Posted on 06/30/2004 9:11:55 AM PDT by 11th Earl of Mar
Florida Woman Dies After Swerving Car To Avoid Turtle
POSTED: 10:03 am EDT June 30, 2004
INDIANTOWN, Fla. -- A 20-year-old woman who veered her car to avoid a turtle flipped the vehicle several times and died Tuesday, Florida Highway Patrol officials said.
Rachel Marie Martin of Sebring was traveling southeast on State Road 710 between Indiantown and Okeechobee in western Martin County when she suddenly turned away from a turtle crossing the roadway, according to an FHP report. The car overturned and landed in the middle of the road.
A passenger, 19-year-old Julie Christine Evans of Tampa, was treated and released from a local hospital. Martin's 1999 Oldsmobile SUV was totaled.
Authorities said Martin was wearing her seat belt and that alcohol was not involved in the crash.
Me too, & I trust will help us lead long, healthy lives.
BTW- The actual size & brand of tires put on any vehicle can mean the difference btw-life & death. What comes out of the assembly plant is what the lowest bidder could provide that was reasonably round. A bit of research on sites like epinions.com is helpful.
It was probably a Florida Gopher Tortoise (land turtle).
University of Florida did an experiment with fake turtles and fake snakes to see if people would run over or swerve to avoid each.
The results are exactly what most people would guess. Cars would go out of their way to run over a snake and the opposite for the tortoise.
Kinda dumb experiment since evryone knew, going in, what the results would be.
Reminds me of that song Rush used to play. Swerved to avoid a baby duck and their Yugo hit a tractor trailer head on, but they were proud to be liberals (although dead) and driving a Yugo.
The first time I had to make the decision, I had cars on either side of me and a racoon in front. I gripped tighter on the wheel and sent one coon to his reward for being on the freeway at night. Later I examined my actions, and recognized the truth, that it was him or me (and my family), and I made the right choice.
Much later I learned to ride cycles, also learning that when you see any obstacle in your path, the straight up ride, with feet on pegs lifting the body a little from the seat is the correct approach, then after the hit you do what you can to maintain stability. These are skills usually not taught in drivers' Ed. Sorry about the driver in Florida, I have almost hit turtles too, but I try to lower the speed in areas where turtles are crossing the road. It does not take a big swerve at low speed to miss the suckers and I will do that much for them.
But it could have been an endangered turtle.
God has a really sick sense of humor.
Uh, she ain't no "young girl". She's a 20 year old woman, like the article says. An adult.
This is very funny. Thank you!
Every tire has a proper pressure under which it assumes its proper tire patch.
You are correct about the effects of overinflating; underinflating allows the tire to deform which gives less grip and could cause the tire to blow.
LOL!
I'd forgotten that ep!
I think women named "Rachel" should stay away from all slow moving objects...turtles, bulldozers, etc...
:-)
In a Yugo?
I have it on good authority that is Bush's and the JOOOS fault.
So...just what kind of animal are you?!?!?! : )
My best friend (in Baghdad now), when in 8th grade, swerved his bike on a bridge to avoid a rabbit and drove off the bridge.
LOL!
In a Yugo!
Paging Mr. Shanklin, Mr. Paul Shanklin.
Was told it was a top level decision to release the turtle.
I did..
And I'm sorry!
I didn't mean to release teh turtle!
I was ordered to!
*Snivel*
/ joke
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