Man dies trapped in Corvette

Being a luddite, this is why I hate complicated electrical stuff in cars. Our new company Explorer is almost too complicated for me to figure out how to get the display I want on the dash. I hate the electronic throttle on my wife's Solara. And don't get me started on the God awful dash in my daughter's Ford Edge.

How many people read the owners manual?? Half the time I look stuff up in one, I have to get a chair, sit in the shade and read through it. I have to read each time on how to reset the oil minder light. On my DD, I have a Dynamo label stuck on the dash with the mileage on it.

Now get off my lawn!

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

Streetwiseguy wrote: Dumbest. System. Ever. I thought it took a German to design something that stupid.

If the germans designed it you would need a special tool that was in the trunk to open the door.

If the Germans designed it, he would have been out driving instead of sitting on his ass eating waffles.

I've been thinking about it and GM engineers are doing Darwins work. Hear me out on this one.

Old single guys get Corvettes so that they can flaunt their wealth and perceived youthful vigor in an effort to lay wood to younger, presumable attractive fertile females resulting in the eventually death of dear old Dad before High School graduation and a cougar keen on banging teammates from said son's lacrosse team after providing them all with alcohol. GM feels this cycle of persons 30 years the senior of their target offering them something they want, yet can't obtain on their own in exchange for their own sexual gratification is wrong. And they're decided that they're going to do something about it.

For years they've attempted to make the Corvette such a capable sportscar that one would be tempted to push the envelop and test the bounds of it's performance resulting in a horrific crash. For a youthful buyer this would be the likely end result, but for the average Corvette buyer this simply won't work, as they prefer to have their elevated heart rate occur in a controlled predictable fashion, which is why they take Lipotor and Viagra at the same time. GM has gotten wise to this and it has occurred to them that they must, for perceived good of all, come up with other ways to kill of the Corvette buyer.

wbjones wrote: LOL … I guess most of my posts to this thread result from the seeming lack of compassion for a dead man and his dog … without knowing anymore than we do, several automatically condemn the man for the dogs death, and while they say "too bad he died also, it's pretty much his own fault"

Dog was in his care and captive/dependent on him. What everyone has identified is that it was two lives lost to completely avoidable circumstance. One life lost was dependent on the one who could read and had thumbs.

What happened is tragic, but is the operator's fault. When the seat is fully forward, it doesn't cover the lever and no one could sit in the seat anyway. His leg could have been blocking his view of it, depending on how large he was. When the elderly, or anyone else, reaches the point where they get confused then easily panicked, it's time for someone else to be spending time with them and taking them to the Waffle House.

Streetwiseguy wrote: Dumbest. System. Ever. I thought it took a German to design something that stupid.

Nah, it was probably designed by the ghost of Zora Duntov as recompense for never going MR Rotory layout with the Vette.

When was the last time anyone was allowed to bring their not-an-assistance-dog into a restaurant?

The dog was probably in the car.

Probably with the car running, lights on and AC running, draining the battery.

Alternator couldn't keep up or battery was weak.

Car stalls, owner goes out to figure out why.

Owner gets in car, doors lock, tries to start car, battery drains, doors won't unlock.

Owner and dog die.

I'd love to be wrong but I'm probably not.

I think a lot of the reactions in this thread are really about the very probable eventual lawsuit by the dead man's family.

"It's GM/The Waffles house/the dog/etc....'s fault that this poor man died, and we want money."

That's the real tragedy, because now we can all pay for this man's mistake.

And it takes away from what is simply a tragic series of events. People die for stupid reasons every day. You just got to accept that, or vainly keep trying to control what is uncontrollable, because it's scary to think you're not in control.

In reply to fanfoy:

I prefer Darwin to get them before they procreate though....

Either way, it still a sad story. I am astonished nobody just broke his window right off the bat.

In reply to yamaha:

I'm guessing he was parked out of the way to protect the car, and no one noticed him until he was already too far gone; ie dead.

some people easily panic.. young or old. He could have been one of those people. I consider this a tragic loss of life that could have been easily avoided by simply designing the car with normal placed latches.

Also, the keyhole under the car by the exhaust is just stupid. I would have placed it behind the license plate

SVreX wrote: You guys who are so smart as to know better don't seem to have much experience with either heat exhaustion nor the elderly. Anyone could die in that situation. And I would lay 100:1 odds that the vast majority of us have never read the entire owner's manual for the cars we drive. That is a piss poor design.

+1 to you, sir. (I've read some pretty dumb postings on this thread).

Sad story. I can guarantee my grandpa, and possibly my dad if he didn't have his cell phone, would have passed away in a similar situation.

Realistically that latch is in a fine location... until it becomes an emergency and people freak out. It needs to be more obvious some how.

Or, I don't know, just put a non-electric door in place. That is really something that did not need improvement.

waaay too many bells and whistles...

Gary wrote:

SVreX wrote: You guys who are so smart as to know better don't seem to have much experience with either heat exhaustion nor the elderly. Anyone could die in that situation. And I would lay 100:1 odds that the vast majority of us have never read the entire owner's manual for the cars we drive. That is a piss poor design.

