Should have gone to specsavers........
I almost hit someone head-on while I was driving down a road. The road has a speed limit of 25mph. I happened to be going 45mph around this corner, and this dumb bitch in an SUV feels the need to cut the corner by going 3/4 of the way into my lane. I had to swerve to avoid hitting her head-on. I was going 20mph over the speed limit, but I was centered in my lane and this idiot cut the corner all the way into my lane. People around where I live ALWAYS cut the corners. They're going the speed limit, yet they cut all the way into the opposing lane.
It wasn't a speed bump from what I understand. My dad got his Audi completely airborne at night once when he went over a dip in a road he'd never driven on... and he was going just 30 mph. It happens.
Must have been one hell of a dip.
How do you know it was completely airborne... assuming that you mean all four wheels being of the ground.
You're taking the problem the wrong way around. Ever thought that the speed limit might be there because the road is dangerous?
I know it's not a speed bump but it obviously doesn't upset cars traveling around the speed limit. You wouldn't drive down a street with speed bumps at 120mph, if you did you'd destroy your car and likely kill yourself in the process, in the same sense you shouldn't drive at 120mph in a 30.
There's a local dual carriageway near my house (limit 70mph) that has a bend over a crest with a slight bump in the road on it, at 70mph its hardly noticeable, at 90mph it will unsettle a car badly and if you tried to drive over it at a 110mph you would end up in the armco, what possible grounds are there for why the crest should be leveled (at great cost)? The solution is simple, drive close to the speed limit on a road you don't know, if we don't want to have speed cameras ensuring people drive at a sensible speed we have to rely on common sense and it doesn't take much common sense to work out that driving at 4 times the legal limit is likely to be dangerous. Had that car been traveling at 30mph it probably wouldn't even have reached those concrete posts and if it did it would have hit them with 16 times less energy.
wow damn, ferrari, anyone?
Trust me, you know when all four tires leave the ground, lol. And yes, it was a hell of a dip. It was at the end of a 1-lane bridge - the road literally dropped down at a 30 degree angle a few feet - out of nowhere.
I'm not at all saying he wasn't traveling way too fast, but I'd just like to know what kind of a bump it was that sent that car flying... and I'm only wondering why it wasn't fixed because it was not the first time there'd been an accident there because of it. There can be races for YEARS at a major racetrack, but then if ONE person slams into the guardrail coming out of a turn, they fix the problem to avoid it happening again years down the road. It's a lot less expensive to fix a small bump in the road then to level an entire hill. I see where you're coming from, and I agree entirely - but I'd just like to know whether a well-maintained road would have kept this from happening. God only knows here in the USA, bad roads are the cause of way to many crashes.
A police car crashed at 80mph (in a 30 zone, so 2.6 times the limit) after loosing control on a straight bit of road with no other cars involved, he slammed into an exposed brick wall and was seriously injured. The brick wall was promptly rebuilt and the bit of road he crashed on wasn't modified in anyway because it posed no danger to a car traveling at remotely sensible speeds with 7 times less energy. Now when you travel at 120mph you more than double the energy again, what is hardly noticeable at speeds far faster than the speed limit suddenly becomes a serious problem. I'm sure cars are not routinely loosing control and flying off into pillars at 30mph in which case there's no issue. Your may as well demand your local supermarket to install tire walls and gravel traps with paramedics on standby in case you suddenly decide to drive 4 times faster than you should be.
You cannot really feel when your tires leave the ground. Although you can feel it when the tires hit the ground after being airborne. I have never had any of the tires leave the ground. I've gone over a crest on a 25mph limit road at 60mph, and I could feel the loss of traction. But I doubt I was airborne at all, there wasn't as much weight on the tires. And I went over a slight dip on a 35mph road going about 85mph earlier today, and I almost went sideways. But if I were to crash because of that, and be paralyzed for the rest of my life, then I wouldn't blame anyone but myself. EDIT: What they need on some roads is a sign like this:
There's a reason why speed limits are where they are.
On a race track your aim is to be as close to the grip limit as you can for as much of the time as possible with only a very small margin for error - hence why they only have traffic going in one direction and have run off areas, ambulances on standby etc etc
On a public road the aim is to be driving your car with a VARY LARGE margin for error (i.e. miles within the grip limit) so that WHEN the unexpected happens you can react in time to safely recover from the situation without any unecessary loss of life or injury to yourself or others. See the difference
Going around a corner at twice the posted limit doesn't prove your a great driver, any numpty can do that. And anyone that drives at twice the speed limit on a road they don't know should have their license torn up into tiny little pieces and never be given another one.
The whole argument about people dying because of unsafe roads is a joke, the vast majority of fatal accidents are preventable by the driver at fault.
