONG.:cool:
WOW ..... that doesn't look good. I glad to see he's already on the road to recovery & didn't loose any limbs. That just doesn't look good.
Someone must have been watch'n out for him.
Any news or info as to what actually failed?
I'm sure the drag race inspired frame didn't hurt him having it. Door bars look intact.
REGS
Yep that wind can get very strong inbetween hills and mountains. When you come from behind a hill and that wind hits you it can knock you for a loop.
I know the wife and I would allways leave our CB. on when we drove cross country in our big truck.
Many times that CB got us ready for bad road conditions ahead of us.
We had some good friends that rearended another big truck in a bad sand storm and were crushed to death in the cab of thier truck.
We also got on black ice from time to time and when we would come to a open spot inbetween two hills the wind would hit the big truck and blow them side ways on the ice in to the ditches. Many times we had been in a far lane trying to anticapate the wind on ice and get blow clear acrossed the other lanes. So I know the wind can really mess with some of them small cars even on a good day. Speedy recovery to your friend, hope all goes well for him and his family.
Kurt
Thank you all again, he will appreciate all your kind and thoughtful remarks. This is the kind of thing that really slows me down. Someone left a post on here about having there family in the car and something like this happening. My grandson rides in the rumble seat, he loves it in there, but last year I almost got rear ended on the freeway I stop letting ride back there. As silly as this may sound, now when we go on longer trips my wife follows me in her car with my grandson with her. Then when we get there they all ride with me. The guy that almost hit me stopped 4 feet from the back of my car and he was sideways, I thought it was over.
again the reason for posting all this with the photo's is hopefully, to make more people aware of using proven parts on there builds and check everything often.
Thank you all again.
Ken
A little up date- He has a broken neck that will be operated on I think this week, crushed artery, 3 broken ribs, a very mangled arm.
Keep him in your prayers.
Thanks,
Ken
It's never good when someone in our sport is injured, and I do not know the man, but the folks I know who do know him aren't that surprised.
If a "gust of wind" blew (only) his car off the road, wouldn't one wonder about the stability of the car's construction/design? or was there actually another contributing factor to the wreak?
I wish him a speedy and full recovery, but also hope the true reason for the crash is addressed.
I'm just sayin'
OC
devasting accident .. iv`e been most lucky that iv`e not been killed in wrecks as i been greatly intoxicated in some of my rides and dont remember how i even got home
This has a chassis build by pro stock builder Gary Hanson so I doub't it was unstable.Quote:
If a "gust of wind" blew (only) his car off the road, wouldn't one wonder about the stability of the car's construction/design? or was there actually another contributing factor to the wreak?
From what I heard- the wind blew hard & he dropped a rear tire on the dirt shoulder & lost it.
Looks to me to be some type of torsion bar suspension----and the whole front ---is missing???? I would bet that there was a failure and then chain reaction
verry sad to hear what happened to him . i was at del-mar and looked at that car , i hope the best for him .
on the other side we all need to think about saftey in these cars ! i have seen first hand how a streetrod will brake apart in a crash , now i think about that when i build it . and seatbelts save lives !
.
If a "gust of wind" blew (only) his car off the road, wouldn't one wonder about the stability of the car's construction/design? or was there actually another contributing factor to the wreak?
i was supprised at the wind at del-mar , we live in the midwest tornado alley and we dont have sustained gusts like they have .
That sounds really good that his arm can be saved. Both of my arms were messed up in a work injury but at least I have them. I hope he continues to improve.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Thurm
It may get to the point that our old cars will have to have a roll cage if we are going to drive them with today’s traffic on long runs. Accidents are going to happen. When our first grandchild was in his car seat in the back we were on a 4 lane highway keeping up with traffic, all of a sudden a car in front makes a left turn and traffic had to brake to keep from having a big pile up. The 18 wheel truck behind us was coming up on us, his tires were smoking and my wife was driving. I told her to get off the road fast! Lucky she didn't ask why because the trucker smoked the tires right past us. He threw up his hand thanking us for getting out of the way. This was a late model car with all of the safety features but it would not have held up to the truck if we hadn’t got out of the way. Things can happen so fast but the old cars are going to have to have some kind of protection if we are going to drive them. The newer cars have antilock brakes, side impact bags, and front bags. It just really makes you think.
Richard
Quote:
Originally Posted by lotsatoys
First lets cut "the owner" some slack here, or at least until he heals back up and is out of the hospital. That's a pretty strong "second hand information statement" from someone that does not have the nerve to "sign their own post", IMO.
This was a well built car, that has run well into the 8's, at close to 160MPH in the quarter mile. The car has been around for a long time and all that have seen it agree, it's was impressive. It was not a thrown together car with marginal design, and equipment. I for one, and I'd bet ALL THE BUILDERS on this site are very interested to find out what really caused this crash, road conditions, a component failure, or maybe a driver error, maybe a combination of all three? We all need to learn from this and build better and safer cars. We might even find that he lived through this accident "because of the lower cage" built into the car only time will tell.
