Thread: A Bad Crash

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Thanks for all the well wishes. They thought at first he was going to lose a arm, but doesn't seem to be the case now. He is doing much better.
Pat, it has a bolt in funny car cage he puts in when he would race it. I first thought that it might be a good idea if he would of had it in but changed my mind thinking about it, he may of had more serious head trauma getting rattled around in it with out a helmet on.
Ken

Originally Posted by Ken Thurm

Thanks for all the well wishes. They thought at first he was going to lose a arm, but doesn't seem to be the case now. He is doing much better.
Pat, it has a bolt in funny car cage he puts in when he would race it. I first thought that it might be a good idea if he would of had it in but changed my mind thinking about it, he may of had more serious head trauma getting rattled around in it with out a helmet on.
Ken

yep i under stand that well .it just looks very bad upside down .very lucky guy .the lord just did not want him yet

I have a buddy here in NZ that always worn a full face helmet when driving long distance in his T bucket. I'm guilty of giving him a hard time about wearing the helmet but he believed that it had multiply advantages,eg,keeping the bugs out of ones mouth/nose, easier on the eyes,and most important.....the BIG IF SOMETHING WENT WRONG.

Ken please tell him for me I wish him all the best.When things like this happen makes you think.

Originally Posted by Ken Thurm

Thanks for all the well wishes. They thought at first he was going to lose a arm, but doesn't seem to be the case now. He is doing much better.
Pat, it has a bolt in funny car cage he puts in when he would race it. I first thought that it might be a good idea if he would of had it in but changed my mind thinking about it, he may of had more serious head trauma getting rattled around in it with out a helmet on.
Ken

That sounds really good that his arm can be saved. Both of my arms were messed up in a work injury but at least I have them. I hope he continues to improve.

It may get to the point that our old cars will have to have a roll cage if we are going to drive them with today’s traffic on long runs. Accidents are going to happen. When our first grandchild was in his car seat in the back we were on a 4 lane highway keeping up with traffic, all of a sudden a car in front makes a left turn and traffic had to brake to keep from having a big pile up. The 18 wheel truck behind us was coming up on us, his tires were smoking and my wife was driving. I told her to get off the road fast! Lucky she didn't ask why because the trucker smoked the tires right past us. He threw up his hand thanking us for getting out of the way. This was a late model car with all of the safety features but it would not have held up to the truck if we hadn’t got out of the way. Things can happen so fast but the old cars are going to have to have some kind of protection if we are going to drive them. The newer cars have antilock brakes, side impact bags, and front bags. It just really makes you think.

Richard

Originally Posted by ford2custom

It may get to the point that our old cars will have to have a roll cage if we are going to drive them with today’s traffic on long runs.

Richard

Richard, I understand your point and agree that it is a scary place out on the highways at times.

But I have spent many hours thinking about the safety of "street driving" a car with an "aftermarket" roll bar/roll cage (due to my interest in fast VW''s). The issue is that the driver in a race car is required to have an approved and dated safety helmet and five point harness when racing the car. That same car and driver when operated "on the street" is done so without a helmet and maybe just a seat belt. IMO, I feel that more injuries could be caused to the driver/passenger (without a helmet) by hitting the rollbar/cage in an accident. The minor amount of NHRA required padding, and the odds of the driver/passenger not having a five point safety harness on while driving on the street are high in causing more injuries. You cannot allow the driver to move around in the car for safety, not the best for comfort while driving on the street.

It's just not an easy answer to improve the roll over safety of our roadsters.

Ken, If you ever find out what caused the wreck, post it up here so that we can all be aware of the type thing that causes these accidents. It had to have been a complete failure of something.

Originally Posted by volksrod

Ken, If you ever find out what caused the wreck, post it up here so that we can all be aware of the type thing that causes these accidents. It had to have been a complete failure of something.

I will eventually find out what really happened and I will post it, with his consent.
Ken

Originally Posted by John Palmer

Richard, I understand your point and agree that it is a scary place out on the highways at times.

