3 killed in crash on River Road

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Hence the wild success of DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The other law of physics is the relative speed of the two vehicles. A Chevy Volt accelerates very slowly, so traveling ? less than 25 mph, perhaps much less. The BMW was in a 45 mph zone. So with that difference in speeds, the Volt would thrown farther. Think pool balls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

So did I do it for:

A. The glory, even though it's an anonymous message board
B. To smear the names of the people involved, even though their names had not been released at that time
C. To provide more information about what happened, from a trusted individual who spoke to a witness who saw the accident take place

Remember at the time I reported it, there was no information yet provide by authorities, except that there were 3 fatalities. No information on how many cars, how many people in the vehicles, what took place. All they reported at the time was an accident with 3 fatalities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The other law of physics is the relative speed of the two vehicles. A Chevy Volt accelerates very slowly, so traveling ? less than 25 mph, perhaps much less. The BMW was in a 45 mph zone. So with that difference in speeds, the Volt would thrown farther. Think pool balls.

Interesting, I would think that a car being broadsided would travel further if it had some acceleration going on as opposed to barely moving or stationary at the time of impact.

[Anonymous]

Can they even put speed cameras on a road with a speed limit of 45 mph? I thought it had to be less or be a construction work zone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The other law of physics is the relative speed of the two vehicles. A Chevy Volt accelerates very slowly, so traveling ? less than 25 mph, perhaps much less. The BMW was in a 45 mph zone. So with that difference in speeds, the Volt would thrown farther. Think pool balls.

Interesting, I would think that a car being broadsided would travel further if it had some acceleration going on as opposed to barely moving or stationary at the time of impact.

NP here. Vector diagram -- it would depend on the direction and speed of the cars. There's no reason the broadsided car would go further in the direction it was hit if it were accelerating (as long as it wasn't in the direction of the force that hit it) vs. stationary. It might go further in the direction it was moving/accelerating already. But not along the direction of the force of impact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can they even put speed cameras on a road with a speed limit of 45 mph? I thought it had to be less or be a construction work zone.

Connecticut Ave camera r 30 mph...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can they even put speed cameras on a road with a speed limit of 45 mph? I thought it had to be less or be a construction work zone.

They can drop the limit to 40 and set up cameras.

[Anonymous]

Electric car owner here. Wanted to chime in and give facts here that are being misreported. All electric cars like Leaf, Tesla, Volt (has gas back up engine, not a hybrid like a Prius) actually have faster 0-30mph acceleration that most has cars, even a BMW! Little known fact. Makes it really fun to drive in the city as they are super zippy under 30. I can beat any BMW in my Leaf going from red light to red light. Another fact, the 2016 Volt has 0-30 of 2.2 seconds which beats the average BMW of 2.7 and even the fast and expensive Tesla at 2.3 seconds.

Yeah, I drive a leaf too and I don't think the Volt is slower, from the one test drive I did. Unless it is slower on its gasoline engine? But even that--no. A volt is NOT a hybrid. It has an electric motor, and a gasoline generator for that motor for when it runs out of electric charge. It is possible that the driver overestimated the volt's zipping power, and thought he could make the turn--I know that I sometimes count on my leaf being able to outrun anything 0-30 for some of my driving decisions. Which I should stop doing, btw. If anything this horrible accident is a good reminder for us to be careful.

The thing I do think might be worth mentioning is, that the 2016 is a brand new redesign for the Volt. I don't even think they've been selling for more than a few months. They said they had a hard time getting anyone out of the car--I wonder if there are some issues there. There are special protocols for electric cars in accidents. Generally, they are very safe, but--

I am soberly reminded not to try and beat the light--or traffic. My hearts go out to the family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The other law of physics is the relative speed of the two vehicles. A Chevy Volt accelerates very slowly, so traveling ? less than 25 mph, perhaps much less. The BMW was in a 45 mph zone. So with that difference in speeds, the Volt would thrown farther. Think pool balls.

Interesting, I would think that a car being broadsided would travel further if it had some acceleration going on as opposed to barely moving or stationary at the time of impact.

NP here. Vector diagram -- it would depend on the direction and speed of the cars. There's no reason the broadsided car would go further in the direction it was hit if it were accelerating (as long as it wasn't in the direction of the force that hit it) vs. stationary. It might go further in the direction it was moving/accelerating already. But not along the direction of the force of impact.

Yes, it went further in the direction it was moving. It was heading in the direction of the ditch and wound up in the ditch - assuming I am understanding the pictures of the scene correctly. I may not be.

[Anonymous]

According to one of the comments in the WP, Pyle Road used to be gated off so that no one could enter or leave that way to or from the HS. I don't know the layout of the school, but is this a possibility again? If there was a gate at that entrance, why was it removed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Electric car owner here. Wanted to chime in and give facts here that are being misreported. All electric cars like Leaf, Tesla, Volt (has gas back up engine, not a hybrid like a Prius) actually have faster 0-30mph acceleration that most has cars, even a BMW! Little known fact. Makes it really fun to drive in the city as they are super zippy under 30. I can beat any BMW in my Leaf going from red light to red light. Another fact, the 2016 Volt has 0-30 of 2.2 seconds which beats the average BMW of 2.7 and even the fast and expensive Tesla at 2.3 seconds.

Yeah, I drive a leaf too and I don't think the Volt is slower, from the one test drive I did. Unless it is slower on its gasoline engine? But even that--no. A volt is NOT a hybrid. It has an electric motor, and a gasoline generator for that motor for when it runs out of electric charge. It is possible that the driver overestimated the volt's zipping power, and thought he could make the turn--I know that I sometimes count on my leaf being able to outrun anything 0-30 for some of my driving decisions. Which I should stop doing, btw. If anything this horrible accident is a good reminder for us to be careful.

The thing I do think might be worth mentioning is, that the 2016 is a brand new redesign for the Volt. I don't even think they've been selling for more than a few months. They said they had a hard time getting anyone out of the car--I wonder if there are some issues there. There are special protocols for electric cars in accidents. Generally, they are very safe, but--

I am soberly reminded not to try and beat the light--or traffic. My hearts go out to the family.

And don't forget this particular Volt was carrying four adult-sized (said because two were teens as opposed to small children) passengers. That would also affect the acceleration ability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can they even put speed cameras on a road with a speed limit of 45 mph? I thought it had to be less or be a construction work zone.

They can drop the limit to 40 and set up cameras.

Drop the limit to 40 mph, redesign the road for a 40-mph speed limit, and set up cameras. I don't know what the design speed of the road was, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was at least 50 mph.

[Anonymous]

If the road they were turning onto is basically a service road leading into the school why can't they just put a camera there to begin with? I'm not familiar with this road so I don't know where it leads to.

Not that the camera would have a changed a thing.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

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).

+1

Also, there are plenty of ways to determine speed and impact, by applying basic physics. If the investigators aren't inept, they will look at point of impact, type of impact, skid marks, and other factors. There is a lot to consider here.