Rural car wreck

robbyr · Jan 13, 2020

This happened in my neighbor's yard across the farm road while I was in my front yard last Sunday. I heard a loud racket like tires squalling (doesn't appear to be any skid marks) so looked up to see an older model Lincoln Navigator fishtailing out of control across the other lane headed for the neighbors yard. There is a pecan tree on there fencerow and I was hoping he would miss it and just go through fences. Hit it head on. A young fella who happened to be coming down our dirt road saw it too. We both ran over there. He went the driver's side. As I approached I could hear a child. Looked in the back seat and saw a car seat loose and facing the other direction. A child peeked around it at me. He crawled to me and I got him out through the window. Didn't appear to be hurt badly. Others started showing up. First responders and law enforcement. They cut the door off to get the man out. I heard through a couple of sources that he was supposedly doing 105 mph. I guess they can tell that from the computer or the speedometer? Found out the 36 year old man didn't make it. I still see the whole thing in my mind in slow motion. Us country folks who don't go to the big city often aren't used to seeing this stuff. Photos in the first comment if you wanna see the aftermath.

robbyr · Jan 13, 2020

MossRoad · Jan 13, 2020

That's a horrible thing to see. Glad the child made it. If it keeps on your mind, perhaps talk to someone.

robbyr · Jan 13, 2020

I'm good. Just wonder what happened. Distracted? Texting? I think he ran off edge and over corrected. But it doesn't appear he ever slowed down. Maybe a health issue? Head scratcher.

k0ua · Jan 13, 2020

Oh, man, Robby that is a bad one for sure. Friend had something similar happen at his farm with several teens inside. Some made it out, but there was a fire and he couldn't get the driver out. I think it is still pretty vivid in his mind. We will probably never know what happened there in front of you to cause it other than the excessive speed.

shovelmike · Jan 13, 2020

robbyr said:
I'm good. Just wonder what happened. Distracted? Texting? I think he ran off edge and over corrected. But it doesn't appear he ever slowed down. Maybe a health issue? Head scratcher.

So sorry you had to witness such a terrible thing, I am happy that the child was OK. It's unfortunate that the driver died, but extremely irresponsible driving 105 mph, inexcusable with a child aboard.
Many people get out on country roads and have the idea that there is no speed limit out there. Cause of the accident excessive speed, beyond the driver's ability to maintain control.
This coming from a car fanatic who did a lot of crazy stuff in his younger days, and by God's grace didn't hurt himself or others.

CobyRupert · Jan 13, 2020

Robbyr,
Sorry you had to witness this.
These thing are traumatic, not just for the victims and their relatives, but for the first responders like yourself. It's can be hard to wrap you mind around such senseless events and how fragile things can be. Like Moss says, keep an eye out for its effects & talk to someone if need be. Remember life is for the living.

robbyr · Jan 13, 2020

I'm fine. A classmate of mine retired from EMS a year or two ago but is a volunteer fireman so was at the scene. He was telling me some of the things he's seen. The worst was in the past year where a motorcyclist was hit by someone passing in a no passing zone and flipping him into an 18 wheeler. It takes a special kind of person to be a first responder.

PILOON · Jan 13, 2020

In my late teens we lived close to a 3 lane highway that serviced the Laurentians north of Montreal.
Every Sunday during the summer months traffic was chaos and generally 2-3 deaths usually due to head on collisions when impatience took over.
I still have images of body parts and heads poking thru windshields.
Back then my cousin was the 'go to' local St Johns ambulance guy and we'd get weekly recaps.

Budweiser John · Jan 13, 2020

There are only 5 houses on our mile of gravel road and the road is at best about one and a half lanes wide.
We have had to give up walking on the road because of the IDIOT drivers who think they can motor down the road at 60 miles an hour. Forty eight years ago when we moved here, a busy day was maybe 3 cars a day. Now days it’s more like 3 cars an hour. Not a huge number by urban standards but a footnote to the ever encroaching urban sprawl of “city bobs” escaping the city to an acre or two in rural areas and bringing with them all the crap they should have left behind.

