RV Blows Tire Causing Roll-Over Video

The primary failure was a short circuit--------------------between the ears of the driver.

I liked Cloud Dancer's observation that anyone foolish enough to be driving a rig that fast is also someone with less than expert driving skills and reactions.

Depending on where you are, in your quest for useful knowledge, IMO there's always something to be learned by discussing unfortunate accidents. My own conclusion is that he was not as well qualified to be driving this vehicle as he should've been. However, this is probably the case with at least half of all drivers. And, so far, nobody has come up with a solution. Therefore, IMO all we can do is examine and attempt to evaluate/improve our own qualifications.

Given the fact he was on an interstate I fail to see if he was doing 65 vs 75 that would have been much help. What if he was in the slow lane doing 65 and a truck or worse, a small car was passing. He would have veered right into that vehicle.

Speed was an issue, yes. But only because he was on the interstate where EVERYONE is going fast. Just like Texas Speedway! Any speed over 35 would have been too fast for a blow out.

I hate what-ifing a scenario. He wasn't careless, speeding, or drunk; it was just an unfortunate accident.

WW

Skid Row Joe wrote:

Mr.Mark wrote:
I'm not sure if it was mentioned yet, but the motorhome ended up in the travel lanes blocking both. There was an additional picture posted somewhere that I saw when the event originally happened.

Thank goodness the traffic moved on and there just happened to be an open spot for the motorhome to land. Could have been even worse.

MM.

:h The video only showed the median blocked. Not the Eastbound, and especially not the Westbound lanes of the Interstate highway were blocked.

I guess you saw the pic that Mike Brez posted of the coach laying on it's side blocking the lanes.

MM.

He was going too fast for HIS abilities to handle an emergency. That is pretty obvious from the outcome.
At what speed could he have handled it, who knows? Other drivers have handled front wheel blowouts without losing control so it is not necessarily a speed thing as it is a driver skill thing.

Cloud Dancer wrote:
When you say he was going too fast, exactly what contribution do you think the excessive speed made to this case? Are you thinking that the speed itself caused the tire to fail, or that it was the speed which prevented the driver from maintaining control.
My thought is that it was the rapid failure of the tire itself which startled the driver such that it caused his mind to freeze,.....while someone else might've been instantly responding with some actions which might've resulted in maintaining control. In other words, IMO the subject driver would have done the same thing if the tire had failed at 80 mph as at 65 mph. And, IMO my opinion is more consistent with a driver who would drive this rig at 80 mph in the first place.

Many things can contribute to tire destruction whilst going insanely fast. tire degradation from sitting in the sun too long or tire hit something on the road bad workmanship many things. even the beloved Prevost could wind up tits up cause of a pinhead driving thinking it is a race car.. I have seen buses trucks motorhomes tits up from many things I have traveled all over the country (naturally in a car or pickup truck) and seen it all. I have seen an Eagle (the beloved coach before the holy grail Prevost) and that looked like chewed food after it was all over with. Perhaps if we look at it from another perspective Let's say God FINALLY blessed me and I have a Prevost and I am driving it at 80 mph, and I have a blow out cause of say happenstance,,, BOOM goes the tire, and I am going out of control and end up on my side, Now let's say I am going 60 and I have that same blow out don't you think I would have a much much better chance to recover from a tire emergency such as this? my point is that if that idiot was driving the speed limit or the bottom side of it he would most likely have a much better chance of keep it under control. Prevost or a Thor or a Beaver doesn't matter it's pure physics the faster something moves the more energy it has.

When you say he was going too fast, exactly what contribution do you think the excessive speed made to this case? Are you thinking that the speed itself caused the tire to fail, or that it was the speed which prevented the driver from maintaining control.
My thought is that it was the rapid failure of the tire itself which startled the driver such that it caused his mind to freeze,.....while someone else might've been instantly responding with some actions which might've resulted in maintaining control. In other words, IMO the subject driver would have done the same thing if the tire had failed at 80 mph as at 65 mph. And, IMO my opinion is more consistent with a driver who would drive this rig at 80 mph in the first place.

Seems pretty obvious he was going too fast. Some here have calculated that the assumption is pretty accurate based on the OTR speed and counting the lines vs time. I didn't calculate or derive that through anything scientific but he's obviously going faster than everyone else. Was speed a contributor to this accident? Maybe. Was he going too fast for a MH? Probably. Could he have had better control going slower? Definitely.

Perhaps that's a good way of putting it. This driver had no chance.
All of us go through life experiencing and learning different things, and acquiring different abilities. This driver apparently did nothing. He didn't turn the steering wheel to the right, he didn't step on the brake,....my guess is that he did what most drivers do,....mind freeze. But, he was succesful in certain important ways. He had good looking equipment, and he was fortunate (lucky).
Some of this is speculation, some of it is obvious. But, it makes us think of what we might have done, in his shoes. OR, what we will do. Personally, I will keep on preparing for a trip, and driving the motorhome, the same as before. I'll depend on how my brain is programmed and on the abilities I've acquired.
NOW, if there was a full-motion simulator available, I would consider paying for the training.

The driver had no chance in spite of all the comments.

The failure was the "guard rail" which is designed ease vehicles back towards the travel lane and not into oncoming traffic. Not sure the design was included for a huge box on wheels at V2 speed.