Time To Call Before Crashing?

Editor-in-Chief

A mother and daughter had a bad crash in their late model Maxima this weekend shortly after picking up their car from the shop. There are a couple of fishy things about this story. But this is the main thing that stood out:

Seconds before the smash, the mother managed to dial her cell phone to call her cousin – who was behind her in a U-Haul truck helping the pair move from Queens to their new Bronx home. "She was crying," said Derryl Jones, 21, who was in the U-Haul truck listening to the conversation. She begged him to "hurry up and do something," Jones said. But it was already too late to save the doomed duo.

So let me get this straight. The brakes "failed," but instead of pumping the brake pedal to build pressure, downshifting, using the parking brake and/or generally finding a way to scrub off some speed while also keeping the car on the road, this lady took out her cell phone and called her cousin???

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Posted at 5:24 pm in Crash, Wrecks

Comments

Ken
Sep 8, 2008 at 3:39 pm

Too many idiots on the road these days….. people just don’t have a clue to the basics of driving and emergency manuevers. We place too much empasis on stopping a car, and not avoidance, so when the brakes are gone, most people just don’t know what to do!!! Sad. If I am ever killed while driving an auto, the rescue team will have to pry my hands off of the steering wheel, NOT my cellphone!

Dhillaz
Jul 16, 2008 at 12:25 am

A few things to try before taking out your phone:
1. Hand-brake (E-Brake)
2. Try and spin the car around with the steering to lose some speed
3. Steer away from the rather solid building into something a bit softer
4. Climb into the back of the car
5. JUMP OUT.

Joel
Jul 10, 2008 at 9:13 am

My front brakes have failed many times, and i have still managet to get to my destination and back. the front and rear run on different circuits, but unfortunately the rear brakes only account for 20-30% of braking, which feels pretty bad, but i drive manual which makes it easier. still she could have put it into a low gear.

GTwildfire
Jul 9, 2008 at 1:11 am

There’s more to the story. She texted and Emailed before the crash as well.

Anonymous
Jul 8, 2008 at 7:27 pm

the first thing I was taught was to use the ebrake without the locking mechanism, some all hand work (modern) others by foot pedal, and hand. (because lets face the facts, the same stupid 50+ years of american cars weighing 3000 pounds popped master cylinders like a 13 inch new tire…at any given moment). Alot of confidence out there today with new stuff…just adds to the fantasy of horrifying transverse drivelines taking over the world.down syndrome driver? no problem. socialism has you covered. Before ya know it some idiot will bring back the moronic straight 6 slap a turbo on it and call it a hot rod. Oh no. they did. I’ll just take a back seat. I got old young. you’ll hate me even talking…

Oafman
Jul 8, 2008 at 7:06 pm

Depending on the speed downshifting and the parking brake work well. In my only no brake situation it was in a cousins mustang and I was going about 1 mile an hour so I just put it in park because I could not find the parking brake quick enough. Even doing that, by the time I got it stopped It had already ran into my garage. (also the reason why I do not have a garage anymore.)

HB
Jul 8, 2008 at 6:55 pm

My wife recently had a brake line separate on her lifted Jeep Liberty (100K mile curse), but she was smart enough to grab the e-brake, pull it off the road, then call me.

Highspeedhijinks
Jul 8, 2008 at 6:25 pm

She probably couldnt jump out of the car because she was locked in it!
~
Hopefully Im not the only one who remembers that story.