Well, Liz and I went to NY for the weekend. We stayed at her friends aunts house. It was an amazing place actually. $2.5M house overlooking their own private lake... we had fun. So we left Sunday afternoon about 2 pm. I was driving Liz's car and the 2 other couples we went with were following in their cars. We hit some traffic and stopped for food on the NJ tpk. We got back on and continued south, I always take the truck lanes and I am very glad I did this time. Traffic was moving FAST... I had the cruise set at 85-90 and we were still getting passed by people. We just passed exit 9, we were singing to some good tunes that Liz put in. She was in charge of the CD player and I drove. All of the sudden Liz yells out... "holly S**T"!!! We were in the left lane of the truck side and she points to the car lanes... I look over and I see a white Dodge Intrepid bounce off of the gaurd rail about 150ft in front of us. The car began to skid to the right again and was turning back twards the gaurd rail. The guy driving tried to straighten it out when it took a VIOLENT change in direction. The back end of the car wipped to the right and clipped the gaurd rail again and the car shot straight across 3 lanes of traffic twaords the center divider. Smoke is rolling off the tires and cars are slamming on their brakes... including me. BOOM!!! the car hit the cement barrier head on at 90.

Debris starts flying off the car as it turns backwards and scrapes the wall with the passenger side doors. The front of the car begins to slide back out twards the lanes of traffic when the car suddenly changes direction again. Now by this point I am hard on the brakes and so is just about every other car on the south bound side of the tpk, truck lanes and car lanes. The white Intrepid now is harldy a mid sized car anymore and I can see hte air bags had gone off in the car. Suddenly the car makes another VIOLENTslide to the right and shoots back into the traffic. At this point I realize its heading back towars us. The car shoots back across 3 lanes of traffic only to meet its next enemy... the gaurd rail again. It was like a movie... back across the highway and head on into the gaurd rail again. It hit the rail so hard I honestly thought it was going thru them and into our lanes. Fortunately it didnt and the gaurd rails held. The front of the car stopped so fast that the back of the car just had nowhere to go but up. The back of the car bounced up an easy 6-7 feet... the car was almost standing on the front bumper. Or should I say the dashboard cause htere was not much left of it. Debris flies into our lanes and I actually watched the side view mirror fly completely across the lanes in the air and land in the grass on the right side of the truck lanes.... It slams back to the ground just as we pass it. We could hear the crunch as we passed the car. I moved to the right to avoid some of the debris and stopped on the shoulder to the right. Liz and I got out and started running back to the accident. People all over were jumping out of their cars to help. We didnt go over to the car, there was already 10-15 people there by the time we got there so we figured it would be better stay back. We were talking to some other people there and it seems that the guy was crusing along with everyone else at 90 when his right front tire blew out. That sent the car skidding off to the right and then there was really nothing else to do but hold on. I dont know what happened to the guy, but from the side of the road we could see him talking to the people outside. No one else was in the car and he missed every other car on the road.

Makes you realize just how how much energey there is with a 4000 lb car traveling at 90 mph.... I will say this, The car was pretty much gone but the actual passenger compartment was still there and had not been crushed like the rest of the car. Todays technology saved that guys life... something to think about the next time you go car shopping. It can happen to anyone. Thank god I took the truck lanes....

 

WOW, makes you think huh???? Glad you and your girlfriend weren't involved.

Dave

 

Glad you and yours are okay.

Nothing personal, bud, but I have always hated coming back from E-town and running the NJ-pike from exit 8 to 7. It bothers me to see some of those cars haul-azz, 90mph plus bumper to bumper... not much room for error when the crap starts a flying.
--ron

 

Damn! Good to know everything was ok with the both of ya. Were you still with them tires I gave ya? That is another reason I would never go that fast on the TP. The most maybe 10mls/hr over, thats it. Cause you dont know what could hapen there for a sec.

 

Just a normal day on the New Jersey Turnpike.

 

Glad no one was hurt. I too hate the turnpike. I always feel way safer on the track than on road. I'll be in the very slow lane this Saturday to and from the track. I will be driving the car out with skinny's and drag radials. Can't trailer because my Honey went camping and is using the Trailblazer to pull her pop-up trailer.

 

Why dont you jsut drive on regular tires there, and change to skinnies at the track and just lock up the street tires? could be safer, esp on our Jersey roads, hehe.

 

Because I'm just too lazy. I did the tire change thing for almost 2 years before the trailer. Drove the car to work today. White knuckle ride home (30 miles) in the rain. Bald 315 drag radials hydraplane in any puddle 1/4" or deeper. I hit a section of 422 where the water was laying not really deep. I could actually feel the back of the car pick up. Front skinnies were ok. I'll probally throw on a rear set of tires and change to drag radials when I get there. Looks like rain in the morning drive to the track.

 

it wasn't Mr. Bling Bling was it???????