B. Jihn

ruffdog · Jan 13, 2020

The road doesn't appear to be anything but a smaller country road and maybe the person wasn't use to driving there. Also, I see the sun is low in the sky. Some people, regardless of age, can have seizures from the sunlight flashing through tree limbs. Maybe a medical emergency?

Photosensitive epilepsy | Epilepsy Society

fried1765 · Jan 13, 2020

PILOON said:
In my late teens we lived close to a 3 lane highway that serviced the Laurentians north of Montreal.
Every Sunday during the summer months traffic was chaos and generally 2-3 deaths usually due to head on collisions when impatience took over.
I still have images of body parts and heads poking thru windshields.
Back then my cousin was the 'go to' local St Johns ambulance guy and we'd get weekly recaps.

I grew up in a Summer resort area, where we had a 3 lane highway.
There were a few deadly head on collisions each Summer.
The eventual solution was to remark the highway to 2 lanes, with wide breakdown lanes.
Still 2 lanes today, but so busy that there are still too many accidents.

robbyr · Jan 13, 2020

We live on the corner of a farm road and dirt road one mile from a state highway and 8 miles from a prison unit. He was coming down the farm road. I believe the speed limit is 70. My neighbor, who spent 13 years with DPS (I just found that out and not as a patrolman) was in the newspaper article saying he thought TxDot should make it 45 mph there. That's a little overkill I think. My personal opinion is he ran off edge of road and overcorrected.

ovrszd · Jan 13, 2020

I lost a Son in an auto accident 25 years ago. He was 19. I've visited with the first man on the scene on two different occasions. Both times he handled it well and truthfully answered every question that I had.

If you are asked about this be reserved and honest. If they ask detail questions give honest detail answers. I wanted to know every detail of my Son's last moments. They weren't pleasant details. But I had to know.

Thanks for your efforts in a very difficult situation.

robbyr · Jan 13, 2020

East of our house about a mile going towards the prison unit is a dirt road that connects to the freeway feeder road. I could see that someone had gone down there and was diverting traffic that way to avoid a long delay. Don't know if the story I heard is true but....my wife was told that the driver's wife was waiting to be picked up from work at the unit but he had not shown up. Then got diverted down the dirt road to "town" before finding out. Shortly after the second helicopter landed I saw an EMT and sheriff's deputy escort a woman to that helicopter. So that story makes sense as they came from the opposite direction. I assume it was the child's mom.

Industrial Toys · Jan 13, 2020

The car commercials STILL demonstrate that it's FUN to drive that way.

two_bit_score · Jan 13, 2020

robbyr said:
This happened in my neighbor's yard across the farm road while I was in my front yard last Sunday. I heard a loud racket like tires squalling (doesn't appear to be any skid marks) so looked up to see an older model Lincoln Navigator fishtailing out of control across the other lane headed for the neighbors yard. There is a pecan tree on there fencerow and I was hoping he would miss it and just go through fences. Hit it head on. A young fella who happened to be coming down our dirt road saw it too. We both ran over there. He went the driver's side. As I approached I could hear a child. Looked in the back seat and saw a car seat loose and facing the other direction. A child peeked around it at me. He crawled to me and I got him out through the window. Didn't appear to be hurt badly. Others started showing up. First responders and law enforcement. They cut the door off to get the man out. I heard through a couple of sources that he was supposedly doing 105 mph. I guess they can tell that from the computer or the speedometer? Found out the 36 year old man didn't make it. I still see the whole thing in my mind in slow motion. Us country folks who don't go to the big city often aren't used to seeing this stuff. Photos in the first comment if you wanna see the aftermath.

Definitely praying for the child and his mother. Also, Robby for you and the first responders who went. Thankful the child was spared.

TBS