Posted on 03/24/2022 8:40:50 PM PDT by BenLurkin
The six high school students were packed into a small, 2015 Chevy Spark with just four seats - and only the two teenaged girls riding in the front seat were wearing seatbelts, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said Wednesday.
The six girls were all students of Tishomingo Public School, according to the district's superintendent. The driver was 16 years old, three of the other girls were 15 and the other two passengers were both 17.
The two vehicles collided around 12.19pm on Tuesday at the intersection of U.S. 377 and Oklahoma 22 in Tishomingo, a rural city of about 3,000 located about 115 miles southeast of Oklahoma City.
Troopers said the girls' vehicle was traveling eastbound on Oklahoma 22 and stopped at a stop sign at the intersection of U.S. 377 just before 12:30 p.m.
OHP Trooper Shelby Humphrey said Tuesday night that the girls attempted to turn at the intersection, which maps show is at the end of a 90-degree curve of U.S. 377 from east to south.
The girls' car was struck by the semi which was approaching from the east on U.S. 377, KXII-TV reported.
The force of the crash moved the car about approximately 300 feet from the intersection, KXII-TV reported, leaving it in a mangled mess with doors and ripped off.
According to the crash report released by OHP on Wednesday morning, the circumstances of the wreck remain under investigation.
Four of the girls, including the driver, were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, according to the OHP report. The other two girls died after being transported to the hospital.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I am a civil engineer by profession, and I really question the layout of that intersection. I would never sign off on a design like that. The aerial photo makes it clear to me that it was redesigned from its original configuration, too.
Looks to be some pretty-clear sight lines, and at 12:30 in the afternoon. Just damn.
“The intersection almost appears as though the northbound traffic stops at the stop sign, and then are forced to hard right, almost a u-turn, to proceed southbound. If that is correct, it makes this intersection a disaster waiting to happen.”
Good observation. That was what I first saw too. And it looks like it once was set up like the one across the street and then some genius authority decided to block it and make it an even sharper turn. How would even a short delivery truck get around that?
As a wrecker operator I have seen a lot of these where the road authority was truly the one at fault for setting up a dangerous situation or neglecting to fix a dangerous situation. I often wonder if there is a certain number have to be killed before they will do anything.
Bet I have loaded at least a hundred wrecks in my life that were the cause of road dept neglect or very poor decisions from management. And this looks like one right here.
I hate the round abouts, they're especially dangerous when it comes to elderly drivers....I've almost gotten nailed several times by someone not recognizing I have the right of way when in the circle and I rear ended (not hard) an elderly lady who suddenly stopped in front of me when we both had the right of way and she assumed the car approaching from the left wasn't going to stop.
“but in most places, they’re used for ‘traffic pacification’, which really pisses me off.”
Guys like you are the reason they’re there.
L
Note to OK: You might want to revisit your Graduated Driver’s License regs...
“I am a civil engineer by profession, and I really question the layout of that intersection. I would never sign off on a design like that. The aerial photo makes it clear to me that it was redesigned from its original configuration, too.”
Sure was, they blocked part of the right turn space off, it is almost impossible to even get situated 90 degrees to prepare for your turn to the right. I would put 90% of the blame on whoever decided to block that right turn space off.
At this point in life I am beginning to realize that I don’t have the right of way unless it is granted.
Oh shut up.
Not a full stop by the sedan?
That was almost certainly done to prevent drivers on the minor road approaches from traveling directly through the intersection. With the high speed limit on US-377, the curvature of that road, and the skewed approach on the minor road, it looks like that “right turn space” you describe was eliminated because it was considered too dangerous to allow drivers coming from a dead stop to drive safely across the two directions of travel on US-377.
The NTSB is in on the investigation. God help the truck driver. I hope she has a clean record and a dash cam.
Wow, that traffic pattern is not for an inexperienced driver.
“Guys like you are the reason they’re there.”
I have ways of dealing with them.
“I hate the round abouts, they’re especially dangerous when it comes to elderly drivers”
Someone else implied that they liked roundabouts. They’re a damn pain in the butt (compared to 2-way stops) and I really doubt they’re put there to make life easier for people who use their cars to get from one place to the other. More like some Karen took a tour of Europe, or watched Rick Steves and thought it would be ‘quaint’ to have their shit here...so we get stuck with them.
At first glance, the one major question I would have about the truck was its gross vehicle weight while traveling with the full load of gravel.
I’m not questioning their skill.
I’m questioning their integrity.
As for the accident...
Parents, raise a kid savvy enough to refuse to get into that car.
The advantage of a roundabout is that it allows traffic on a major road to move freely through the intersection without stopping if there is no conflicting traffic from the intersecting road.
I can tell you from both personal and professional experience that forcing motorists on a major road to come to a dead stop when there is no traffic on the intersecting road is one of the dumbest traffic control situations in existence.
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