So when I first heard "one car rollover" on cramped South Prospect Street crackle over the scanner somewhat late last night I instantly suspected alcohol may have played a contributing role.
Townies know all too well how cramped South Prospect is and of course that's why it's a one way street with 30 MPH speed limit.
South Prospect is a one way street with plenty of parked cars
The incident occurred around 9:40 p.m. and required an AFD engine, ambulance and numerous police vehicles as the street was shut down for around 45 minutes.
The driver safely got out of the car under his own power and was transported to Cooley Dickinson Hospital by AFD.
The offending vehicle had ricocheted off a legally parked vehicle on the side of the street just before the roll over. Both vehicles had to be towed from the scene.
Amherst Police Chief Scott Livingstone confirms that the incident is "still under investigation." I could, however, "anticipate motor vehicle charges, but not criminal OUI (alcohol) related."
He knows how I think.
7 comments:
Hmmm.....this was Amherst College reunion weekend, with the alcohol intake at its peak on Saturday night/Sunday morning.
I personally am glad that there is likely to be a charge against this guy.
I mean nobody but the driver was hurt, there was no alcohol and it was not intentional (we wont say accident though, that concept is archaic...someone is always to blame). Clearly someone must face charges that will stick with them and cost them dearly for years to come or how can the community really move on.
Sarcasm requires its own special font.
He could have been dodging a pedestrian (or dog/cat) -- wet road, front wheel drive and engine braking from suddenly taking his foot of the gas -- that's got "spin out" written all over it. Start to spin, bounce off a parked car -- that alone might flip him, but my guess is that he tried to stay in the road and *that* is what flipped him.
Instead of letting the car go up over the left curb as it came off the parked car, he spun the wheel hard to the right -- while braking -- which you really can't do in a front wheel drive car, the front tire on the side opposite the direction you are turning (in this case, his left front tire) is sideways relative to the direction the car wants to go, and hence not turning, even if it could.
Instead, it's beng dragged -- both front tires are, but the kinetic energy of the car is on the tread & sidewall of this tire. If the bead holds and the tire doesn't blow -- if the tire isn't ripped off the rim -- the outer sidewall becomes the pivit point on which the car flips. It doesn't help if this tire is dragged into a pothole or up against the curb because the rest of the car is still moving. With the top still able to move and the bottom not, it rolls over.
Now if you accelerate at the point where the tire is being dragged, it will pull you to in the direction the wheel is pointed, although he didn't have enough space to do this in. What he should have done just before this was not turn the wheel quite so hard but gone to full power -- essentially point the wheel in the direction he wanted the car to go and accelerate -- except the road is way too narrow to bring the car under control after that.
He was going too fast for conditions, which is probably what he will be charged with -- although I'm more thinking incoming text message on his cell phone.
Larry, run this by Chief Livinstone -- Trakfone, which is both a cheap cell service for people who only use a cell phone to tell a spouse they will be late or similar things -- and also the "Link-Up" (ObamaPhone) vendor in Massachusetts -- have started doing something rather nasty:
They want to send advertising text messages, and they have already disabled all the features in the phone which allow you to block all text messages, turn text off totally, or just block from specific numbers.
NOW what they have done is also turn off all the features which allow you to turn off notification of incoming text messages. When they send you a text, the phone both vibrates and rings LOUDER than when it is a phone call -- and all you can do to stop this is to read their spam text message (or throw the phone out the window -- or take the battery out of it, which is what I did).
If it is illegal and dangerous to be reading text messages while driving, and distractions in general -- something vibrating vibrating like my chainsaw in my pocket being rather distracting -- they why isn't THIS illegal as well?
I'd really like to hear Scott's take on this -- you want to have the phone on while driving just in case there is a family emergency or to tell the MSP about what appeared to be sheets of plywood flying off the truck that just passed you on I-93 (seriously)-- but it is not safe to have something in your pocket that starts buzzing like a sex toy when you are driving -- and is it actually legal for Trakfone to be doing this?
It's not illegal to receive a text message in any state or in any case. It's just illegal to use the phone while driving. Nothing Trakphone is doing is illegal. Trakphone is an old relic of a company and frankly you can get the same prepaid plans from much better services that don't bombard you with ads.
"It's just illegal to use the phone while driving."
MSP Dispatcher didn't mention that, instead thanking me for calling -- and he had to know I was moving because even if the e-911 stuff wasn't working, I was in an area where I'd have been changing towers ever 10-15 seconds.
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