But I have spent many hours thinking about the safety of "street driving" a car with an "aftermarket" roll bar/roll cage (due to my interest in fast VW''s). The issue is that the driver in a race car is required to have an approved and dated safety helmet and five point harness when racing the car. That same car and driver when operated "on the street" is done so without a helmet and maybe just a seat belt. IMO, I feel that more injuries could be caused to the driver/passenger (without a helmet) by hitting the rollbar/cage in an accident. The minor amount of NHRA required padding, and the odds of the driver/passenger not having a five point safety harness on while driving on the street are high in causing more injuries. You cannot allow the driver to move around in the car for safety, not the best for comfort while driving on the street.

It's just not an easy answer to improve the roll over safety of our roadsters.

Most of these old cars, and new cars even, have PLENTY of room between the exterior steel body panels and the interior panels to allow for a roll cage to be built in to them with minor modifications. I am building a '49 chevy pick up that i plan on having a full roll cage in, and it won't be visible (removeable door bars). The only thing that will stand out to people that look closely will be where the A-pillar has an upholstered covering over the roll bar because that is the only place that there is not room to easily "hide" the cage. I am taking it farther than it needs to be in most cars. most simply need a loop that goes up the B-pillar, across the roof and back down the other B-pillar (behind the front passenger doors). Then a bar to brace it at a 45 degree angle going back (below window level). It'll take some fab work, but we are building these cars from the ground up, so it really shouldn't be a problem. they don't need full halo's and full cages like they are race cars, but a roll bar would surely help a ton.

wow, once again missed athread while on vacation. Glad your friend is doing better.Make me want to check every bolt again before I hit the street.

Another One


http://www.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art...NEWS/100420050
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Ahh Ken, All these roadster crash reports are getting depressing! Guess I need to sell my roadster and build "a safe" car like a Corvair or Pinto, just kidding.

Here's "a former" crash update and some GOOD news. I'm guessing it was about two or three years ago you posted some photos on CHR of one of your club member's roadster that was involved in a crash near Long Beach. It was also a "bright yellow" roadster just like the one that crashed going home from the Del Mar GG's show.

So I'm at the Orange Plaza Car Show on Sunday walking around after I get parked looking at all of the nice cars. I start asking this guy questions about his car. And it turns out to be the same car that was involved in the earlier roll over accident. I told him I remembered the photos and said to myself "never paint a roadster YELLOW" after looking at the two crashed yellow cars, we both had a laugh on that one. The car was completely rebuilt and looked beautiful. The car was originally a Brizo built roadster with a Sid Chavers interior so you know it was a top knoch car. Not sure who rebuilt it, but they did a great job and you would never know it was involved in such a serious accident.

At the time of the original crash we all speculated about THE WHY, or reason for the crash. The general concern was because the front axle was torn off the car and we were concerned about the possibility of a part failure since many of us use the same suspension parts. What he told me was another car made a quick lane change into his lane and he swerved to avoid the crash and went off the embankment and rolled over. He was seriously "banged up" but thankfully lived through the accident. The good news was, it was "an accident" and not caused by a part failure in his opinion.

Lets all be safe cruising.

Originally Posted by Ken Thurm

Thanks for all the well wishes. They thought at first he was going to lose a arm, but doesn't seem to be the case now. He is doing much better.
Pat, it has a bolt in funny car cage he puts in when he would race it. I first thought that it might be a good idea if he would of had it in but changed my mind thinking about it, he may of had more serious head trauma getting rattled around in it with out a helmet on.
Ken

Ken,

Still not second guessing the cars build.The thing is a bolt in cage running in the 8's??.I am asking about it and it cert with NHRA or IHRA???.I wouldn't think that would pass.

We all got to remember a time's factor of the wt of the car in a rollover.The first roll being the worse until the car slows down.

In all the yrs of racing very early on I have only been on my head once.Just like it is reported from many people,I remember the seconds before the car hit in the first roll and how quiet it seemed thinking this is going to hurt.Then two more rolls and I am told there where 7 before landing upright.It took 5yrs for that recall to come back to me.My head got banged up pretty good even wearing a approved helmet in the car's cage.So I do agree you could get killed by a cage without a helmet on the street.Also in open race cars there are arm restraints to keep them in the car and in a street car that wouldn't make sense.Here it seems his arm injuries are related to that factor.


All and all it's good to hear he is doing better and my concern would be how much of his arm's use is he going to get back.I am going to still pray for him for a full recovery and I hope for him that he doesn't remember much about it for awhile allowing him to heal first.