This scary video captures how little time a driver can have in avoiding a wreck when a tire flies over a median at the approaching car. We often deal with accidents in torts but it is hard for a jury to sometimes understand the very limited time for reaction. Indeed, one of the tricks of litigators is to give a sense of greater time by breaking up the period in a series of decisions or actions.
The van driver is able to move quickly to avoid the tire but that leaves even less time for the victim.
The driver posted the video and described the scene: “I was driving Westbound on the 401 approaching Salem Road on Tuesday Jan 13th 2015 when a tire flew over the median and smashed into my car.”
What is fascinating is that the driver hit by the tire is being attacked in comments for remaining in the left passing lane.
Riding a motorcycle is scary sometimes. I rode one for a while. A little Honda 250. Putting around town, commuting, and short trips in the country. The biggest fear is that people just don’t see you.
They look….but they don’t see and pull out right in front of you. I had a friend who was seriously injured by an oblivious driver.
And dogs.
Robert H Stoll: “By the way, I was not referring to the driver musing about what he had coming to him”
I know, I was just yanking your chain.
It’s a Yank thing.
Good news, however.
The Pope says you can punch me in the nose for it.
Haz,
I rode for 30 years without an accident on the SoCal freeways and back country roads. I always road expecting stupid people to do stupid things; I was rarely disappointed. It wasn’t until I realized I was becoming one of those stupid people and sold my bike. I still have my license and may still get another bike but it will be one for cruising and not for sport.
I am a long distance motorcycle rider. By ‘long distance’, I mean taking trips of 5,000, 10,000, 15,000 miles or longer. Iv’e been doing this most of my adult life, and have been a rider for fifty years now, without once having an accident. I’m fanatical about staying safe while riding.
The four things that scare me most when motorcycling are:
Drivers on cell phones.
Oncoming drivers making left turns in front of me.
Truck tire treads laying in the middle of busy highway lanes where I have fractions of a second to respond. Hit one and the bike and rider goes down. Swerve and hit another vehicle. No room to stop. Bad deal.
Truck tires exploding as I am passing a truck. Painful death suffered before help can arrive.
I haven’t had to dodge an inflated tire mounted on a wheel, bouncing toward me. Thanks goodness. That object packs a hell of a lot of energy, and add the closing speed at which I’m traveling and the result is death, or permanent injury. Scariest thing is that it can bounce and change direction, so even a swerve can be is disaster, if the tire also swerves.
These are things I wouldn’t need to worry about if I converted to Amish.
Today is a very snarky day on the JT blog. I love the smell of snark in the morning.
So after the tyre, tire, wheel, rim or assembly of all of those smash through your windshield we can paraphrase Hillary.. What difference, at this point, does it make?
/ducking for cover
That’s the one DBQ!
“Does American English not make distinction between the two?”
I won’t speak for everyone else RH but for me, when the story line hinges on whether it had any tread life remaining, had disk or drum brakes or what the ambient air temperature was, then I’ll concern myself with those details. It’s sort of like not being “amazed” you didn’t bother spelling tire correctly on an American blog.
Olly
Yeah!!. Another one of my favorite scenes. Probably one of my favorite movies that I can watch at least once a year.
Paraphrasing “Imagine your soft little doe lips drinking the water……BAAAAM !!”
I am a movie buff. Character actors have always been my favorite. They are much braver, versatile, and layered than lead actors. Tomei is one of my favorite female character actors, Laura Dern is another. There aren’t enough female character actors. There is a wealth of male character actors. Some of my favorites are Billy Bob Thornton, JT Walsh, Harry Dean Stanton, Joe Pesci[this was one of his leads and he pulled it off], Walter Brennan, Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken, I could go on forever. But, there is a SUPERB character actor, JK Simmons, who was nominated for Best Supporting yesterday. The movie is Whiplash, which is on my short list to see. He plays an SOB music teacher. Simmons does SOB incredibly well, but he can also play absolutely lovable just as well, as he did playing Juno’s father. His roll in OZ as a Nazi inmate is one of the most riveting long term characters ever. He made your skin crawl. These character actors got to some VERY dark places to perform as they do. We ALL have dark places. We tend to bury them, but they are there and they emerge, sometimes when you least expect it. These craftsmen can summon it @ will and use it for good. A God given talent.
That and the one DBQ posted.
I love that scene.
DBQ,
There are so many great clips but the one I won’t try to post again has Vinny asking his fiance if his suit was okay to go hunting in. She then proceeds to describe imagining a baby deer, by a brook getting shot and the deer not giving a fu** what kind of suit the hunter was wearing.
So tyre, tire, wheel…
R H, though I can’t speak for everyone in the US on this, when someone says the “wheel” of a car, I think of the metal part of the wheel, sometimes referred to as the “rim”. The word “tire” makes me think of the black rubber part. When the tire is “mounted” on the rim, I would still refer to it as a tire on the car. Technically, a mounted tire becomes part of the “wheel”, but that word more often means the steering wheel to me, depending upon context. American English doesn’t have a single word that differentiates between a mounted or unmounted tire, that I can think of. If I saw something coming at me on the freeway (interstate, turnpike, toll road, highway, or whatever) as shown in the video, I doubt I would be much concerned about whether it was just the tire or the whole wheel. That would require more thinking than the available time would allow for, which is tiresome for big wheels.
Amazing, too, is how American cars have no “bonnet” or “boot”, but instead have a “hood” and a “trunk”.
Thanks, Tyger, for your comment. I’m aware of differences between British and American English, but this seems a technical issue, and an important one because a loose tyre does not by far have the same impact as a compleet wheel, result of its weight. By the way, I was not referring to the driver musing about what he had coming to him, since a brick can be as mortal as anything else, but to to commentaries of people sitting behind their keyboards with plenty of time to use adequate terminolgy.
Regards, Robert
Olly
Is this the one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qgREMBTE28
My husband is a big car nut and before she even said any of this stuff…..he almost repeated it word for word when we were watching the movie. I fell head over heels in love (even more than before) at that moment!!! So nice to find someone on your wavelength. 🙂
Nope. It’s the scene with Tomei, his suit and the deer. Sorry folks.
Darn it, wrong clip! 🙁 Let’s see if this works.
I would have just called the serve “out.”
“I’m amazed about all the commentaries mentioning a tyre while it was clearly a whole wheel coming through. Does American English not make distinction between the two?”
This reminds me of a scene in My Cousin Vinny:
shlohrrs29
I noticed the top spin as well. What I would have done is to come under the tire and try to increase the spin sending the tire back across the median to drop precipitously just on the other side. The other vehicle would not have been able to reach it in time before it bounced a second time. Game, Match, Set.
This story is like the cocaine packet story, except for the crushed windshield.
VIDEO: Chainsaws thrown at police during car chase …
http://abc13.com/home/video-chainsaws-thrown-at-police-during-car-chase/336608/
Pogo
LOL!
Actually, my words when this almost happened to me cannot be posted on this or any other blog without being deleted. There aren’t enough &%^$*@)**(?!!!! characters. That and the yeeeeehaaaaaaarrrghhhh!!!!! high pitched screaming. Don’t translate well into the internet.