Two RVs hit head on - Hwy 49 in California
Two RVs collided head on while traveling on Hwy 49 near Grass Valley today. Single driver in the smaller RV and a couple in the larger one....Prayers for the families...Dennis Story
Forum Discussion
I was a first responder for over twenty years. Belted-in people occasionally die anyway in crashes but they are far outweighed by the number of unbelted people who die who most likely would have survived with minor or no injuries if they had been belted into their seat. I can't even count the number of people I saw over the years who died or were severely injured (permanently paralysed, brain damage, etc) from being ejected, some of whom were then crushed or otherwise run over by their own vehicle. The seat they had been thrown out of? Intact.
The last fatal I responded to before my retirement was caused by an unbelted, distracted driver on the freeway who came up at full freeway speed on unexpected stopped traffic. She overacted by swerving violently to the left, which threw her out of the driver's seat toward the passenger side enough that she no longer had control of the vehicle. Her then-driverless vehicle (with her still inside) travelled at freeway speed through the grassy median dip, became airborne, and struck several oncoming vehicles. She was ejected and killed, and two belted-in drivers going the opposite direction were killed by her airborne vehicle basically landing in their laps (it struck the first vehicle and cartwheeled into the second). Several other vehicles were struck by debris and some occupants in those vehicles suffered non-life threatening injuries. I was only a mile away, and when I got there less than five minutes later both sides of the freeway were at a stop and there were people running in various directions, with smoke and debris spread over a large area. The scene looked very much like a plane crash, all the result of a distracted, unbelted driver. The two drivers who were killed by no choice or action of their own left widows and several fatherless children between them.
The last fatal I responded to before my retirement was caused by an unbelted, distracted driver on the freeway who came up at full freeway speed on unexpected stopped traffic. She overacted by swerving violently to the left, which threw her out of the driver's seat toward the passenger side enough that she no longer had control of the vehicle. Her then-driverless vehicle (with her still inside) travelled at freeway speed through the grassy median dip, became airborne, and struck several oncoming vehicles. She was ejected and killed, and two belted-in drivers going the opposite direction were killed by her airborne vehicle basically landing in their laps (it struck the first vehicle and cartwheeled into the second). Several other vehicles were struck by debris and some occupants in those vehicles suffered non-life threatening injuries. I was only a mile away, and when I got there less than five minutes later both sides of the freeway were at a stop and there were people running in various directions, with smoke and debris spread over a large area. The scene looked very much like a plane crash, all the result of a distracted, unbelted driver. The two drivers who were killed by no choice or action of their own left widows and several fatherless children between them.