In any case lets not start pointing fingers, this site is better than that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ford2custom
Richard, I understand your point and agree that it is a scary place out on the highways at times.
But I have spent many hours thinking about the safety of "street driving" a car with an "aftermarket" roll bar/roll cage (due to my interest in fast VW''s). The issue is that the driver in a race car is required to have an approved and dated safety helmet and five point harness when racing the car. That same car and driver when operated "on the street" is done so without a helmet and maybe just a seat belt. IMO, I feel that more injuries could be caused to the driver/passenger (without a helmet) by hitting the rollbar/cage in an accident. The minor amount of NHRA required padding, and the odds of the driver/passenger not having a five point safety harness on while driving on the street are high in causing more injuries. You cannot allow the driver to move around in the car for safety, not the best for comfort while driving on the street.
It's just not an easy answer to improve the roll over safety of our roadsters.
Ken, If you ever find out what caused the wreck, post it up here so that we can all be aware of the type thing that causes these accidents. It had to have been a complete failure of something.
I will eventually find out what really happened and I will post it, with his consent.Quote:
Originally Posted by volksrod
Ken
Wow.... this site is certainly better than your response IMHO.Quote:
Originally Posted by John Palmer
as I said: "I wish him a speedy and full recovery, but also hope the true reason for the crash is addressed." I don't concider that "pointing fingers".
OC (Russ if you prefer)
I read about this crash and several others on some other forums. Seems there have been a rash of hot rod accidents real recently. I feel terrible for the people involved and wish them a speedy recovery. Steel can be fixed, but people sometimes don't.
I agree with Ken that I have a deep respect for what can happen in one of these cars when something goes wrong. They are light, don't have crumple zones, air bags, and all the modern safety features today's cars have. Plus, they are dwarfed by some of the SUV's and trailer trucks on the road. Every time I go on the interstate to some event I say silent prayers all the way that we get home safely. I keep looking over at one of my Sons in the shotgun seat and thinking how terrible it would be if something bad happened. When something goes wrong in one of these cars it happens in the blink of an eye.
All we can do is make sure our cars are built as well as possible, are maintained (steering, brakes, tires, etc) and that we drive them in a sensible, alert manner. You have to drive defensively and maybe at speeds slower than the other cars on the road, just so you have time to react.
I wish everyone involved in these accidents well.
Don
Those pictures remind me of my father in law's car after the my nephew lost control of his roadster on a slick street last year. He was lucky to walk away since he and a friend were ejected from the vehicle near a stand of trees.
I pray that the guy has a full recovery, cars can be fixed or rebuilt, but not so much the human body and brain.
So well put Don and all so John Palmer, Thankyou both for reminding us all that at the end of the day, a fellow rodder/rodders have recently been hurt in accidents that no one would wish on their own loved ones,so lets stop the blame game and pray for those people and their families for speedy recoveries. Until my health problems I was a professional truck semi driver and know all about wind gusts and sadly all about idiots on the roads. Lets all be safe out there please!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by Itoldyouso
Cars dropping a tire off the should and the driver trying to correct it putting it into a roll happens every day in the US. Most drivers instinct is to get the car back on the road as quick as possible, making erradic reactions (over correcting), and upsetting the car badly. The correct maneuver is to drive the whole car (or at least both wheels of that side) off of the road, slow the vehicle down, and re-enter the road way at a controllable speed. The drop off between hard surface and a gravel shoulder will grab a tire/wheel and jerk it, thus losing control of the car. I am not positive this is what happened in this wreck as i have no idea, but windy day, pushing him slightly off the road, the circumstances sure add up to this situation.Quote:
Originally Posted by Steves32
That all surely does not explain why the entire front end is off the car, but a hard enough roll, anything can happen to even the best built chassis. (go to youtube and find the clip of Ryan Newmann's rearend coming out of his car at Daytona a few years back).
Glad he is going to make it, cars can be fixed. Drive safe, anything can happen out there.
Most of these old cars, and new cars even, have PLENTY of room between the exterior steel body panels and the interior panels to allow for a roll cage to be built in to them with minor modifications. I am building a '49 chevy pick up that i plan on having a full roll cage in, and it won't be visible (removeable door bars). The only thing that will stand out to people that look closely will be where the A-pillar has an upholstered covering over the roll bar because that is the only place that there is not room to easily "hide" the cage. I am taking it farther than it needs to be in most cars. most simply need a loop that goes up the B-pillar, across the roof and back down the other B-pillar (behind the front passenger doors). Then a bar to brace it at a 45 degree angle going back (below window level). It'll take some fab work, but we are building these cars from the ground up, so it really shouldn't be a problem. they don't need full halo's and full cages like they are race cars, but a roll bar would surely help a ton.Quote:
Originally Posted by John Palmer
wow, once again missed athread while on vacation. Glad your friend is doing better.Make me want to check every bolt again before I hit the street.