Never RV without your propane shut off at the tanks

DiskDoctr wrote:
There is benefit to discussing the different options for reacting to the incident...Who knows, might save a life?

x2.

Have you ever seen someone slam on the brakes when on ice? Natural reaction, but exactly the wrong thing to do if you wish to maintain control of your vehicle.

Tequila,

Thanks for your post. I'm glad to hear that you've on the mend, and appreciate you sharing your story. Whenever I'm out on the highway driving 5 tons of truck and camper, something like this is always on the back of my mind.

I'm presently shopping for a dash cam. Was yours a factor in your favour, when dealing with the police, ICBC, (or your insurance company, if you don't live in BC), etc? Seems to me, that would be the greatest value in them -- being able to prove your story, in the mess of paperwork that follows...

minnow wrote:
^^^Agree with above. It's just amazing how many posting here boldly claim they would of manned up and ”driven through it” and not swerved. One can hyperventilate all they want, but in a panic situation like the OP was presented in, 9 out 10 times I’d bet we’d all try to avoid the collision by swerving. With a second or two, at most, It's not a conscious decision at that point, it's a survival situation which one has no control over.

While I agree that it is not a conscious decision, you do have some control over what you do. It's called muscle memory and you can get it by "practicing" scenarios over and over in your head. This was strongly emphasized in LEO academy. Then when your senses are overwhelmed and your instinct takes over, it tends to follow that path. The tough part is envisioning every possible scenario and the one that will happen to you will likely not be the one you planned for.

Regardless, there's no telling if doing anything but what the OP did would have resulted in any better of an outcome. He's still on this mud ball so not such a bad choice in hindsight.

There is benefit to discussing the different options for reacting to the incident.

I don't see this as a disrespect, rather a chance for many to consider their options, should they be faced with a similar situation.

Who knows, might save a life?

Glad you're ok. Here's to a speed recovery.

OP, I see you are a fellow BC'er and I know exactly where this occurred. I too am happy to hear that although injured you survived.

And I agree with blocking out the naysayers; hindsight is always 20/20 and having been in 2 non fault crashes in the last 6 years it's natural to go over the scenario many times over. You didn't have enough time to analyze the situation, but there was going to be a crash either way.

I wish you the very best in your recovery and also dealing with ICBC.

^^^Agree with above. It's just amazing how many posting here boldly claim they would of manned up and ”driven through it” and not swerved. One can hyperventilate all they want, but in a panic situation like the OP was presented in, 9 out 10 times I’d bet we’d all try to avoid the collision by swerving. With a second or two, at most, It's not a conscious decision at that point, it's a survival situation which one has no control over.

Tequila wrote:
You know I had 1.5 seconds to decide what to do, there was about a 30% chance of swerving past him and not wiping out. Our speed diference was maybe 58 MPH in the photo. If I had hit him it would have killed him and possibly myself. Here is a frame from my dash cam, you can see what i mean

That's chilling.

Sorry about all the Monday morning quarterbacks. No one really knows for sure what they'd do until it happens to them.

I hope your injuries aren't too severe and that you'll make a full recovery.

As far as the propane goes, as someone else said modern tanks would have cut off the leak. My permanently-mounted tank on my Allegro has a similar leak detection and cut-off device. I usually travel with it shut off anyway because I haven't filled it in a couple of years - I find using a standard 20# tank (transported in the shower) is easier than finding someone to fill the on-board tank.

Hummm---in my LEO driving course, the instructor stated that one might do well to try to steer clear of the object blocking your way if possible.
I did just that in December where the accident was still occurring around me and I got through safely.
One never knows how one will react in emergencies. As having also earned a RV Crash T shirt, glad you are safe and hopefully you are back out here in a RV shortly. BRRRR, that photo brought back memories.

Sorry to hear about your accident. Glad your family and everyone survived. Prayers for quick healing!

I don't think you were in big danger from propane and certainly not enough to suggest that everyone on the planet turns off their propane when traveling.

Having a large rig was probably more danger than a properly functioning propane tank.

Now if you said, "Don't haul a 5th wheel camper because I wrecked in mine" you'd "save" more lives (about 10k/year?) due to 5th wheel accidents than the freak circumstances of a propane safety device rupture and failure (1 every 5-7 years?) But nobody would make such a wild statement ;)

Our sympathy is not lessened due to disagreeing with your wild statement. But our sympathy does not compel us to accept it, either.

Please keep them separate as we readers do and know we have deep sympathy for you.