Sometimes numbers lie. But we keep them around because they tell the truth more often than not. The NHTSA undertook a two-and-a-half year study that examined 5,471 injury accidents nationwide in order to figure out how accidents were being caused. Government researchers conducted their own evidence gathering at crash sites in order to establish a first-hand account of causation. What did they find? Among other things, that more drivers crashed as a result of crossing the center line (11%) than as a result of speeding (5%). Speeding, in this case, defined by "too fast for conditions," not necessarily above the posted limit.
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Every city has at least one: a badly designed intersection with poor visibility that's prone to car accidents. But this one looks like it was laid out by Rasputin. What you see here isn't a snapshot from the set of The Bourne Ultimatum. It's a junction in the increasingly over-populated streets of Moscow where passers-by regularly observe an inordinate amount of crashes. Fortunately, the accidents look like mostly fender-benders, but we'd think that the Supreme Soviet Russian authorities would want to centrally plan a redesign of the intersection, or at least consider revising the signalization, especially since they don't so much have to worry about confounding European armies marching through their capital these days.
It wouldn't be correct to say that all Ferrari drivers can't drive. What we can say is that a lot of Ferrari drivers are probably not short of ego, and also probably have little idea of what their cars can do when pressed. Combine a robust confidence with a watching crowd, add a high-powered and sometimes testy car, thrown in a little bit of ignorance... and a pole.. and what you get is the image above.
A man in Australia pulled out of a garage in his Ferrari 360 Spyder, took his chance to impress some gathered folks at cafes lining the street, and floored it. The car, as they say in the business, got away from him. The pole in the median did not. We're never happy to see (another) wrecked Ferrari, or to see a man carted away from his toy by the police, so to you kids with Ferraris, please learn from this and stop the madness.
Our favorite part of this picture is that, having made his boo-boo and probably realizing what he's in for, the driver is still just sitting in the car, although the guy in the blue shirt flexing in the background also gets a special mention...
Somewhere, a father in Melbourne weeps. There were 16 Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradales imported to Australia and New Zealand. There are now 15. A proud dad gave his son the keys to his so-rare-it's-almost-extinct Ferrari, and his son got a little too frisky with the audacious redhead. She didn't appreciate his advances, he lost control of the situation, and that little redhead introduced him to a pole... at a high rate of speed by the looks of it.
And as if that didn't beat all, the kid had to call home. While news crews watched. And filmed. Only to have newspapers and blogs spread the story around the world. No word on what his father said, but it probably rhymed with "Why I oughta @#%$*&%!"
Police say the driver was speeding, which means he must not have seen these commercials. But now, at least, he has a theme song, so sing along: "To you other kids all across the land, take it from me, parents just don't understand..."
Some of us here at Autoblog tend to avoid WreckedExotics.com. Don't get us wrong, it's a very well done site, but the images just make us cringe. And then cry. Knowing that hooligans with too much cash are regularly wrapping their supercars around poles is one thing, seeing it is another. But this one is just too funny to pass up.
Like something off of the Discovery Channel, the guys at Wrecked Exotics have assembled a collection of "wildlife" photography documenting the mating rituals of exotic supercars. Log on (alongside FIA president Max Mosley) and enjoy the close-up car-on-car action.
News is just now surfacing that comedian Jerry Seinfeld flipped his 1967 Fiat BTM on Saturday in New York when the classic car's brakes failed. The funny man surely wasn't laughing when the brake pedal stopped responding, so he swerved to avoid the heavily trafficked Montauk Highway, causing the car to flip and come to stop before the intersection. Police credit Seinfeld with avoiding a very serious accident thanks to his split-second decision, and the ever joking ex-TV star said this about the accident:
"Because I know there are kids out there, I want to make sure they all know that driving without braking is not something I recommend, unless you have professional clown training or a comedy background, as I do. It is not something I plan to make a habit of."
We're not quite sure why news of Seinfeld's traffic mishap sat around on some news reporter's desk for four days until it blew up. He flipped the Fiat on Saturday and suddenly news of his near death experience is everywhere on Wednesday. Oh well, we should just be pleased that one of our country's national treasures is safe.
The tale of this incident begins with a fantastic understatement: "Every so often, a traffic accident gets blown out of proportion in China." In America, we say things get "blown out of proportion" when a parking lot fender bender turns into a screaming match. In this case, "blown out of proportion" means something that would bring out tear gas and riot gear in the States.
What happened to the Buick you see above didn't happen in the car accident. The woman driving this Buick through Nankai University campus bumped into a bicyclist, leaving her car with a scratch. That was the accident. She got out and demanded an apology, and then demanded payment for damages. Other students began to gather, and because the woman's Buick didn't have a permit to allow her to drive on campus, their first question was where was she from and what was she doing on campus. Her response was "If I produce my identification document you should be scared to death."
The police came. The driver's mother and brother came. Campus security came. Teachers came. And more -- a lot more -- students came. After the driver's brother assaulted a student who tried to further scratch the Buick, that's when things got, as they say, "blown out of proportion." The amassed students had their way with the car, and a 10-inch scratch turned into something more like a salvage title writeoff. Click the link to get the full story. And if you make it over to Beijing for the Olympics, try not to upset the students.
Source: China Car Times
