Crazy/Amazing car wrecks and traffic accidents

[Lord T]

L.A. fire truck gets stuck in sinkhole

Two firefighters escaped injury early Tuesday after their fire engine sunk into a large hole caused by a burst water main in the San Fernando Valley, authorities said.

The captain and engineer were responding to an emergency call around 5:20 a.m. when they saw running water on a residential street in the Valley Village neighborhood, fire department spokesman Rich Matheney said.

Worried the ground was unstable, the men were backing the 22-ton engine out when its front end fell into the sinkhole, Matheney said.

The two safely climbed out the windows as water and mud began to fill the vehicle's interior, Matheney said.

Department of Water and Power spokeswoman Kim Hughes said the firefighters were responding to a 6-inch cast iron pipe break on the street. She said water in the area was turned off while tow trucks prepared to pull the engine out of the hole.

Hughes said she didn't know whether the burst water main was related to another one that broke about two miles away over the weekend. The rupture in Studio City on Saturday swept cars down streets, forced people out of their homes and flooded a section of a major boulevard.

The broken main was part of the city's original water system, dating to 1914, and was slated for repair.

Hughes said the main should be in operation Tuesday morning. However, street repairs forced the shutdown of a major road across the Hollywood Hills.

 

[Lord T]

 

[Jackdarippa]

Man this one here!

The first arrow show were the truck first hit. The second arrow shows where his truck actually did a flip in the air and landed on the other side of the drainage culvert

but this is the scary part! SHIT!

OH SHIT!........OOOOOOOHHHHH SHIT!!!

 

[Lord T]

 

[Lord T]

 

[SoulPatch]

Yeah, I remember this one. The guy on the motorcycle had just had a big argument with his girlfriend. He stormed out of his place pissed and hopped on his bike. He was doing well over 150 when the guy in the little car pulled out and crossed his path.

Obviously they both died.

 

[VAiz4hustlaz]

 

[Lord T]

California Interchange Collapses After Tanker Fire

A gasoline tanker crashed and burst into flames near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on Sunday, creating such intense heat that a stretch of highway melted and collapsed. Officials predicted a traffic nightmare for Bay Area commuters for weeks or months to come.

Flames shot 200 feet in the air, but the truck's driver walked away from the scene with second-degree burns. No other injuries were reported in the 3:45 a.m. crash, which officials said could have been deadly had it occurred at a busier time.

"I've never seen anything like it," Officer Trent Cross of the California Highway Patrol said of the crumpled interchange. "I'm looking at this thinking, 'Wow, no one died' — that's amazing. It's just very fortunate."

Authorities said the damage could take months to repair, and that it would cause the worst disruption for Bay Area commuters since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged a section of the Bay Bridge itself.

Nearly 75,000 vehicles use the portion of the road every day. But because the accident occured where three highways converge, authorities said it could cause commuting problems for hundreds of thousands of people. State transportation officials said 280,000 commuters take the bridge into San Francisco each day.

On Sunday the collapse doubled the half-hour trip drivers normally face getting to and from San Francisco and the eastern suburbs — even though many didn't even attempt the trip because of the crash. Traffic appeared light on the bridge itself, but motorists looking to get on and off were backed up on both sides.
Transportation officials said they already had added trains to the Bay Area Rapid Transit rail system that takes commuters across San Francisco Bay, and were urging people to telecommute if possible.

State officials said motorists who try to take alternate routes Monday instead of relying on public transportation would face nightmarish commutes.

The tanker carrying 8,600 gallons of gasoline ignited after crashing into a pylon on the interchange, which connects westbound lanes of Interstate 80 to southbound I-880, on the edge of downtown Oakland about half a mile from the Bay Bridge's toll plaza.

The driver, James Mosqueda, 51, of Woodland, was headed from a refinery in Benecia to a gas station near the Oakland Airport when the accident occurred, according to the California Highway Patrol.

A preliminary investigation indicated he may have been speeding on the curving road, Cross said. Mosqueda was being treated in a hospital for burns Sunday; the hospital would not transfer media calls to his room.