I'd suggest that alot of people need to learn about the term "risk assesment" it will stand you in good stead in many areas in life not just on the road. Taking unnecessary risks is just stupid plain and simple, taking an risk based on sound knowledge of a circumstance that has a high probability of a positive outcome is wise.
On a race track your aim is to be as close to the grip limit as you can for as much of the time as possible with only a very small margin for error - hence why they only have traffic going in one direction and have run off areas, ambulances on standby etc etc
On a public road the aim is to be driving your car with a VARY LARGE margin for error (i.e. miles within the grip limit) so that WHEN the unexpected happens you can react in time to safely recover from the situation without any unecessary loss of life or injury to yourself or others. See the difference
Going around a corner at twice the posted limit doesn't prove your a great driver, any numpty can do that. And anyone that drives at twice the speed limit on a road they don't know should have their license torn up into tiny little pieces and never be given another one.
The whole argument about people dying because of unsafe roads is a joke, the vast majority of fatal accidents are preventable by the driver at fault.
I'd suggest that alot of people need to learn about the term "risk assesment" it will stand you in good stead in many areas in life not just on the road. Taking unnecessary risks is just stupid plain and simple, taking an risk based on sound knowledge of a circumstance that has a high probability of a positive outcome is wise.
I hit the bumpstops in the rear on a bump on an off ramp (about 100 km/h) not too long ago, I have experienced more pleasant things so to say. You don't want that to happen in a corner..
By the way, just because you've driven on a road lots of times doesn't mean that it's safe to go twice the speed limit. Just for reference, the road I went 85mph on I drive on at least once a week. But last time I went 60mph down that road, I was in the left lane. The dip was in the right lane.
I do agree some roads and conditions are bad though 
http://youtube.com/watch?v=rKsaHMBjuTc
@wheel4hammer - I didn't mean twice the limit to be literal was just using it as a figure of speach
some corners and roads you may well be able to do more than twice the limit some much less depends on a whole bunch of factors.
Rally drivers are good at reading road conditions from an initial slow drive by, but even they get it wrong on occassion.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=rKsaHMBjuTc
@wheel4hammer - I didn't mean twice the limit to be literal was just using it as a figure of speach
some corners and roads you may well be able to do more than twice the limit some much less depends on a whole bunch of factors. Rally drivers are good at reading road conditions from an initial slow drive by, but even they get it wrong on occassion.
Yeah - all four tires DID leave the ground. It was fairly obvious when we came back down - as you stated. My dad was pretty pissed, cause he'd had his Audi for not more than a month and we heard the front and rear bumpers scrape the gravel - such a pleasant sound.
Lol. It's funny you should use that as an example. A minivan crashed into the front entrance of our local supermarket about a month ago. They rebuilt it and added those solid pylon... things... in front to keep the next car from doing the same thing (though I wouldn't call that making it safer for the driver...)
You're right though. When I originally posted this I wasn't thinking about the speeds really. It's true that even a hardly noticeable bump can really be exaggerated at 4x the speed in a low slung sports car with a really stiff suspension. I am still curious though to see the bump that caused the accident.
OMG! thats sux! 
How much droop in the audi's suspension? It can feel like you are off the ground even though your wheels are still in contact with it. The tyres can even chirp.
I bet the supermarket isn't thinking about driver safety but pedestrian safety. Something most drivers forget when they are in a car.
Normal roads in the city have 50km/h restrictions. This kind of roads with 2 or 3 lanes have something between 60-80km/h (so people drive 80-120km/h) but after the surface fluctuated somehow and somebody crashed on this 'sea waves' they put there 50km/h limit.
From comments in the net there are some big pipes underground and it's not as easy to fix as somewhere else. But sooner or later they will had to, right?
So it's just stupidity of government.
On other side it is hard to believe to that restrictions in some places. Here it is because there is really a danger, but as quick example, near my city the road is straght and very good but there is 50km/h limit instead of 90km/h too. Why? Because some years ago a VIP died there when truck hit his rear.
Here is the place of that crash. You can click the map to play with it or switch to satelite.
From comments in the net there are some big pipes underground and it's not as easy to fix as somewhere else. But sooner or later they will had to, right?
So it's just stupidity of government.On other side it is hard to believe to that restrictions in some places. Here it is because there is really a danger, but as quick example, near my city the road is straght and very good but there is 50km/h limit instead of 90km/h too. Why? Because some years ago a VIP died there when truck hit his rear.
Here is the place of that crash. You can click the map to play with it or switch to satelite.
Not much. It's a sport suspension and he's got sport tires. I don't know how to explain it to you other than the tires were off the ground.
