First crashed Gen V on public roads?

ViperSmith

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Very sad, I agree about the cables.
Someone I knew got into an accident - car in the middle lane bumped them in the left lane. spun into the cable and the cables sliced through the car, almost decapitating the passenger.

I see no good use for safety with them, they make things worse than they would be.
 

Jeebs

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Thats just sad. Condolences go out to family and friends.
The sad part is that this is only the first of many.
 

ACRucrazy

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Sad, RIP

http://whmi.com/news/article/16840

4/14/13 - A 53- or 54-year-old Howell man was killed in a single vehicle crash on US-23 this afternoon. The Michigan State Police say he was the only man in the two-set sedan, but witnesses observed the event. They say the man was traveling westbound on M-59 and turned onto the ramp for northbound US-23. They say he stopped on the ramp for several moments, then quickly accelerated onto the freeway. He quickly lost control of the vehicle, which crashed into the median fence and sustained heavy damage. The driver was pronounced dead on the scene. Police say it is not clear why the man behaved the way he did, and a medical cause is possible. No other vehicles were damaged in the crash. Traffic on US-23 in both directions was significantly slowed while crews worked to handle the scene. (TD)

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ACRucrazy

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One of the comments from the Jalop article.

I was actually at the scene of this and arrived prior to the emergency personel. I saw it happen and pulled over and ran to help. A few others helped with me including two women who deserve some sort of award for their help (They gave continued CPR until EMT arrived despite gruesome injuries). The catch cables that have replaced the guard rails actually made this accident worse. The cables actually cut through the two a pillars and the drivers side rear pillar. The only pillar left to cut was the rear passenger pillar as you can see they cut and rolled back towards it. I don't to comment about the extent of the drivers injuries as you can infer what happened if the cables cut through the car... But it was the worst thing I have ever seen. I'm sure a statement will follow once the family has been contacted. I would advise that we keep our comments appropriate in light of the severity. The gentleman that was driving is local to the area and I have seen him and this car many times before. I wish his family nothing but the best in the tough times ahead. Today 6:00pm

Man, I hate these cables. I have about 5 miles of them I have to drive next to each time I want to leave or come home, they have only been installed for 2 years or so and something like this has always worried me.
 

VENOM V

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Man, that's so sad. After reading Maurice's book about the development team, I almost feel I know some of them. It doesn't matter who it was, any loss if life is tragic. My deepest sympathies to his loved ones.
 

Coloviper

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My condolences to the family as well. Looking at those cables, I am not sure how they were able to be installed that high. I looked at the ones out here on C-470/E-470 in Colorado which are the only ones I know of out here and they start at about 2 feet off the ground with the top cable being maybe 3 feet off the ground and this is down in the ditch part between the lanes not high like those. I know they are designed to reduce fatalities from multiple car accidents, if they cross the ditch into oncoming traffic, to just the one accident for the one way. It is a risk scenario to lower the risks, but those look way, way too high. I don't like them either however. Just sad to see!
 

Makara

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My condolences to the family as well. Looking at those cables, I am not sure how they were able to be installed that high. I looked at the ones out here on C-470/E-470 in Colorado which are the only ones I know of out here and they start at about 2 feet off the ground with the top cable being maybe 3 feet off the ground and this is down in the ditch part between the lanes not high like those. I know they are designed to reduce fatalities from multiple car accidents, if they cross the ditch into oncoming traffic, to just the one accident for the one way. It is a risk scenario to lower the risks, but those look way, way too high. I don't like them either however. Just sad to see!

I could be wrong but it looks to me that the bottom cables broke.

Either way, that is a horrible accident. I feel for the family.
 

Torquemonster

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Poor guy. Sounds like he stopped to get a clear run so he could try the car out, if so, I can relate as I have done that when it was the only way I could get some room to try a car out before getting back into traffic. Tragic it ended like that for him.

re the cables, maybe the threat of a class action could put the appropriate authorities on notice to address that?

Perhaps the addition of high impact recycled plastic shields to the cables would spread the load over 2 cables and ensure a vehicle was not cut through on impact while strengthening the protection against intrusion into the other lanes?
 

Fatboy 18

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Very, very sad news :( My condolences to his family RIP.

With the advances in electronics telemetry, can data from the car be retrieved to find out what happened?
 

Garron

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Very, very sad news :( My condolences to his family RIP.

With the advances in electronics telemetry, can data from the car be retrieved to find out what happened?

I don't think we need the electronics to find out what happened in this one. Really with the height of those cables the result would have been the same for any low or small car.
 

SLViper

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How very sad first of all condolences to the loved ones.
Secondly there is much to be considered to help stop a repeat occurrence of this crash. Wet,dry,speed when control was lost? Traction/ stability control on or off? launch control Activated? Was this driver error or was he relying on the electronic nannies? What if loss of control came as a result of anti-lock brake failure? Black box info very important in this case. While the cables do look high they are put in place to help stop the head on collisions, and may have in this case saved innocent lives on the other side!
 

Policy Limits

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my nanny controls are staying full on. awful to see; as an accident lawyer I see it frequently unfortunately. Deepest condolences to the family.
 

DMan

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Very sad, condolences to the family.

They installed those cables on I70 in MD a few yrs back, I joked when I saw them saying, perfect so now if you were to slide into the median you'll be decapitated before reaching oncoming traffic, unless you're on a bike in which case it's jig saw puzzle time. Seeing this, I see it wasn't just a stupid joke, I'd have thought they were designed to give and simply catch the vehicle to slow it, those look to have sliced right thru the car, what a disasterous design. Poor guy & his family.
 

ViperSmith

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I think proper design, the posts should give way and it "catches" you. But, from what I've seen, they put so much tension on the cables, that the posts have to be anchored well to hold the tension. Thus, it creates a deadly "safety device."
 

BigDawg

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my nanny controls are staying full on. awful to see; as an accident lawyer I see it frequently unfortunately. Deepest condolences to the family.

Just don't rely on them, or you may end up like this poor gentleman. *Not saying that's what caused accident*

Prayers for the man and his family.
 

Janni

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My condolences to Martin's friends, family and the entire Chrysler family.

These devices can't be too low or else they flip the high CG SUVs, but they are not sports car friendly.
 

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