Witnesses reported flames rising up to 200 feet into the air. Heat exceeded 2,750 degrees and caused the steel beams holding up the interchange from eastbound I-80 to eastbound Interstate 580 above to buckle and bolts holding the structure together to melt, leading to the collapse, California Department of Transportation director Will Kempton said.

The charred section of collapsed freeway was draped at a sharp angle onto the highway beneath, exposing a web of twisted metal beneath the concrete. Officials said that altogether a 250-yard portion of the upper roadway was damaged.

The cost of the repairs would likely run into the tens of millions of dollars, and the state was seeking federal disaster aid, Kempton said. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger planned to issue an emergency declaration to allow repairs to happen faster, said Adam Mendelsohn, the governor's spokesman.

The Bay Bridge consists of two heavily traveled, double-decked bridges about two miles long straddling San Francisco Bay.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said the accident showed how fragile the Bay area's transportation network is, whether to an earthquake or terrorist attack, and has the potential to have a major economic effect on the city.

"It's another giant wakeup call," Newsom told reporters at the California Democratic Party convention in San Diego.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,269118,00.html#ixzz2R4iO4Ng9

 

[Deezz]

Yeah, I remember this one. The guy on the motorcycle had just had a big argument with his girlfriend. He stormed out of his place pissed and hopped on his bike. He was doing well over 150 when the guy in the little car pulled out and crossed his path.

Obviously they both died.

 

[Lord T]

Yeah, I remember this one. The guy on the motorcycle had just had a big argument with his girlfriend. He stormed out of his place pissed and hopped on his bike. He was doing well over 150 when the guy in the little car pulled out and crossed his path.

Obviously they both died.

Thanks! I never knew the story behind it. Damn....

 

[Lord T]

What began as a $300,000 custom polished aluminum Cobra kit car has recently become the only special edition Cobra "Water Snake" in the world. The incident took place last weekend when the University of Texas in Arlington hosted their annual Texas Autocross Weekend. The event typically draws a large crowd of automotive enthusiasts. This year, the big splash was a very expensive and unique aluminum-body Shelby Cobra. UT Arlington student, Trent Strunk was on scene for it all and was able to provide a recap of the events.

“I was there and he was actually showing up to the event,” Strunk stated. “The apparent story is that the throttle stuck which from my point of view is correct. We watched him come from a main road onto the campus street. I believe he was just going to do a fly by sort of thing, but the car came around and did several spins (during the whole time the engine was at full bore) before hitting a curb and flipping over eventually landing upside down in the creek.”

 

[largebillsonlyplease]

California Interchange Collapses After Tanker Fire

i remember when this happened

they fixed this shit so damn fast i know they be bullshitting and time wasting when they work on other roads for years

 

[Lord T]

i remember when this happened

they fixed this shit so damn fast i know they be bullshitting and time wasting when they work on other roads for years

I thought some of the Cali fam would chime in on that one. I remember the story on it, I didn't know they fixed it fast.

 

[largebillsonlyplease]

I thought some of the Cali fam would chime in on that one. I remember the story on it, I didn't know they fixed it fast.

The shit happened on April 29

and it reopened May 7

Caltrans spokespersons estimated immediately after the accident that it would take weeks to clear the debris from the scene and months to rebuild the affected sections. Initial cost projections for rebuilding the I-580 connector alone reached $10 million. However, due to the urgency to reopen such a vital highway link the project was expedited,and most demolition work and debris removal was completed by the Tuesday following the accident

The entire reconstruction project was completed only 26 days after the original accident

 

[Lord T]

The shit happened on April 29

and it reopened May 7

Man that's fast as fuck for such a major job like that was! There's a damn pothole in the city I've been dodging for 6 months and they can build a whole new overpass in 2 weeks?!

 

[Lord T]

Yes, it's Monday after the holidays and none of us are happy back at the grindstone. But it could be worse: At least you're not the driver of this truck in China left dangling over a gorge after a wreck.

These photos apparently date from early last year, given their flow through the undercurrents of the Internet. Still, these shots leave us with dozens of questions. Aside from a half-debeaded tire, what exactly is keeping this truck from dropping a few hundred feet? Also, it was nifty that the road engineers put those Jersey barriers on the edge of the bridge to keep cars from plunging off, but maybe there should have been a barrier that was just a skosh taller?

 

[Lord T]

Movers 'a little embarrassed'

Call it A Bridge Too Far. A moving company hauling a 2,100-square-foot home took the wrong road and wedged it into a narrow bridge, causing the bridge to collapse and the road to give way.

The collapse was on Township Road 250, which extends from McKnight Boulevard, east of Calgary.

The movers from McCann's Building Movers were westbound around 9:30 a.m., less than five kilometres from their destination, when they could feel something was wrong.

The concrete bridge deck and timber support structure buckled, then collapsed, and wheels from the tractor trailer carrying the house toppled into the canal below.

"It's disheartening. We were more than halfway across," said Pat McCann, owner of the company.

"We're a little embarrassed that it happened, but we're thankful that nobody was hurt." McCann said the company has been moving homes for 40 years and transports houses over bridges "all the time." He also said the company had secured the proper permits to move the house.

"They gave us the OK," he said.

However, the Municipal District of Rocky View disagreed.

While the company held provincial permits, Township Road 250 is a municipal road and the movers were told not to use it, said Ted McCauley, manager of protective services.

"The second they turn off, that's a municipal road," McCauley said.

"We pay for those with our limited budget." However, the bill for cleanup and repair will be handed straight to McCann, said McCauley.

"It's his responsibility to deal with this," he explained.

The movers also face fines and an investigation is underway.

McCann, meanwhile, was at a loss when it came to figuring out how to move the house off the bridge.

He wanted to wait until the area was deemed safe before sending anyone in.

A backhoe was on standby to make sure the house didn't fall into the canal and block the water supply.

The road was shut down from Highway 9 to about one kilometre west of the bridge.

McCauley said it is too early to tell what the cost of the damage will be and as of Monday evening, the house was still straddling the canal, part of the Western Irrigation District.

"The entire bridge is destroyed, so it will need replacing," he said.

 

[Lord T]

A 500-foot crane performing cleanup work at the National Cathedral fell over Wednesday, damaging at least one building and several vehicles near the Cathedral.

The crane flipped over at 11 a.m. on Wednesday into a parking lot in between the Cathedral and several other buildings, avoiding any major damage or serious injury.

"I don't think you could have laid this crane down in this spot without hitting anything major, except where it landed," said D.C. Fire and EMS Battalion Chief John Donnelly. "There are other buildings it would have hit in any other direction."

Richard Weinberg, a spokesperson for the Cathedral said the crane, positioned on the south side of the church, did hit an adjoining building. The building, called the Herb House, had a portion of its roof ripped off. Several cars were crushed in the fall.

Fire officials said the Cathedral's main structure was not damaged.

The operator of the crane was inside the cab at the base when the accident happened. Authorities said immediately before it flipped, the crane's arm, extended approximately 350 feet, had just deposited material on the Cathedral roof. While rotating, the equipment's balance upset, and the crane came crashing down into an area between the roadway and the church itself.

The crane's operator was reportedly shaken, but able to walk away from the crash. He was being evaluated by paramedics. No other injuries were reported.

The crashed crane came down very close to the pathway used by students at National Cathedral School, who were in their first day of class Wednesday.

Early this week the giant crane removed debris from the around the cathedral's upper surfaces. Crews worked to clear broken stone from the Cathedral's upper faces so that scaffolding could be erected for the repair effort.

The August 23 5.8-magnitude earthquake rattled the Cathedral, breaking limestone ornamentation from the spires.

During the cleanup effort, the Cathedral has been closed to the public. Plans were in place to open the Cathedral this weekend for September 11 memorial services.

 

[thundercat]

I pass by this place everyday....Kirby & Richmond. What a moron. I know those Mexicans were heated!!

 

[Lord T]

I pass by this place everyday....Kirby & Richmond. What a moron. I know those Mexicans were heated!!

