Just hours before the accident, the driver of the car was on the M5board asking members how to make his new M5 shift more smoothly. Despite the warnings from other members to drive safely, the 18 year-old would later lose his life and those of four other occupants when the car launced off a berm at the end of the airstrip and crashed into a tree. Go to: ocala.com, foxnews or jalopnik for more…
That’s just insane. I read across that thread and saw the newsreel, but never put it all together…
It’s horribly sad to lose a fellow BMW enthusiast, especially so young, and under such circumstances.
At least we can learn from Josh — I know that, with my young age, I’ll stick to autocrossing at licensed events in open parking lots with little orange cones; and if other young adults have the same need for speed and racing as I do, they can learn how to do it right (sanctioned, safe, race events) or the wrong way (on a runway at 3AM).
Even though it’s probably entirely Josh’s fault, my prayers go out to his family and friends as well as those of the other boys.
This is what happens when rich parents give there kids nice cars, why can’t people figure that out? They learn to not respect the car as they should. While there are some that do, most don’t. I have friends that are both ways. That said, better a runway than I-95 or some other highway. Autocross is the best place to do this sort of thing as Matt said, or your local track if you are lucky enough to have one nearby. My condolences to the family and friends.
Very sad. My thoughts and condolences go to his family.
This is one of the saddest automotive related event I have heard of recently. Not sad because a gorgeous BMW was destroyed, or that a teenage driver lost his life, but that an over confident driver took the lives of four of his friends. Taking your own life whilst doing a moronic maneuver is one thing, killing FOUR friends is just inexcusable. As horrible as it sounds, it is better off that he passed away also, as I don’t know how someone would live with themselves after that incident. I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times, get the urges taken care of on a track. HPDE or auto-x is a great way to learn how to handle a vehicle; and people look at my crazy when I tell them that I did my first HPDE only 3 weeks after getting my license.
Very sad, my condolences to the families and friends.
Truly a tragedy for five lives to be lost that early in such a senseless manner. Too bad Josh didn’t follow the advice of his online friends to be more cautious — I can’t imagine what the families must be going through.
Not to make light of the tragedy, but the airport was in the news last year with complaints about the condition of the runway. The landing strip is a private field in a fly-in community. John Travolta has a house (and a 707 there). Here’s a Google maps shot of the field - Travolta’s house sits by itself near the center-right of the image. It’s the big one with the 707 and the golf course.
http://tinyurl.com/36ylaa
Ridiculous. 18 year olds with 500 hp. WTF were the parents thinking. Imagine what that car cost to insure? I feel bad for the 4 other kids in that car, but Jalopnik was right. Darwin was right. Can’t wait for someone to blame the car.
Prophetic comment on that forum:
“I would be much prefer an 18 year old with brains to have an M5 rather than spend his moeny on some other piece of junk that could kill him and his mates in an accident”
Sadly, this turned out not to be the case.
There is a very strong argument (that just got stronger) for not letting younger, inexperienced drivers drive cars with that much power. It’s not only a danger to them and their passengers, but also to other road users, and can have tragic consequences.
My only car crash (wrote off 2 cars) came when I was 18 and inexperienced. And that was only a 1.4 Ford Escort. Luckily nobody was injured and I learn an expensive lesson.
There are far too many over-confident 18 year olds on the road. They are conditioned to see speed as an attribute to their persona and still retain the fearlessness and naive sense of being untouchable. At college, we lost two in a fatal crash in my year - both 18 years old and speed involved. Another lad was involved in an accident which killed an elderly woman; something he has since found difficult to forgive himself for. As I left college, I learned that three students were killed in a high speed crash in the year below me. It’s not always the power of the car; it’s the state of mind of the driver.
Innocent lives lost for what? For prowess? For kudos? I think it’s time for a rethink of maturity versus ability. Raise the driving age to 21, or limit anyone of legal driving age who’s under 20 to driving cars with the power of a hairdryer until they can acclimatise to the actual realities of driving. Whilst it won’t stop high speed accidents, it might just allow those who are too green in the gills the opportunity to bust way past their limits without a second thought, and make them think again before tey subject passengers to a fate that’s out of their control.
Whilst that might not please your average 18 year old spead fanatic: tough. And the same has to go for others who think it will never happen to them, irrespective of age. You are mortal. You do break. You can kill yourself and others in a split second. You are not untouchable. You are irreplacable. Deal with it.
Correction to para above:
“Whilst it won’t stop high speed accidents, it might just allow those who are too green in the gills the opportunity to NOT bust way past their limits without a second thought, and make them think again before they subject passengers to a fate that’s out of their control.”
“Joshua Ammirato… had been ticketed four times in less than two years, court records show.
The last ticket that Ammirato, 18, received was on Jan. 23, just a couple of days before he and four other young men died in the fiery crash. The offense: violation of traffic control device.
March 15, 2006, driving between 20 and 29 mph over the speed limit.
June 2006, driving between 1 and 9 mph over the speed limit and for driving with a suspended license”
^Honestly, this guy seems like a bit of a jackass, and to me the real tragedy is that he took four of his friends with him.
I live in the UK on a small island with about 2500 miles of road and 2 police patrol cars - so I’ve been a passenger in a few dangerous high speed runs. I would, however, consider myself at least a reasonably capable driver and leauges ahead of the driver of this M5.
I’m 18, and in the last 11 months I’ve done a standard driving test, Pass Plus and an Institute of advanced motorists advanced driving test.
I can’t speak for the US, but here in the UK there seems to be a great bias towards blaming all car crashes on speed. The government has here such as “speed kills” which, of course, greatly over-simplify the cause of accidents. Where I live it is quite safe at times, providing you know the roads, to drive at well over 100mph. Where danger often arises is when inexperienced and often incompetent driving is combined with speed or alcohol. Two of my friends were killed last november when their ford escort cosworth hit a series of large road bumps at 115mph on a corner, they lost control and hit a truck, sideways, at 85mph.
Personally, I don’t think that young drivers should be entirely restricted from owning fast cars, insurance costs already do a good enough job of this for the majority of people - £1550 ($3300) for me this year on a lightly tuned 1.6.
The solution, I think lies in driver training. To me the ideal would be a system which barred drivers who had held their license for less than 3 years from driving cars with over 150Bhp, UNLESS they took some form of test to show that they were capable, testing their reactions, knowledge and general driving ability in a similar way to the UK’s advanced driving tests.
I kept playing this over and over in my mind- My overactive imagination trying to grasp what those final few seconds must have felt like.
I can only imagine it would be similar to a nightmare where you are hurtling toward some oblivion- your body goes cold with adreneline, and your instincts try to counter the threat with a fight or flight response, except in this case, you don’t wake up.
Play safe out there.
This is the way things should be, get off what we are on now
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