3 killed in crash on River Road

[Anonymous]

Witnesses are notoriously unreliable. Speaking to someone who spoke to a witness means you have third hand information at best. Most likely many missing or incorrect details.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope it wasn't teenagers..

Sadly, it was. I spoke with someone who spoke to a witness at the scene who saw it all happen. Car full of 4 young people on River Road inbound (to DC) in the lane to make a left turn. The car sat there even though there was room to make the left, then finally when teh car DID make the left, it was directly in front of an oncoming vehicle. Speculation is that the 4 young people were headed to the play at Whitman tonight.

I don't know if the 3 fatalities were in that car, but the information I have is the car ended up in the ditch, all airbags deployed, and people on the scene (before EMS arrived) were unable to get the passengers out. The jaws of life were used to finally extricate them.

Stop spreading gossip.

You may correct anything you want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope it wasn't teenagers..

Sadly, it was. I spoke with someone who spoke to a witness at the scene who saw it all happen. Car full of 4 young people on River Road inbound (to DC) in the lane to make a left turn. The car sat there even though there was room to make the left, then finally when teh car DID make the left, it was directly in front of an oncoming vehicle. Speculation is that the 4 young people were headed to the play at Whitman tonight.

I don't know if the 3 fatalities were in that car, but the information I have is the car ended up in the ditch, all airbags deployed, and people on the scene (before EMS arrived) were unable to get the passengers out. The jaws of life were used to finally extricate them.

Stop spreading gossip.

You may correct anything you want.

"4 young people"

[Anonymous]

^Obviously no one can know how fast that car was driving until the accident investigation is complete. However, I would say that based on the very little bit that we do know (car shoved into a ditch, jaws of life) it does sound like a higher than average chance that the driver of the BMW was going pretty fast.

I don't *know* that is true but I would really be surprised to find out that it wasn't true, kwim? But I've been surprised before so who knows.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Witnesses are notoriously unreliable. Speaking to someone who spoke to a witness means you have third hand information at best. Most likely many missing or incorrect details.

+1. Remember the DC sniper? Everyone was looking for a guy in a white van, because that's what witnesses were sure they saw. It turned out not to Bette case at all.

[Anonymous]

I guess BMWs are pretty sturdy cars? It is amazing that the other driver wasn't more badly injured considering how devastating the impact was for the other car.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope it wasn't teenagers..

Sadly, it was. I spoke with someone who spoke to a witness at the scene who saw it all happen. Car full of 4 young people on River Road inbound (to DC) in the lane to make a left turn. The car sat there even though there was room to make the left, then finally when teh car DID make the left, it was directly in front of an oncoming vehicle. Speculation is that the 4 young people were headed to the play at Whitman tonight.

I don't know if the 3 fatalities were in that car, but the information I have is the car ended up in the ditch, all airbags deployed, and people on the scene (before EMS arrived) were unable to get the passengers out. The jaws of life were used to finally extricate them.

Stop spreading gossip.

You may correct anything you want.

"4 young people"

See my 02/28/2016 21:43 post where I provided a follow-up on the veracity of the report, and also why the "young people" part may have been inaccurate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^Obviously no one can know how fast that car was driving until the accident investigation is complete. However, I would say that based on the very little bit that we do know (car shoved into a ditch, jaws of life) it does sound like a higher than average chance that the driver of the BMW was going pretty fast.

I don't *know* that is true but I would really be surprised to find out that it wasn't true, kwim? But I've been surprised before so who knows.

Don't newer model, higher end vehicles like this BMW include onboard boxes that record metrics like speed and which can be examined after a crash? If so, investigators will know soon enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^Obviously no one can know how fast that car was driving until the accident investigation is complete. However, I would say that based on the very little bit that we do know (car shoved into a ditch, jaws of life) it does sound like a higher than average chance that the driver of the BMW was going pretty fast.

I don't *know* that is true but I would really be surprised to find out that it wasn't true, kwim? But I've been surprised before so who knows.

Don't newer model, higher end vehicles like this BMW include onboard boxes that record metrics like speed and which can be examined after a crash? If so, investigators will know soon enough.

I have no idea. But that sounds right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess BMWs are pretty sturdy cars? It is amazing that the other driver wasn't more badly injured considering how devastating the impact was for the other car.

Front-end steel, "crumple zones" and front air bags provide more protection. Even with side air bags, there's not a lot of protection in a forceful side-impact crash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess BMWs are pretty sturdy cars? It is amazing that the other driver wasn't more badly injured considering how devastating the impact was for the other car.

He hit head on. Cars are designed to with the fact that head on collisions are far more common than broad sides. Part of it is also the nature of the beast. The engine, mounts and larger crumple zones absorb much more energy than a door and B pillar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess BMWs are pretty sturdy cars? It is amazing that the other driver wasn't more badly injured considering how devastating the impact was for the other car.

It's mostly related to direction of impact. The BMW likely hit head-on, so you have the entire front of the car to absorb the impact. The front is designed as a crumple zone for that purpose. Then on top of that, seatbelts and airbags are oriented towards a front-end collision.

On a side impact, there's much less "car" there to protect you. Just the doors, which do have side protection (typically beams) built in as it's required by federal law, but that's just a lot less mass and material compared to what's at the front of a car. The laws of physics come into play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^Obviously no one can know how fast that car was driving until the accident investigation is complete. However, I would say that based on the very little bit that we do know (car shoved into a ditch, jaws of life) it does sound like a higher than average chance that the driver of the BMW was going pretty fast.

I don't *know* that is true but I would really be surprised to find out that it wasn't true, kwim? But I've been surprised before so who knows.

Don't newer model, higher end vehicles like this BMW include onboard boxes that record metrics like speed and which can be examined after a crash? If so, investigators will know soon enough.

All cars include this. The speedometer will stay stuck on the speed it was at the time of airbag deployment.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^Obviously no one can know how fast that car was driving until the accident investigation is complete. However, I would say that based on the very little bit that we do know (car shoved into a ditch, jaws of life) it does sound like a higher than average chance that the driver of the BMW was going pretty fast.

I don't *know* that is true but I would really be surprised to find out that it wasn't true, kwim? But I've been surprised before so who knows.

Don't newer model, higher end vehicles like this BMW include onboard boxes that record metrics like speed and which can be examined after a crash? If so, investigators will know soon enough.

Yes, almost certainly the car is equipped with an event data recorder. The car might also have BMW assist which would provide data about the impact force and so on (similar to OnStar).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope it wasn't teenagers..

Sadly, it was. I spoke with someone who spoke to a witness at the scene who saw it all happen. Car full of 4 young people on River Road inbound (to DC) in the lane to make a left turn. The car sat there even though there was room to make the left, then finally when teh car DID make the left, it was directly in front of an oncoming vehicle. Speculation is that the 4 young people were headed to the play at Whitman tonight.

I don't know if the 3 fatalities were in that car, but the information I have is the car ended up in the ditch, all airbags deployed, and people on the scene (before EMS arrived) were unable to get the passengers out. The jaws of life were used to finally extricate them.

Stop spreading gossip.

You may correct anything you want.

"4 young people"

See my 02/28/2016 21:43 post where I provided a follow-up on the veracity of the report, and also why the "young people" part may have been inaccurate.

I don't understand why you wrote the first time. You heard something third person. You just couldn't wait to post. Sad.