Posted on 06/21/2013 7:27:07 AM PDT by BenLurkin
A driver who witnessed the fiery crash that killed journalist Michael Hastings says the vehicle the 33-year-old was driving shook his car "like a freight truck" as it flew by early Tuesday morning in Los Angeles.
"Was stopped at a red light tonight when a pearl white Mercedes flew past," Michael Carter wrote on Facebook a few hours later. "It shook my car like a freight truck going by. Saw it burst into flames a quarter mile down the road when it hit a tree."
In a Facebook message to Yahoo News, Carter explained in detail what he saw:
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
And HAstings could have made no turns at that speed! watch the car through the light!
Hastings was going straight down Highland (south) and car with dashcam was at the gas station at Santa Monica facing east. He pulled onto SM Blvd east and then got the call about the accident. He turned right onto possibly La Palma and right again onto Willoughby and then left onto Highland. He passed a light (Waring) before coming on the scene.
The loudlabs guy obviously didn’t know about the crash until the call came in, so why would he follow Hastings? He was already going east on SM Blvd when he got the info and changed his route accordingly.
That is strange; didn’t occur to me.
And the firetrucks aren’t doing squat; the hydrant’s busted-off. Must just be ladder trucks and not pumpers. Hastings’ car hit it and it’s gushing. Only a neighbor with his garden hose. Unless all the ambulance units were tied-up on calls, there are usually a lot of ambulance companies cruising a city the size of LA, waiting for a dispatch. At ~4am, who knows?
The news guy said they were staked out for A possible Beiber run.
He did not see HAstings go through the light from his vantage point but it is on the camera. The scanner supposedly gave him
the location of the accident!
I think that an irrigation item if it was a fire hydrant it would be blowing like crazy. About 20 feet in the air.
I think you’re right. The guy with the garden hose has more pressure than that hydrant does.
Does that mean it isn't suicide?
I have done water pipline in LA installed them and have seen what happens when a truck hits a
fire hydrant! A Fire Hydrant is a 6” diameter fixture full pressure from the main straight up @ about 180psi!.
Suicide no I think the cat was running from someone or something. Unless investigation proves dispair or issues!
Maybe there may be not! He had made a call to Wikki, whatever that meant?!
idunno. as weird as things are these days, it’s getting hard to separate fact from fiction. but Occam’s Razor has always served well and reckon it still does.
Yes we have what are called breakaway bolts so if it is hit it will just snap off! Not like in the higher altitude where if you hit it it will be a major repair! And your car will suffer major damage! lol
Parking is far from driving through 3 consecutive red lights before launching into a palm tree at 100 mph. The post I replied to asserted that today's cars were capable of "directing themselves" so I suppose that automatic parking fits that description. However I am waiting for the day when a car so equipped goes bat-shite nuts and parks on top of a hydrant. I think that today's cars have a long way to go before they are fully autonomous and capable of successfully following a GPS track through normal highway traffic without terrifying the passengers into quaking fits.
Regards,
GtG
LOL, loved it!
Isn’t it kind of a hassle to losen up all the spin control, traction control and assorted straitjackets in these cars?
All we will ever know is just another DOA!
THAT was interesting!!!
In the absence of an explosion or some other event that sprays a mist of fuel into the air you generally won't get a massive fire in a wreck.
I've seen it once in 40+ years of driving. A big rig with two trailers full of fertilizer blew a tire during a lane change and lost control. Went through the center divide, ripping the bottoms off of both fuel tanks and cracking the whip across three lanes of oncoming traffic.
The truck cab burned.
None of the cars did, including one station wagon literally torn in two at the windshield.
Car fire set off suspicions as crew fought it (Smith Tennesee License Scandal)
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