I watched a man die today because of towing/ control

I was stopped at an intersection today for over an hour (it was completely blocked) while I watched emergency personnel pull a man from an accident that should not have happened.

The roads were wet. He was standing still in a Ford Ranger waiting to make a left turn. Had his wheels turned beginning the turn.

A second pickup towing a trailer rear ended him, which pushed him into the path of an oncoming tractor trailer. The semi swerved to try to miss without success, ending up in a 35' deep ditch.

He was probably about 280 lbs, and was thrown into the passenger side of the Ranger, hitting his head against the bottom right hand side of the windshield. He never had a chance.

Investigation is still underway, so I won't speculate. But I had an hour to look things over carefully.

Bottom line, the second truck did not have control of his vehicle for the given conditions. Maybe the trailer was overloaded. Maybe the tires were bald. Maybe he was going too fast. Maybe he was following too closely. Maybe the trailer brakes were insufficient.

Doesn't matter. It's his fault. Now he is facing vehicular manslaughter charges.

It happened in a blink of an eye.

I'm sharing this here because I know there are people here who think it's not a big deal if they tow more than they should.

Think again.

One more lesson.... Don't EVER turn your wheels if you are waiting to make a left turn. Keep them straight until you are actually making the turn. Teach your loved ones THAT lesson VERY well.

Wow. That's a rough way to end a day. Sorry you had to see it, and thanks for sharing the lesson.

Sorry it happened and that you had to see it, Paul.

The bit about not sitting with wheels turned made so much sense in Drivers Ed 30 years ago that I have practiced it and preached it ever since.

As I have gotten older and seem my share of bad things you come to realise that the little things really do matter. There are many "basic" things when it comes to driving that we cut corners on and should not. Keeping the wheels strait is one. Coming to a complete stop Not the 25 MPH "stop" I see many people do. (Looking at the traffic but not see the pedestrian when you are doing a rolling stop can lead to bad things).

"Accidents" are few and far between. In fact they should not be called "accidents" They should be called crashes. Another thing while I am ranting. Have you noticed that it is always the car that does things and not the person driving? "His car went off the road and hit a tree" Ahhh No The idiot driving drove his car off the road and he caused his car to hit a tree. Anyway I hope they through the book at the driver. We really need much stiffer penalties for being stupid when driving.

Anyway. Things like this change you take some time to sort it out. I just hope they don't put blame on the guy that is dead for having his wheels turned. I can see that happening when the lawyers get involved.

Very sobering and tragic. Thanks for sharing as it reminds us all that the little things can make a big difference. A few feet, a few seconds can be the difference between life and death. Good advice on keeping the wheels straight.

The older I get the more I think about these things. I was stopped at a light the other day in the lowered Miata and saw a lifted Suburban coming up quickly from behind. It stopped but that bumper was level with my head. I don't think it would have even touched the back of the car until it's axle. Scary stuff.

I'm sorry you had to see all that and you bring up a very important point, when towing, #1 make sure you are legal, as in tow within the rated capability of the vehicle, #2 make sure your brakes are up to snuff and if you're towing much weight you have surge brakes, they're cheap relative to a wreck, and #3 tow like your life depended on you making the stop. I watch waaaay too many people tow at 80MPH in the left hand lane of the highway, on back roads pulling 10,000 lbs and making turns and stops like they were driving a Miata in anger because they have a ZOMFG Diesel Chevy/Ram/F900 SooperDoody. Seriously, I wish people cared more about themselves and others, if they did, E36 M3 like this wouldn't happen and make me rant about careless people...

Watch your mirrors too. I've avoided a rearender by mashing the gas when the guy behind me couldn't stop. I was lucky to have somewhere to go.

Sad story.

Stories like this make me question the sanity of some of the people on here with regards to their towing recommendations.

On the way out to dinner one night, we were stuck in traffic that was just stopped on I-84 in CT. When it finally started moving again, there was an enclosed trailer and truck that were both flipped over and destroyed on the side of the road. Really made me think about the seriousness of towing, and is one of the many reasons I drive like a grandma when towing. It also drives home the importance of having the proper equipment, and having the right amount of rest so you can react to situations.

Stay safe out there!

SVreX wrote: One more lesson.... Don't EVER turn your wheels if you are waiting to make a left turn. Keep them straight until you are actually making the turn. Teach your loved ones THAT lesson VERY well.

QFT! Plus a Million-Billion!

When you pull up behind someone leave enough space to be able to turn left or right and accelerate out of the way of something approaching too fast from the rear.

Look through the windshield of the car in front of you at the traffic ahead or move left and right to see. watch for the shadows of the cars ahead of the one in front of you.

Don't look/stare at the rear of the car in front of you...Look 3-4 ahead.

Always, Always look where you want the car to GO. Never look at what you think you might hit...that is self-fulling.

Never stop scanning mirrors, left, right, ahead...

Bump, because its important.

admc58 wrote: When you pull up behind someone leave enough space to be able to turn left or right and accelerate out of the way of something approaching too fast from the rear. Look through the windshield of the car in front of you at the traffic ahead or move left and right to see. watch for the shadows of the cars ahead of the one in front of you. Don't look/stare at the rear of the car in front of you...Look 3-4 ahead. Always, Always look where you want the car to GO. Never look at what you think you might hit...that is self-fulling. Never stop scanning mirrors, left, right, ahead...

