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NEVER drink and drive.


Lovefordgalaxie

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Last 22th a guy that was drunk totaled his unrestored 1977 Dodge Gran Sedan.

He lost control of the car, and went out of the road hitting a tree that almost divided the Dodge in two.

The guy is recovering of several injuries at the local hospital and will survive... To lament whet he did.

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He lost control of the car and hit the tree going backwards??? How do you lose control of a car and have the car traveling backwards? Something doesn't add up here.

Seriously???? Read the thread title. The guy driving was DRUNK.

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He lost control of the car and hit the tree going backwards??? How do you lose control of a car and have the car traveling backwards? Something doesn't add up here.

Entirely possible depending on all circumstances, honest. It used to be fairly common to see newb Porsche drivers hit the armco at Road Atlanta track days...backwards. All you have to do to make it happen in a tail-heavy Porsche is lift your foot off the throttle and hit the brakes if you enter a turn way too fast.

If you go into a turn too hot in a front engined lump, as shown, it takes a little more effort to spin it and have it strike something while traveling backwards, but the impact here was clearly while the car was traveling SIDEWAYS and backwards; it hit the tree on the scarred side, and spun around when the sliding tree hit something more solid than bodywork, like suspension arms.

Assuming you're in a FAST turn and you lose traction on a couple of wheels from hitting a slick or sandy spot, or grass, all manner of interesting things can happen.

Edited by Ace-Garageguy
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He lost control of the car and hit the tree going backwards??? How do you lose control of a car and have the car traveling backwards? Something doesn't add up here.

Well, if you are going fast enough, and looses control of your car, and it starts to spin, at every time it makes a turn it will be going backwards during some time.

Nobody saw what happened, the pictures were taken by the people that were passing at the time.

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Entirely possible depending on all circumstances, honest. It used to be fairly common to see newb Porsche drivers hit the armco at Road Atlanta track days...backwards. All you have to do to make it happen in a tail-heavy Porsche is lift your foot off the throttle and hit the brakes if you enter a turn way too fast.

If you go into a turn too hot in a front engined lump, as shown, it takes a little more effort to spin it and have it strike something while traveling backwards, but the impact here was clearly while the car was traveling SIDEWAYS and backwards, it hit the tree on the scarred side, and spun around when the sliding tree hit something more solid than bodywork, like suspension arms.

Assuming you're in a FAST turn and you lose traction on a couple of wheels from hitting a slick or sandy spot, or grass, all manner of interesting things can happen.

Yep, that's it.

The tire markings on the asphalt show that the car was actually spinning, but nobody saw it spin. It happened too fast.

Like I also work as a safety engineer, i'm telling what I could conclude just by looking at the pictures.

The police concluded the same, and like there were no other people involved, the car was removed after a few hours. At the pictures it's possible to see the tow truck waiting at the curb.

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This car also hit something (in this case a hill side) while going backwards at high speed.

One of the rear tires had a thread separation, and the car started spinning. The driver told me that if he weren't speeding, he could had controlled the car.

Nobody died. The result was just a broken leg.

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After. by Lovefordgalaxie, on Flickr
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After. by Lovefordgalaxie, on Flickr
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After. by Lovefordgalaxie, on Flickr
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After by Lovefordgalaxie, on Flickr
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After. by Lovefordgalaxie, on Flickr
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After by Lovefordgalaxie, on Flickr

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After. by Lovefordgalaxie, on Flickr
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Trust me when I say this, in 34 years on the job I have seen folks do things with autos that would baffle the engineers.

Heck I have done things while driving that baffled me. I had red lights and sirens to get away with it and I was sober.

I watched a full size Chevrolet Caprice police car drive onto the sidewalk and squeeze between the bus stop and a storefront while travelling at 65 mph in a pursuit. The copper was avoiding the suspect vehicle that swerved at him. We were directly behind in the street and were completely shocked at the manuever. We were even more shocked the next day when we went back, took a look, and determined that Chevy should have NEVER fit between those two obstacles. We also saw that the officer drove up onto the sidewalk at the exact spot the curb gave way to the service alley between businesses. :blink:

G

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Yes, just think...the tree he hit could have been someone's beautiful young wife and children.

This worries me often when so many I my neighbor hood leave after their parties...

That's why I worry when I am at work and my wife and little girl go out together in the evenings.

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Many years ago I use to drive a tow truck....seen many cars that sun out went backwards and hit things. One I got called to was a drunk driver high rate of speed hit a series of power poles and trees....I had to get within 5 foot to be able to tell what kind of car it was found a emblem from it on the ground. At one time the car was standing up on its rear bumper when it hit a tree...driver was ejected and survived..if he did not I am sure he would have died. The car actually broke in 1/2 when I hooked up the cable to pull it back to the road.

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Where I work a suburu outback jumped the curb backwards at speed. Hit the tree then they drove off. The only way we knew it was a suburu outback was the pieces of glass left behind and the trim pieces with the car logo on it. Still trying to figure out how he did it.

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