A local teen was in a fatal accident about 10 minutes from my house. All I can say is it's a bad reminder of what can happen so quickly. I have friends who knew her personally. It's a complete shame to see this happen, whether she was speeding or not.

http://pressbanner.com/pages/full_st...nce=local_news

 

Always sad to hear about a young person losing their life like this.

When I was 17, I almost killed myself and a friend speeding down a curvy road...slid into a tree after a heavy ramped up hill--->turn.

IIRC, I somehow thought that I could drift my FWD 2000 Toyota Celica.....LOL, that's what I get, right? lol

Luckily my friend and I were uninjured, but the car was totalled.

 

used to live in scott's valley for 25 years so i know how the roads around highway 9 and off of it can be. sorry to hear.

unfortunately it's usually inexperienced driver's underestimating conditions. saw personally a lexus driven by a teen try to pass on a double yellow with a blind turn(to him) coming up, an oncoming car came around the corner just as he was attempting to pass and needlessly to say he had to go off the road into the orchards. he T boned the car into a tree on the passenger side and the 2 or 3(can't remember) of his friends all died while he was the only survivor.

 

I almost went into the side of Glendora Mountain over here in Cali thinking I was a badass... Luckily for me I didn't crash or go off the cliff.

I signed up for autocross the following day, I hadn't done it before... This is very sad to hear about and things like driver awareness really ought to be more important here in the US. Europeans don't seem to start off this way.

 

Californian driving tests are too easy.

 

So I got a call from my sister this evening. She apparently was on 236 just prior to the accident. She said there was this car doing 60+ the opposite direction and she pulled over because she was so stunned. She was then going down 9 and saw several police cars/ambulances flying up 9 and she said she had a terrible feeling of what had happened.

What part of SV did you live in? I lived in the Mobile Home Parks off Whispering Pines for years. It's just terrible to see these things happen, when it is usually the most preventable thing in the world. Man, seeing something like you saw would be a bit of a shocker, I can't imagine.

Lastly, I worry at some of these "cruises" the local RX club goes to something like this could happen. With the way the driving's been at times, I'm wary of it. I've seen far too many of these happen living in these hills..

 

^ I agree with the "cruises." Our San Bernardino cruises are fun but nowhere near reckless. Admittedly I've been the one who has typically done stupid things but I've since calmed wayyyy down. We had a group of RX-8s come out to one meet and one of them ended up scraping the side of his car up on a mountain. That group hasn't been back since.

 

Pilots talk about "tying the minimum altitude record." Usually with a mix of remorse for the loss, and criticism for the failure.

We've all done stuff in cars we know we really shouldn't have. That we got away with it to some degree is proven by the fact that we're still around to discuss it. Eventually we either 'calm down' like Absence said, or the odds catch up with us.

Sad part is, many don't survive the learning curve. Physics is unforgiving of foolishness. Regardless of the skill of the driver, some situations are unrecoverable once entered. Luck is notoriously fickle.

Small favors, but cold comfort.

 

Well put Glen. Its scary thinking how if something had gone unexpectedly wrong, I may not be here right now. That being said, I think I was a long ways away from how some people drive on mountain roads, but what I did was still to some degree unsafe.

 

Way too easy. Plus too many folks on their phones and not paying attention to the road. Id be up for stricter enforcement of cell phone laws like heftier fines and added points to a persons driving record. I read somewhere that New York is going to start giving 2 points per ticket.