 

[HUFF]

What luck!

That wouldn't of ended well.

Yea it was. Even though at the bottom it looks like alot of debris from some who werent so lucky

 

[Lord T]

 

[Lord T]

They don’t do things by half in China, as lucky drivers escape TWO runaway boulders flattening their cars

It looks like the scene from a deadly earthquake. But miraculously no one was killed, after two rocks weighing a combined 300 tons rolled down a cliff and flattened two parked cars in Chongqing, southwest China.

The rocks smashed a seven-foot wide and three-feet deep pit in the road, and created a huge crack in the paving. Despite hitting a number of cars, no one was killed, although there were several lucky escapes. One of the vehicles - a delivery truck with 2,500 boxes of beer on it - was hit while moving.

The smaller of the two rocks fell further down the mountain, but the larger boulder- weighing 200 tons - remained on the road, crushing two cars.

One of the lucky drivers, named Sun, was driving behind the truck and was about to overtake it before he saw a car coming the other way that potentially saved his life. 'The beer lorry was only four metres ahead of me, when two rocks, a big one and a small one, rolled down fast one after another,' said Sun.

'The first smaller rock missed the lorry. After smashing a parked car on the roadside, it continued to roll down the valley.

'Then a bigger rock rolled down, and hit onto the rear part of the beer lorry. With two explosions, the beers exploded and broken glass shot out in all directions. And the beer bubbles covered my windscreen, which was quickly smashed by shooting beer bottle glass.'

Sun got out of his vehicle to see two parked cars flattened by the boulder, just a few feet away from him.

Experts believe the rocks fell from a point 200 metres higher up in the mountains, and that they could only be removed with explosions. The local government has had to evacuate residents living 1,000 metres below the road for fear of more rocks falling..

The beer lorry driver, Li, felt his vehicle grind to a halt when the back end was crushed by the boulder. 'I didn't hear anything until I heard a loud explosion and my vehicle stopped going forward,' he said. Li did not let the shock affect his work however: He was still picking up unbroken beers from the ground and waiting for repairmen to fix the vehicle at the end of the day.

One driver, with five people in his car had overtaken the beer truck as he was driving quickly to make time. They passed the point on the road just before the rocks fell.

'Scrap glass was shooting into our car like bullets, and our rear window was all smashed. The glass also shot into the car, and cut two of us. The left front tyre was also shot flat,' said Xu, the driver.

'We quickly ran out of the car for our lives.'

A pedicab driver also escaped death. He was almost hit by the 2nd falling giant rock but immediately changed direction and tipped over on the road. He had slight injuries and went to the hospital alone.

 

[Lord T]

Don't run red lights/stop signs!

Combine demolishes pickup in crash

A number of good Samaritans came to the rescue of one man after a morning crash on Nixon Road at Concession Road 13 in Norfolk County yesterday.

Ryan Thyssen, Greg Cooper and a third employee at GVN Industrial known as Gunner, were well into their workday at the shop located at the intersection around 9 a. m. when one of them witnessed something horrifying.

"I heard Gunner scream and I went to see what was wrong," said Thyssen, who runs the shop at GVN. "He and (Greg) were already hopping the fence and running over (to the scene.)"

Gunner was outside when he saw a truck heading east on Concession 13 and a John Deere combine heading northbound on Nixon Road collide in the middle of the intersection.

The collision forced the two vehicles into the northeast ditch on Nixon Road, ripping up dirt as the truck dug into the ground. The impact crushed the truck and forced the driver, 19-year-old Evan Saunders of Port Dover, out of the driver's side window while pinching his legs inside.

"He was just hanging out there," Thyssen said. "I was surprised he wasn't dead. He's one lucky guy. I thought for sure he'd be cut in half."

Thyssen, Cooper and Gunner worked to free Saunders, who played for the Port Dover Sailors hockey team last season, in fear that the truck might catch fire.

"We reefed on the door and Gunner wrenched up the steering wheel," Thyssen said. "We talked to him, tried to keep him awake. He had a couple of good gashes on his face."

