Insane Lucky Accident

[Robert]

This is crazy.

http://direcafe.ning.com/forum/topics/heres-a-lucky-accident-for-you

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee161/SophisticatedGeek/truck1-300x238.jpg

Look at the picture above, and you can see where this driver broke through the guardrail, on the right side of the culvert, where people are standing on the road, pointing. The pick-up was traveling about 75 mph, from right to left, when it crashed through the guardrail. It flipped end-over-end, bounced off and across the culvert outlet, and landed right-side-up on the left side of the culvert, facing the opposite direction from which the driver was traveling. The 22-year-old driver and his 18-year-old passenger were unhurt, except for minor cuts and bruises.

Now, if you think that's impressive and lucky already, take a look at the picture below for the whole story:


http://www.spencesmith.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/truck2-450x1024.jpg

[Eric]

WOW. Wow.

You know what though? I bet that for all of the luck that guy had, there are an awful lot of people have not been so fortunate. It's good to know that he's OK.

Absolutely crazy.

[Tone2TheBone]

I would have hated to be the passenger and having to look out the window at what almost became their final destination.

[sumitomo]

Now that's a God thing! Sumi:D

[Robert]

I would have hated to be the passenger and having to look out the window at what almost became their final destination.

At least that'd be better than actually reaching the final destination! :help

[MAXIFUNK]

sometimes luck is a great thing to have on your side!!!!

[Tig]

I'm not one to normally believe in luck, but sometimes you gotta' wonder!

Sure it isn't photochopped?
The second picture just doesn't look right to me.

[Katastrophe]

Those folks need to go play the lottery. NOW. Apparently they are the luckiest people on the planet.

[Spudman]

That's pretty insane!

I did something like that too except it wasn't as vertical. I hit some black ice on Teton Pass and what stopped me from going over was a reflector post that got wedged in the crack between the door and front fender. I couldn't walk around the front of my truck without falling down the mountain. I would have eventually stopped when I hit the trees 600 feet below me. Yikes!

[deeaa]

My lucky car story. I'm not the hottest driver around but once I got extremely lucky. (I have lots of snow/ice driving experience though):

I was 18, driving a FWD Chrysler w/my girlfriend on these winding dirt roads with lots and lots of knolls and drops and such. It's midwinter in Finland and the roads are frozen solid of course with maybe an inch of loose snow over hard-packed or clear ice surface. Perfect for rallye driving which is what I loved to do for days on end on lake ice of course, being a kid with a car for the first time :-)

So I drive around 70(kmh) and have fun skidding thru the bends, throwing the back of the car to the side by decelerating and then pulling out of the slide by accelerating (front drive, better wheels in front) and then I notice, since I keep accelerating out of the slides, soon I'm at 80...90...and then the road is so twisted I'm going from slide on the other side to slide on the other before I can get the car going straight between the slides and slow down. But it's all I can do, because the road is so narrow if I try to NOT accelerate out of the slides, I'm going sideways into the ditch.

And the speed, it's growing....100...120...and my GF is starting to scream because we're bouncing thru the corners like a piece of wood in a stream, and I realize this can NOT end well if I can't get the car back in control...and then I'm in this looong slide throttling crazy trying to keep the frontend on the road, and I see a stretch of road maybe 150 meters long perfectly straight.

I do quick a quick assessment of the situation and realize there's not enough road to slow down enough OR recover from the long pendulum slide I'm in, so I gun the engine and twist right and - pull the handbrake at over 120, just at the apex of the slide because I know the car should more or less continue directly on its path of movement due to laws of physics IF I can get all 4 wheels to slide.

So, what happens is the car whirls around its vertical axis something like 6 or 7 times, it's like being in a washing machine, and NEVER even touches the sides of the road and what's more ends up on the road, facing the right way, and I just drop it back in gear and continue driving at 50 or so like nothing happened as my GF's scream slowly fades...

When I get to the next bend there's a big truck coming and I have to basically stop the car on the side to let it past me, and when I start again, suddenly it hits me what happened and what could and should have happened, and I get this crazy tremor for a while and I have to stop the car and have a cigarette to calm my nerves. It was funny, because when it was going bad, I felt nothing, calm as a cucumber, but afterwards I could hardly drive for half an hour due to delayed shock.

The next week there was news on somebody crashing on that very road due to high speeds and killing a passenger.