[DeTomaso] NPC: On-board video of Cobra crash at 130mph

[boyd casey]

Did anyone happen to notice in them"slo-mo"footage his arm seemed to be
dangling outside the car! Even with a roll bar a lot can go wrong and you
can get seriously dead when a car starts rolling. Back in 1989 I was
driving on Virgina Beach Blvd in Va Beach when a guy made an illegal turn
behind me (He made a turn out of a drive way and hit a van. ) He was
driving.a Jeep and his rear mounted spare came off and hit the back of my
car.  (All of this was going on behind me ) I looked up into my reattach
view mirror just in time to see this guy rolling (sideways) down the
road,his head and arms were sticking out of then passenger window  ( even
though he was the driver!)
He wasn't wearing av seat belt.  Well just as I looked up I saw his jeep
rolling over onto it's right side wait his head and arms stuck half way out
of the window ( the window had been closed the impact of him hitting thec
glass broke the window out! I was sure he was a dead man but miraculously
he survived. Somehow his head didn't get crushed between the jeep and the
road. He did suffer severe head injuries and I suffered severe jockey short
damage! Now I know why they want nets over windows and straps to  hold your
 arms in when you race. I'm sure all of you the fly and all of the
engineers on the list know how many g's you pull in denitrification force
when you are rolling.
Boyd

On Friday, January 20, 2012, Garth Rodericks <garth_rodericks at yahoo.com>
wrote:
> Agreed, he had all the right equipment. Although with a kit car, I often
gotta wonder if the "rollbar" is really proper thick wall tubing capable of
withstanding roll forces.  I've gone to some kit car shows and seen some
really shoddy home workmanship on some Cobra replicas. Good thing it wasn't
a "gravity mounted" roll bar like one PCNC member's Triumph!  :)
>
>
> It is interesting that it looks like the roll hoop never touched the
ground. The windshield and frame is smashed, but the roll hoop doesn't even
look scratched. +1 for a bit of luck and a properly engineered replica!
Spinning is one thing, but rolling is an entirely different matter!
>
>
> A friend of mine took his Superformance Cobra to Run-n-Gun about 11 years
ago (won fastest street Cobra, or some such award) and spun it on the track
at 150+ (banked oval IIRC). His car was outfitted with proper safety
equipment too, but he was also "thankful to be alive."  A lot can happen at
those speeds!
>
>
> Anyway, interesting video, and interesting to add his thoughts as
commentary.
>
> Keep the shiny side up!
> Garth
>
>
>
> In a message dated 1/20/12 16 25 23, garth_rodericks at yahoo.com writes:
>
>
>
> Lucky to be alive...
>>
>
> A little bit melodramatic, perhaps?   Given that the car was equipped
with the necessary safety equipment (roll bar, racing harnesses) and the
driver was fully equipped with safety gear as well, the positive outcome
should have been completely expected.
>
> If he had been drunk, wearing a T-shirt and shorts, and not wearing his
seat belt, and the car flipped over and he fell out as it rolled and then
got up and walked away, THAT would satisfy the 'lucky to be alive'
criteria, IMHO....
>
> Mike (a big fan of roll bars and harnesses...)
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