+1 to you, sir. I've read some pretty dumb postings on this thread.

+59

pinchvalve wrote: Read the owner's manual

RTFM

Read the berkeleying manual.

Were all Corvette's of that era Targas? Was removing the roof an option?

A also wonder about the man's health in the first place. Forgot his phone in the restaurant, couldn't operate the door, couldn't get anyone's attention, couldn't smash a window...starting to sound like perhaps he had a stroke or some other health issue first. No less tragic, but perhaps there were circumstances that are not evident.

captdownshift wrote: I've been thinking about it and GM engineers are doing Darwins work. Hear me out on this one. Old single guys get Corvettes so that they can flaunt their wealth and perceived youthful vigor in an effort to lay wood to younger, presumable attractive fertile females resulting in the eventually death of dear old Dad before High School graduation and a cougar keen on banging teammates from said son's lacrosse team after providing them all with alcohol. GM feels this cycle of persons 30 years the senior of their target offering them something they want, yet can't obtain on their own in exchange for their own sexual gratification is wrong. And they're decided that they're going to do something about it. For years they've attempted to make the Corvette such a capable sportscar that one would be tempted to push the envelop and test the bounds of it's performance resulting in a horrific crash. For a youthful buyer this would be the likely end result, but for the average Corvette buyer this simply won't work, as they prefer to have their elevated heart rate occur in a controlled predictable fashion, which is why they take Lipotor and Viagra at the same time. GM has gotten wise to this and it has occurred to them that they must, for perceived good of all, come up with other ways to kill of the Corvette buyer.

I'm still smiling about this.

pinchvalve wrote: Were all Corvette's of that era Targas? Was removing the roof an option? A also wonder about the man's health in the first place. Forgot his phone in the restaurant, couldn't operate the door, couldn't get anyone's attention, couldn't smash a window...starting to sound like perhaps he had a stroke or some other health issue first. No less tragic, but perhaps there were circumstances that are not evident.

That certainly makes more sense that "couldn't break a window". Feeble or not - I've done it by accident with my elbow (burned hand with welder... yanked arm, funnier now). It's really not that hard. But, if the ticker or thinker are on the blink it makes lots of stuff impossible.

Trans_Maro wrote: When was the last time anyone was allowed to bring their not-an-assistance-dog into a restaurant?

One, as people have said the windows could have been down when the dog was on its own and he put them up when he got in and then the battery dies.

Also I've been many places where animals are allowed in restaurants. Most recently Palm Beach in Florida. We had lunch with our dog at the table with us and weren’t' the only ones.

Now, I never read the owner’s manual of any car I've owned until I need to check service intervals, capacities etc. For my company cars it's possible to never open the manual. 99.9% of everything is intuitive in cars, including the location of the manual release in the Corvette.

Now, assuming he had heat exhaustion he may not only have read the manual in the past, but he may have even had the need to use it. When the body is physically and mentally stressed simple, known things can be very very hard.

At the end of the day it's a sad story, but no one is to blame unless you want to blame the universe for allowing life to evolve. Sometimes E36 M3 happens and some times that E36 M3 sucks.

mtn wrote: Sad story. I can guarantee my grandpa, and possibly my dad if he didn't have his cell phone, would have passed away in a similar situation. Realistically that latch is in a fine location... until it becomes an emergency and people freak out. It needs to be more obvious some how. Or, I don't know, just put a non-electric door in place. That is really something that did not need improvement.

This is kind of how I am feeling on it.

I guess a lot of us here take responsibility for our own safety more seriously than a meaningful percentage of the public.

Keep in mind that congressionally mandated reversing cameras happen year after next (because of people backing over their kids), this seems like such lower hanging fruit to me, especially liability-wise.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: At the end of the day it's a sad story, but no one is to blame unless you want to blame the universe for allowing life to evolve.

It's easier to sue Waffle House or GM than the universe. Nothing in America is a tragic accident. There is zero money in that.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:

pinchvalve wrote: Were all Corvette's of that era Targas? Was removing the roof an option? A also wonder about the man's health in the first place. Forgot his phone in the restaurant, couldn't operate the door, couldn't get anyone's attention, couldn't smash a window...starting to sound like perhaps he had a stroke or some other health issue first. No less tragic, but perhaps there were circumstances that are not evident.

That certainly makes more sense that "couldn't break a window". Feeble or not - I've done it by accident with my elbow (burned hand with welder... yanked arm, funnier now). It's really not that hard. But, if the ticker or thinker are on the blink it makes lots of stuff impossible.

I was trying to get at some interior piece I can't remember of some car I can't remember with frameless windows in a sketchy Indian Reservation junkyard. I literally took turns with a buddy throwing bigger and bigger rocks at the drivers window. We eventually gave up, after not being able to break it with a 15 lb sharp rock.

yamaha wrote: In reply to fanfoy: I prefer Darwin to get them before they procreate though.... Either way, it still a sad story. I am astonished nobody just broke his window right off the bat.

It sounds like he was a goner as soon as he was found.

Here's a guy knocking himself out with a brick that bounced off a car window: