Never RV without your propane shut off at the tanks

[Tequila]

I was in the accident linked below last Tuesaday. After the crash the truck was still running and i was unable to reach the key to shut it off until I finally managed to release my seat belt. There was a strong smell of propane. The hoses from the tanks on the trailer hitch had severed and propane was leaking out rapidly. An explosion was a very real possibilty.

BTW, the police told me I was very lucky to survive. Injured but alive

On another note, I had a dash cam they are a good thing to invest in.



http://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/opinion/letter-warning-to-highways-minister-was-followed-by-serious-...

[2oldman]

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.

[Old_Islander]

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...

[wnjj]

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.

[DiskDoctr]

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?

[DavinD]

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

[blofgren]

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.

[minnow]

^^^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.

[turbojimmy]

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.

[Blazing_Zippers]

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.

[DiskDoctr]

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.

[mich800]

This swerve don’t swerve thing is taken a little out of context. There is a big difference hitting an animal or an 8k+ pound effectively stationary object. For those that have had professional driving lessons know you don’t go to class and just practice stopping in a straight line. There is merit in collision avoidance and every situation is not the same.

[mgirardo]

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.

I am glad to hear you did not get seriously injured. I wish you a speedy recovery. It certainly looks like a bad accident. I am also in the don't swerve crowd, but I do understand in incidents like yours, often times instinct takes over and that instinct is to swerve.

Both our children are new drivers. Our daughter got her license back in September, our son got his learners permit in March. While doing our road time (GA requires 40 hours of driving on a permit before getting a license), I have drilled into them that swerving is the worse thing to do at highway speeds. I hope they will remember that if they are ever in an incident like yours.

-Michael

-Michael

[WTP-GC]

I'm not going to judge the decision to swerve or not swerve. I drive around 40K miles per year, sometimes towing and sometimes not. I'd like to think that I've ran a great number of scenarios through my head and I'm prepared for most of them, but reality is that you really don't likely have even 1.5 seconds to figure it out. Your reaction must take place in like 1/2 a second or less. Despite the fact that I've ran scenarios through my mind hundreds of times over, I've encountered times when my instinct said SWERVE even though I immediately knew it was wrong.

Several years ago, I was in the middle lane of the interstate going between 75 to 80 MPH. When I crested a hill, all I saw was BRAKE LIGHTS and stopped traffic. I had no time to even think...it was either swerve left or right or have a guaranteed collision. I instinctively swerved left and fortunately there was no one there. But, there was a car right behind me riding my tail that didn't fair so well. He swerved left...WAAAAYYYY left and struck the guard rail.

So about the propane...
Leaking propane from a tank is not necessarily going to allow the backflow of a flame into the tank. I don't think the OP was in any danger whatsover due to the propane situation...no more danger than what he would have been in due the accident anyway.

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

Tequila - first, sending prayers for speedy healing. Glad you had the dash cam to prove the incredible situation you had to deal with in a split second - my instinct would have been to swerve, too. Hope the guy in the truck realized you probably saved his life. (We know a young man who rearended a vehicle that went flying into the oncoming lane and killed a motorcyclist. The young man served 15 years in prison) And I agree with the warning-letter writer - that location sounds like an accident waiting to happen. The LEAST they could do is warn through-traffic to use the right lane.....