Let me put it this way - I went back the next day with my Subaru and managed to get the front tires airborne going UP the drop, lol. And my car's got a LOT of suspension travel.
And yet you have not given any explanation to how you know the tyres were off the ground.
Did you check for tyre marks? Did you video the event? Did you have friends standing by and watching?
I don't think my car would get airborne even if I drove over a speed bump doing 30mph(45-50 kmh). I might break the suspension, damage the tyres or wheels or scrape the bumpers. But I doubt very much I'd get airborne.
BTW You get the tingly feeling in your gut even if your tyres don't actually leave the ground.
Did you check for tyre marks? Did you video the event? Did you have friends standing by and watching?
I don't think my car would get airborne even if I drove over a speed bump doing 30mph(45-50 kmh). I might break the suspension, damage the tyres or wheels or scrape the bumpers. But I doubt very much I'd get airborne.
BTW You get the tingly feeling in your gut even if your tyres don't actually leave the ground.
I don't I've ever had a car airbourne over a yump. It's felt like it, as everything goes light and squiffy, but I reckon it was just going light on the suspension.
I have had a bike off the road over a yump though - my little ZZR250, back in the day. It felt like I was about a meter of the ground, but a watching friend informed me it was about 2 inches.
I have had a bike off the road over a yump though - my little ZZR250, back in the day. It felt like I was about a meter of the ground, but a watching friend informed me it was about 2 inches.
By the way, from my parent's Audi A6 I know that the plastic mud guards can scrape on the ground even on moderate dips, making a very ugly scratching noise that makes you very very worried the first time you hear it without knowing what causes it (:schwitz
. Maybe it was just them and not the bumpers you heard?
E: Tristan, what is a 'yump'?
. Maybe it was just them and not the bumpers you heard?E: Tristan, what is a 'yump'?
It's a change in gradient sufficient to cause a car to go light or take off. E.g. a small, hump back bridge, a rise in the road, the crest of a hill etc. It's a term I've heard in rallying (though it might be a mistranslation), and I like it.
Sort of a cross between hump and jump, but without necessarily being either - roads don't have jumps designed into them.
Sort of a cross between hump and jump, but without necessarily being either - roads don't have jumps designed into them.
Yikes guys, if you really, REALLY don't want to believe me - that's fine. Suffice it to say I can get airborne with my car - and I've done it. I'm not about to go out and videotape it just to prove it - because I could care less. I don't even remember why I said it anymore. I can tell when the car is in the air. Period. If you saw the road, you'd understand why it's not hard to do.
And this is basically a jump. The road literally goes like this ||||\_____ (though not as steep as that) off of the bridge. I've gotten air going <--- way because the road literally is a ramp, and the suspension on my car is soft enough to help launch the car into the air. My dad got air going the other way... he was in a rush, lol. I'm actually amazed he didn't do any major damage to the front or rear bumpers. As long as you're going at a decent clip - you just fly off the end of the road. I'm not trying to say he flew five feet off the ground, but it's physically impossible for any car to drive off the bridge at any speed higher than "pretty slow" without losing contact with the road.
Unless you have this suspension I saw in that demo car once a few years back that actually pushes the tires into bumps on the ground to reduce body movement.
And this is basically a jump. The road literally goes like this ||||\_____ (though not as steep as that) off of the bridge. I've gotten air going <--- way because the road literally is a ramp, and the suspension on my car is soft enough to help launch the car into the air. My dad got air going the other way... he was in a rush, lol. I'm actually amazed he didn't do any major damage to the front or rear bumpers. As long as you're going at a decent clip - you just fly off the end of the road. I'm not trying to say he flew five feet off the ground, but it's physically impossible for any car to drive off the bridge at any speed higher than "pretty slow" without losing contact with the road.
Unless you have this suspension I saw in that demo car once a few years back that actually pushes the tires into bumps on the ground to reduce body movement.
But how do you KNOW the wheels were off the ground rather than the springs just nearly fully extended - it'll feel the same. Indeed it'll look the same.
And you COULDN'T care less. If you could care less than you do now, that means you care, and will go and film it. Is it only Americans that can't get the hang of could/couln't care less?
Even with that bridge I'm not convinced you'd get more than an inch of air unless you were driving at WRC speeds. Which you weren't, rush or not.
And you COULDN'T care less. If you could care less than you do now, that means you care, and will go and film it. Is it only Americans that can't get the hang of could/couln't care less?
Even with that bridge I'm not convinced you'd get more than an inch of air unless you were driving at WRC speeds. Which you weren't, rush or not.
Deadly Ferrari accident in Warsaw
(60 posts, started )
FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG