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 ...
Well, I can’t fix that!
And youth needs to understand their vehicle's capability for acceleration/performance, load restrictions, sight clearance.
Dumb girl driver. Was coming up on her side so it’s not like someone’s head was blocking her view. Distracted and/or not paying attention. By the skid marks, it doesn’t look like the truck driver had time to react else he might have been able to veer to the right and run it off the road. Might have flipped it though. Being fully loaded, a truck just won’t maneuver as fast no matter what.
Is "around here" in a rural area? I am unaware of any state, any place on earth at all, where there is enough money to build overpasses for more than a few, if any, rural intersections.
Same in Indiana. No one under 17 except a famous member is the rule, I believe.
It looks like the truck driver wasn’t cited, which is huge.
Also the locals know the intersection is terrible.
Roundabouts are great.
Idiots around here use them for a four way stop or stop in the middle to let people in. Frustrating.
Rounabouts are far, far safer in that they minimize the chance of head-on’s or T-bone crashes. You will get fender benders in a roundabout, but not the horrible crashes we see here.
I lived in Europe for four years and got used to them. They are efficient and safer if you stay alert.
Well they should have factored in the lesser of two evils, or completely realigned it to be directly across from the opposite street. Because human nature dictates they are going to cross both lanes to that opposite street anyhow, and this change here makes it even more dangerous because it is no longer a straighter path across those lanes. They almost have to double back and then make a whole additional left turn maneuver after making the right turn.
So what they tried to prevent/discourage made it even worse because they are going to cross both of those lanes anyhow, no way to prevent them from doing it without completely blocking access entering the opposite street. You always have to factor in the human nature aspect. Is discouraging it going to prevent it? No... So one must factor in this reality also when designing things like this.
Since you are a civil engineer please let me share a local reality with you explaining real world observations based on road authority neglect. We have a very old 30 mile section of the original two lane historic Route 66 here. The passing/no passing lines were engineered and painted back in the 30s when everyone drove 45 Mph as a norm because of the cars back then. Now everyone drives 65-70 along this remote road.
Most accidents on this section of road are head on collisions. Because I have been in the wrecker business in this area all my life I made an observation years ago how these are happening and what is causing them. The cause is the county refusing to reassess the double line passing no passing distances. They just keep repainting the original lines from when traffic only traveled at 45 Mph.
Those distances are now completely irrational and dangerous at the speeds currently traveled. There are dashed passing zones where there absolutely should not be any at current speeds. There are blind S-turns that have a passing zone in between the turns, when it should be a double yellow no passing zone all the way through the S-turn. At 45 you might have to time pass in this zone, but at 65 there is absolutely no way it can be done safely. When I was still in business these turns used to get me an average of one head on fatality a month.
Yet still they refuse to reassess the situation and repaint these lines with distances more fitting for current speeds traveled. Part of it is human nature, folks see a dashed passing zone they are going to pass whether they can see around that corner or not. So in this case it is the opposite, the road authority is neglecting to take human nature into account and discourage passing in these dangerous areas.
And their excuse? “It is historic so we can’t change it”. Yeah... Well... Things change and need to be reassessed if you don’t want to kill people with neglect and inaction of you are going to allow people to travel it at all.
Mythbusters did a test on their show on roundabouts vs. stop signs. Roundabouts were more efficient.
I’m just amazed anyone at Chevy thought the name “Spark” was a good idea. I remember a talk show host (might have been Jay Leno) joking about a short-lived model called “Impact.” He said, “Impact?? What, was Flaming Ball of Death already taken?”
“It looks like the truck driver wasn’t cited, which is huge.”
Not yet... But the civil suit is still to come. It always does because it is always the truck’s fault.
Oklahoma has the same law.
I would like to see the credentials of the engineer that designed this intersection.
It needs to be redesigned and reworked like, yesterday.
In 1978 this 16 year old idiot would take as many as six teenagers home in a 1965 VW Bug - two in the passenger seat, three in the back seat, one in the space behind the back seat. No seatbelts.
It’s a wonder we survived.
As Dick the Bruiser used to say..
And remember, always yield the right of way to the bigger vehicle.
You might want to try obeying them.
Just a thought.
L
“You might want to try obeying them. Just a thought.”
I do, where they make sense.
“ I do, where they make sense.”
And when they don’t?
L
Under perfect conditions it takes about 1/8 of a mile to stop a semi at 55 mph.
The driver screwed up and paid with her and her friends lives.
The trucker bears no fault and hopefully can get back behind the wheel soon.
My son is a trucker. Safe driving is a huge responsibility and one most truckers take seriously.
In my past I was a volunteer bus driver. With 49 lives behind me, you bet I was careful.
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