Board logo

Kit car crash
Richard Quinn - 17/9/08 at 10:18 AM

Just had this link forwarded to me by our Accounts Manager. Anyone know anything about it?
Link


Paul TigerB6 - 17/9/08 at 10:22 AM

Flippin 'eck!! One lucky Westie owner whoever he is.

Which idiot wrote the title to the story though - "Driver walks away from kit car carnage"!!! Clearly not the same one who wrote the story saying he was trapped by his legs, one of which was broken.


Kriss - 17/9/08 at 10:23 AM

horrible to see glad the guy only has a broken leg though, looks very nasty.

Is it a new shape Westfield>?


welderman - 17/9/08 at 10:33 AM

heard that on the radio, lucky man,not far from me.


scootz - 17/9/08 at 10:34 AM

Some chemical metal and a bit of T-Cut will soon see that put right (the car - not the leg!).

Get well soon fella (whoever you are!).


l0rd - 17/9/08 at 10:37 AM

he was really lucky. Hope he gets better soon.

I wonder if that would be an insurance writeoff


Peteff - 17/9/08 at 10:40 AM

Fluids from the car spilled onto the road, the Ashton-bound carriageway was also closed for a short period as the clean-up operation got under way.

Do the emergency services carry spare pants?


02GF74 - 17/9/08 at 10:41 AM

quote:
Originally posted by l0rd
he was really lucky. Hope he gets better soon.

I wonder if that would be an insurance writeoff




he was unlucky to crash.


Richard Quinn - 17/9/08 at 10:42 AM

quote:
Originally posted by welderman
heard that on the radio, lucky man,not far from me.

My office is just up the road from there. Everyone here knows my interest in kit cars (no, I'm not the office bore. I just get the lads to pick stuff up for me every now and again!) hence me being sent the link. Is it a Westy? He must have been motoring to rip the front off like that.


Paul TigerB6 - 17/9/08 at 10:46 AM

It is indeed a new style westfield - or it was anyway!!


iank - 17/9/08 at 10:50 AM

quote:
One witness said: "How someone managed to survive that mess I'll never know.


Answer: Because kitcars are a damn sight stronger than tintops and harnesses are 10 times more effective than a lap belt.

Don't know how fast he was going, but trees can chop cars into chunks at legal speeds.

Glad he's going to be ok.


Howlor - 17/9/08 at 11:33 AM

I bet he needed a nugget removing as well as a cast on his leg. Seems some serious speeds involved.

My mate always said to me that if you get the choice of a wall or a tree always pick the wall! There's not a lot of give in a tree.


a4gom - 17/9/08 at 11:39 AM

Yup a new shape westfield

With regards speed and ripping the front end off i'd suggest the fact it mentions the fire brigade in the text always means what the picture shows may not be a true reflection of the state of the car just after the impact.

Boys n their toys n all that, if the chap was trapped there is a very good possibility the front end was cut of to free him and the bits could quite easily have been dragged to their current locations as part of the operation / clear up.

Gutted for the owner though, insurance will hopefully cough up but it doesn't replace the blood and sweat and passion that goes into a build.
On the other side at least he's still here to tell the tale.


woodster - 17/9/08 at 01:49 PM

as the crash happened in wigan and the driver was ok ........... did he swerve to miss a discarded pie


Richard Quinn - 17/9/08 at 02:28 PM

As an outsider working in Wigan I would suggest that there would be no such thing as a discarded pie!
I've just been past where it happened and it is a straight road some way after a large roundabout. It's a 40 limit that drops to 30 shortly afterwards.


Humbug - 17/9/08 at 02:55 PM

From the little you can see of the car, it looks like a Westfiled FW400... according to [fficial%26sa%3DN" target="_blank">this only 10 were sold, 6 built and 2 on the road...make that 1 now

Edit to say that the rear end looks a bit different, but maybe it's just the paint job and lights, or the crashed one was a looky likey of the FW400




[Edited on 17.09.2008 by Humbug]


oldtimer - 17/9/08 at 04:30 PM

Lucky driver. What a mess. I don't know about the separation of the vehicle being due to fire fighters! we tended to do as little as possible for the sake of crash investigation - not walk off down the road with some bits!!! I think plenty off weight, momentum and some freely spinning front wheels probably had more to do withwhere the front half ended up.


Liam - 17/9/08 at 05:21 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Paul TigerB6
Flippin 'eck!! One lucky Westie owner whoever he is.

Which idiot wrote the title to the story though - "Driver walks away from kit car carnage"!!! Clearly not the same one who wrote the story saying he was trapped by his legs, one of which was broken.


LOL - the title seems to have been revised!


MikeRJ - 17/9/08 at 06:16 PM

quote:
Originally posted by iank

Don't know how fast he was going, but trees can chop cars into chunks at legal speeds.



Very true, this accident happened very close to where I live recently. There is some speculation as to whether the speed was legal at the time however...

[Edited on 17/9/08 by MikeRJ]


woodster - 18/9/08 at 12:03 PM

bloody ell .... very sad story ... what there familys must be going through


Guinness - 18/9/08 at 12:27 PM

Trees are very, very, very hard roadside objects. Most things at the side of the road deform when you hit them, lamposts, barriers etc. The deformation transfers the energy from the vehicle and hence the occupants. A tree doesn't deform, leading to massive deceleration of the vehicle.

I seem to recall that in an effort to reduce casualty figure in France the govt took to chopping trees down that were within a certain distance of the road.

Mike


David Jenkins - 18/9/08 at 12:36 PM

My next-door-but-one neighbour lost his wife in a car crash when he skidded his Mondeo sideways into a tree...

I think it was 5th gear who got MIRAS to crash a car into an old tree at 30mph. The damage was horrendous, with the motor and steering gear going well into the passenger compartment - the car was medium-rated by NCAP as well, IIRC.


[Edited on 19/9/08 by David Jenkins]


RK - 19/9/08 at 03:28 AM

Well, it was a bad accident, and the guy is very lucky to be alive. My bike accident at 20 years of age, going about 40 -50 mph, didn't stop me, and my bike was pretty damaged by... a tree.