Once Saunders was on the ground, Thyssen noticed a deep and large gash on Saunders elbow.

Thyssen ran back to his vehicle and grabbed a sweater to apply pressure and stop the bleeding. Another man stopped to help on the scene as did a woman, a lifeguard who knew first aid, before paramedics, police and the fire department arrived.

Saunders was taken to Norfolk General Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

The driver of the combine was not injured.

The Norfolk OPP continues to investigate the cause of the collision. No charges have been laid at this time.

 

[Lord T]

How did a truck end up in this tree?

SHERWOOD, Ore. – Firefighters and a towing company removed an empty truck from a tree Sunday morning, but they’re still confused about how it got there.

They found the truck 10 feet off the ground near Highway 99 and Middleton Road, southwest of Sherwood.

Firefighters said the truck had been empty for some time, and there were no signs that the driver was thrown from the truck or injured in the crash.

The woman who was driving the truck showed up while the truck was being removed from the tree. She told firefighters she was not hurt in the crash. The specific details of how her truck ended up so high in the tree are still unclear.

Emily Van Vleck, 19, of St. Paul was cited for criminal mischief (for recklessly damaging property) and hit and run (property damage), both misdemeanors.

Someone called 911 at 7:30 a.m. to report the truck. A Portland General Electric crew helped with the truck removal because the tree was near some power lines.

 

[phanatic]

What luck!

I'm going out that night and fucking a Brazilian prostitute raw, walking through Camden with $100 bills pinned to my jacket, show up at a neo Nazi rally blasting rap music in my Escalade with 26 inch rims...I cannot die after some lucky shit like that.

 

[Lord T]

Emergency crews were dispatched early Monday morning to a bridge near Ellis Road and Madison Street in Sioux Falls early Monday morning in response to a call about a car in the ditch. What they found when they got there was much more.

A truck that was reported stolen in Sioux Falls Sunday showed up dangling off an area that was clearly marked by a “Bridge Out” sign. Looks like the truck thief isn’t much of a reader.

 

[Lord T]

 

[coolie569]

Looking at these is going to make me slow my ass down.

 

[Count23]

What the fucking fuck?!

 

[Lord T]

The truck protruding out of a building in Queens is not a clip for Die Hard 4, it’s a salt truck dangling out of a wall of a Queens Garage. The mechanic operating the truck, Robert Legall, was hanging from what felt to be like a shoe string from the third floor after crashing the 16 ton salt truck through a wall.

The driver apparently mistakenly floored the accelerator instead of hitting the brake pedal. He ended up losing control of the truck inside the Woodside repair facility sending it through the bricks. Happening around 9am on Wednesday morning, the commuters below weren’t expecting a shower of bricks and debris.

The bright orange rig was hanging on a 45 degree angle with workers below assuring him that help will be there soon. Meanwhile, Robert Lagall, was in the truck dangling for what felt like a lifetime. The truck driver, aged 56, is a 10 year veteran with a clean slate. He was giving a breathalyzer and urine test and to see if there was any foul play, but everything came up clean. There were also no signs of stopping when he accidentally hit the pedal which raised eyebrows. In terms of distractions there were no cell phone signs or signs of texting at the time of the accident.

Robert was ok and treated at Elmhurst Hospital Center for much anticipated neck and back pain. Following the rescue of the driver, it was time to save the $200,000 salt spreader. Tow trucks at the 58th street garage hauled the truck back into the building using a lock of chains. As a precaution, there were Firefighters with three hose lines in case the truck dramatically dropped, adding an extra “boom” to this story. It is interesting to see what safety precautions will be a result of this accident.

Thankfully the only casualities were the four cars on the street below. CBS 2′s Hazel Sanchez reports one, a black Altima, was the brand new car of a sanitation worker’s girlfriend and her boyfriend borrowed it to bring to work Wednesday.

 

[Lord T]

RCMP Charges Truck Driver After Wheel-Off Accident

A Canadian truck driver faces charges after a wheel-off incident that nearly killed a driver on the Trans-Canada highway.

