BREAKING NEWS: A traffic accident occured today at approximately 1305HR PST on I-5 South, and the initial SigAlert report stated that "…sev Lamborghinis Caused this Traffic Collision…"
Watch the video and decide for yourself. The witnesses got the cars wrong, and the SUV/trailer appears to have lost control before the Gumballers passed. My gut tells me that the 2008 Gumball 3000 cars nearby probably weren’t the cause of the jack-knifed SUV/trailer accident seen in the right lane above.
See the accident location in Google Maps and the original SigAlert screenshot after the jump:
Looking at the video clip makes this armchair pundit think there was too much weight at the rear of the trailer reducing the load on the towing vehicle to the point where it cannot control the trailer. You could say the tail is wagging the dog…
When that starts to happen, the only thing to do is stop immediately; not always easy on a freeway.
It’s hard to tell because of where the video starts but I almost wonder if the SUV/trailer passed the red car that can be seen in the video following the SUV. I would guess that if he did he was traveling so fast that when he made the pass and merged back into the right lane that that is where the “wiggle” began and then after that the rest is history.
Melvyn pretty sure you accelerate if the tail starts wagging like that.
Why didn’t they stop instead of going on and help those guys?
@Flo - I’ll answer your question with a few points.
1. The stickers on their cars don’t read AAA.
2. They spent approx. $25,000 more than anyone else in the area to be on that highway, so they have more to lose by stopping.
3. Nevermind that they were passing as the accident happened, in which case the following cars are usually the ones that stop.
4. In light of what happened in Macedonia last year, (and I could be wrong) it seems to me they probably would have had a really tough time had they stuck around.
Given what I saw in the video, it doesn’t look like a serious accident. Of course, if more cars piled into the trailer from behind, that’s a different story, but by then, the Gumballers had passed anyway. Every incident I’ve seen on the highways, the upcoming cars are the ones that pull over and help.
The Excursion was going too fast, I think that’s fairly obvious. Whether or not he had the shit scared out of him by the passing Gumballers is another question.
I think it’s fair to say without the video they would have been found guilty in the court of public opinion(as seen from the traffic report). So while they were lucky that this video was shot and can pretty much show innocence, who wants to rely on luck? Also I’m not even sure they saw the accident in the video just that the truck was operating in an unsafe manner and something to put distance between (if you look as they pass the truck starts swerving as they’re coming up on its left and they move to give it a wide berth).
@ N. Ortolano
1. Oh yeah true…thanks for the hint.
2. Okay what are you talking about?
3. The car turns right next to them, they move further to the left and slow down and as soon as they’ve passed they accelerate.
I would have stopped the car on the shoulder, check if anyone is hurt and call the police.
Well…
BTW … it was our dashcam that took the embedded video above. No gumballers involved … thanks for the post, Alex!
Adam
http://www.driversidegumball.com