I am constantly amazed when I find out people do not do this. I was practicing this habit about 8 minutes into my first drive on public roads when I had my temps...seriously. My dad nearly fell out of his chair when he realized that I was paying attention to the car 3 ahead of me...reacting to his brake lights, not the car directly ahead of me. I am a nervous wreck whenever I realize Im following a teenage girl, or some other stereotypically bad driver (what? I profile while I drive...sue me - reader, you know you do too)...I am afraid their poor action/reaction to a situation is going to affect me or Im going to witness (again) how it will affect someone else.

SV, Im sorry you had to see what you did, I have been there and it can kinda do weird stuff to you. I hope it doesnt, but take care of yourself if it does. Youre doing the right thing preaching the lessons you learned, kudos sir.

I am towing my racecar 300 miles to PA today.

The towing capacity of my truck (6700 lbs) is higher than what I am towing. The brakes work on the truck and the trailer.

Everything is in good shape.

It still scares the E36 M3 out of me sometimes. I am worried that doing 60-65 mph in teh right lane is MORE dangerous than trying to go with traffic. The speed limit is 70 mph.

I have almost lost control of the truck and trailer and almost rearended somebody. I had to drive off the side of the road to avoid them.

They swooped into my lane and procceded to make a right turn directly in front of me. I almost had the thought of not swerving. it would have ended badly for both of us if I hadn't.

Rob R.

Sad to hear about this whole thing.

HappyAndy wrote:

SVreX wrote: One more lesson.... Don't EVER turn your wheels if you are waiting to make a left turn. Keep them straight until you are actually making the turn. Teach your loved ones THAT lesson VERY well.

QFT! Plus a Million-Billion!

I didn't get that one in driver's ed, but only ran into that tip later in an engineering class (there was a homework problem involving accident reconstruction). Since then, I've thought of it as "Don't point your wheel anywhere except where you'd want to go if your car started moving RIGHT NOW."

Choose the spot to crash that will minimize the damage. I learned this from flying. On every takeoff I brief the other pilot that if an emergency occurs and we can not get back to the runway we will attempt to crash where we will do the least amount of damage. I now do that as I drive. It is just part of being aware of your surroundings.

I see accidents everyday that I am at work (firefighter) and the biggest majority of wrecks that I respond to are when one vehicle plows into the back of one that is stopped. Nobody pays attention behind the wheel anymore.

dean1484 wrote: "Accidents" are few and far between. In fact they should not be called "accidents" They should be called crashes.

I agree with this statement. In fact one of our local newscasters never mentions the word "accident" when reporting such incidents.

And I get laughed at for not wanting to tow certain things with my Dakota. And when I do tow, it's like granny driving.

Bringing back the 530i on the u-haul tow dolley was almost a white knuckle affair on I26 from TN. Between the gorge, steep grades, and driver asshatery . . . It almost made me want pull over and call a tow service.

After years of towing flammable and expensive E36 M3 in the military, I still remember those gruesome videos of towing crashes . . .

In reply to pilotbraden:

Thats a good plan. I like it.

Around my work is gangland and with 25 mph streets, I often see teens in stolen vehicles doing 50+ past stop signs on blind corners. Every time I come up to blind corners around here I cringe as I slow to pass. It takes a split second.

Never even thought about where my wheels are pointed, excellent point, thanks for teaching me something I should have known a long time ago!

admc58 wrote: Look through the windshield of the car in front of you at the traffic ahead or move left and right to see. watch for the shadows of the cars ahead of the one in front of you.

I was trained to do this too, but unfortunately you aren't allowed to do this anymore since SUVs/minivans (repeating myself) have limo tint on the back window so the snowflakes in the rear facing child seats don't get lights in their eyes.

Knurled wrote:

admc58 wrote: Look through the windshield of the car in front of you at the traffic ahead or move left and right to see. watch for the shadows of the cars ahead of the one in front of you.

I was trained to do this too, but unfortunately you aren't allowed to do this anymore since SUVs/minivans (repeating myself) have limo tint on the back window so the snowflakes in the rear facing child seats don't get lights in their eyes.

Then follow back far enough to see around the SUV in front of you.

My g/f (who is generally a pretty good driver) drives me nuts with not looking ahead and not anticipating what the cars ahead are going to do. To me, looking ahead is second nature (partly from years of racing downhill - where that lesson gets painfully hammered into you). To her, it's apparently not... so much so that she became frustrated quickly when she tried auto-cross.

Over the years I've learned to recognize a sort of "body language" of cars and can usually anticipate their actions with sometimes scary accuracy.

I've also watched my mirrors and avoided being rear-ended. I watched the guy coming up behind me and as I was coming to a stop in traffic on I-95, shifted to the right in my lane - a milli-second later, the guy behind me barely missed me to the left as he ABS-braked onto the left shoulder.

That sucks SV... I can imagine it's gotta be a helpless feeeling to watch something like that happen and know there's nothing you could have done.

dean1484 wrote: As I have gotten older and seem my share of bad things you come to realise that the little things really do matter. There are many "basic" things when it comes to driving that we cut corners on and should not. Keeping the wheels strait is one. Coming to a complete stop Not the 25 MPH "stop" I see many people do. (Looking at the traffic but not see the pedestrian when you are doing a rolling stop can lead to bad things).

In the US there are far more stop signs than there needs to be. Most stop signs in I've seen would be much better served with a yield sign.

Traveling in Europe you see yeild signs everywhere, or in some cases no signs at all (where the law states you yeild to traffic coming on the right).

Drivers are substatially better there as well, but they also don't allow you to drive until you're 18 and have much more extensive drivers training programs in place.

In reply to e_pie:

The drivers also respect eachother. They move for passing vehicles. No need to pass on the right usually.