The accident happened near Norris Arm South, Newfoundland, on Aug. 23 at around 11 a.m.

The tire/wheel assembly came off the tractor-trailer, bounded across the median, and struck an oncoming car. The driver saw the assembly headed his way and tried to avoid it, but it demolished the front end and windshield. The driver and passenger escaped with only minor injuries.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police charged the truck driver with failing to properly maintain his logbook or complete a pre-trip inspection, and he has been suspended from driving for 72 hours under the Highway Traffic Act.

 

[Lord T]

Natick man escapes serious injury when 120 pound boulder falls into his SUV in Arizona

Bob Jaczko was enjoying the scenery of Sedona, Ariz., while driving with a friend last month: blue skies, dark green pine trees, and towering red rocks.

But the serenity vanished in an instant when a 120-pound boulder plunged from a canyon wall and smashed through the windshield of their rented Dodge SUV, Jaczko said.

“All of a sudden I thought the car exploded,” he said in a telephone interview from his Natick home. “I thought the engine blew up.”

Jaczko, 74, is the marketing communications director for Integrated Dynamics Engineering, a tech company based in Randolph. He was in Arizona with sales manager Peter Wilson, 45, of Attleboro, for a trade show.

After setting up their booth, the pair decided to do some sightseeing and a friend suggested they drive through Oak Creek Canyon, a narrow, slow-moving road loaded with tourists.

They were only 10 minutes into the canyon when the boulder fell, Jaczko said.

He said the windshield shattered and covered them with tiny shards of glass that looked like “crystal sprinkles.”

Fortunately, the two-foot by one-foot boulder hit the dashboard first and then fell in between the two men.

“I looked down and we had dials and wires in our laps,” Jaczko said. “We stopped and looked down and I’m wearing a rock on my left side.”

Wilson pulled Jaczko from the passenger seat as a nurse, who was in the car behind them, rushed to help.

“When the rock rolled down my left arm it was like a vegetable peeler, took off all this skin,” Jaczko said.

The nurse told her husband to grab their diaper bag and began flushing Jaczko’s arm with bottled water. She then applied first aid ointment and wrapped his arm in diapers, he said.

After realizing he and Wilson were not seriously injured, Jaczko’s instinct was to dig his camera from the debris in the car and photograph the scene.

“It’s funny how your mind works,” he said. “I guess I must’ve been in shock.”

There was no cell service in the canyon but a witness had an OnStar communication device in his vehicle and alerted Sedona police, Jaczko said in an email.

The men were transported to a Sedona hospital, where they were given medical soap and “strange little sponges” to release the specks of glass embedded in their skin, he said.

The men returned to their hotel — Jaczko in blood-soaked clothes and Wilson in a hospital gown and booties — and woke up the next morning to fruit baskets from the hotel staff.

Jaczko still has some bruising on his left side, but is doing well. He said his friends joke that the purple bruising highlights his gray hair.

Though he has had some nightmares about the incident, he said he is in good spirits.

“You get sort of like post-traumatic stress business,” he said.

He said he could not believe that he and Wilson walked away with minor injuries.

“I thought, ‘Oh my God, we survived this,’” he said. “I thought, ‘this is really a lucky day.’”

Jaczko and Wilson stopped at a little chapel during their sightseeing tour before the boulder incident. They also threw pennies in a lucky pond, blessed themselves with holy water, and visited a crystal store.

“I guess it was all working," he said.

 

[Lord T]

Metal cap of tank goes through windshield of Honda Accord
Driver cited for failure to secure load

The Florida Highway Patrol cited a driver for failing to secure his load after a metal cap broke free from a tank in his Ford truck and went through the windshield of another car.

The two drivers were heading southbound on Interstate 95, just north of Oakland Park Boulevard, about 9 a.m. Wednesday.

The driver of a Ford truck was hauling a metal tank when a cap broke off the tank, bounced off the roadway, and through the windshield of a Honda Accord, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. The cap then hit the driver of the Accord in the shoulder.

The driver of the Accord wasn't injured. His car had $500 worth of damage, according to FHP.

 

[Lord T]