Tag Archives: crash

Abby Michaels, 21, Drives Drunk, Kills Thompson Family of 3

After more than five years of constant writing about crashes and the damage they did to families, I took a hiatus to spend more time with mine. But couldn’t stay away. I kept coming across articles involving one senseless death after another. It was time to get back to work. This is one of the tragedies I came across during the time I spent away from The Car Crash Detective. As is too often the case, it involves the loss of an entire family due to the mindlessness of a fellow human being. These are their stories.

What happened to the Thompson family?

Timmy Thomson, 51, his wife Karen, 50, and their daughter, Tessa, 10, died the night of March 17, 2019 in Dayton, Ohio. Karen was a special education teacher at Taft Elementary in the Cincinnati Public School District while Tessa was a student at St. Susanna School. The family was on a return trip from visiting Karen’s family in the northern part of the state. They drove a Toyota Camry.

The family was southbound on I-75 at approximately 8:10 PM when hit head-on in the center lane by Abby Michaels, 21, who was northbound in the southbound lane in a white Kia sedan. She had apparently crossed the median, made a U-turn, and headed the wrong way in the center lane for approximately 10 seconds before hitting the Thomson vehicle. Timmy and his daughter died at the scene while Karen passed away some time later at a local hospital. Abby survived with serious but stable injuries.

What led Abby to drive the wrong way that night?

Per police reports, Abby was returning from a St. Patrick’s Day celebration she’d attended earlier in the day. She was dressed in a St. Patrick’s Day shirt, wore a number of plastic shamrock necklaces, and her cheek was covered in a temporary tattoo of a beer mug. The most significant details, however, included a Fireball whisky cup in her bag and beer flowing from her mouth when first responders attempted to get her to breathe after the crash. Additionally, Abby’s husband from June 2018, Kyle Pastorelle, had apparently filed for divorce from Abby on March 15, 2019, two days before the crash.

How could these deaths have been prevented?

Hire a car if you need to. Don't drive drunk.
Hire a car if you need to. Don’t drive drunk.

None of these deaths had to occur that night. They were completely preventable. Had Abby handed over the keys to a friend, called a cab, or spent $20 for a car hire via Uber, Lyft, or a similar service, an entire family would not have perished that night. Beyond that, free cab rides were available that night provided by Dayton and Montgomery County to encourage people to make safe driving decisions on a day known for alcoholic consumption. None of this was necessary.

Is it possible her recent divorce proceedings may have affected her mental and emotional state? Absolutely. Her drinking was not the problem; we celebrate and grieve in different ways. The problem was her decision to drive despite having drunk. This split second decision cost three people their lives–three people who had no connection to her besides the misfortune of being in her path that night.

Alcohol is a death sentence when paired with an auto

I’ve written about the dangers of alcohol before; this isn’t the first fatal crash I’ve profiled on The Car Crash Detective, and it unfortunately is unlikely to be the last. This story repeats itself thousands of times a year in the United States and millions of times a year around the globe. The research shows that there is no safe amount of alcohol you can consume before you drive. This is why alcohol limits are so much lower in most European countries than they are in the United States; the knowledge is spreading that fatal crashes and impaired driving can and do occur at much lower levels of intoxication than previously thought.

A later report stated Abby was legally intoxicated with a BAC post crash of .099, slightly higher than the Ohio legal limit of .08. However, .08 was already far too much alcohol to consume before driving a multi-ton vehicle. Half of that would have been too much. There is no safe limit above zero.

Best practices aren’t a mystery. They save lives. Please learn them and share them. Don’t make Abby’s mistake.

If you find my information on best practices in car and car seat safety helpful, you can buy my books here or do your shopping through this Amazon link. Canadians can shop here for Canadian purchases.  It costs nothing extra to do so, but when you shop through my links, a small portion of your purchase, regardless of what you buy, will go toward the maintenance of The Car Crash Detective.

 

Keli & Jesus Machado Killed, Children Injured in Florida Rollover

I’ve spent the better part of a decade advocating for changes in our driving culture, but I still don’t like writing about car crashes or the pain they being families. With few exceptions, I know none of these people personally, but there are many who do. Each casualty is an entire world lost to someone.  I hope to keep writing until our roads are so safe I have no more deaths to profile. Each story is a tragedy, and if we learn anything from it to reduce the likelihood of a future needless death, then something good will have come from each passing.

What happened to the Machado family?

Today’s tragedy involves the Machado family. The crash occurred on April 20, 2019. The family headed south on US 41 in North Fort Meyers, Florida in a 2000Jeep Wrangler driven by Jesus, 36. For whatever reason, he hit the median curb, triggering a rollover. The Jeep rolled several times before coming to a rest. Jesus was immediately thrown from the vehicle and died at the scene. Keli suffered severe injuries and died in the hospital six days after the crash. Their five year old daughter, Khaleesi, was hospitalized in critical condition while their two sons, Anthony, 11, and Vincent, 8, survived with minor injuries.

How could these casualties have been prevented?

While it’s impossible to know the full truth of what happened that night, there are a number of inferences we can draw to help us understand why two members of the family passed away, why one was severely injured, and why two survived with minor injuries.

While relatives have speculated that Jesus drove into the median because the Jeep was hit by another vehicle that fled the scene, no witnesses or evidence have corroborated this idea. Statistically speaking, given the fact that half of all vehicular fatalities are single vehicle crashes and there is no proof of intervention by another vehicle, the most likely cause of the crash is driver error. He might have been talking to his wife, checking his phone, or simply falling asleep, given the time of the crash. Whatever the reason, he hit the curb and the vehicle either rolled as a result of the impact our due to his attempts to correct its trajectory. Once the rollover began, the fate of each occupant depended wholly on decisions made hours, months, or even years ago.

The Wrangler is a versatile SUV. But it's not a safe one in a rollover.
The Wrangler is a versatile SUV. But it’s not a safe one in a rollover. The Machados drove the 2-door version. The 4-door is no safer in a rollover.

The Jeep Wrangler is one of the least safe vehicles you can have the misfortune of occupying during a rollover as it does not have a roof designed to support its weight. The Wrangler has a cloth top, which is why it doesn’t have a roof score by the IIHS (a “good” score means the roof is capable of supporting four times the weight of the vehicle). The fact that it doesn’t have *any* score means it doesn’t even have to abide by the NHTSA’s regulations for passenger vehicles (those weighing under roughly 6,500 lbs) stipulating an ability to support at least 1.5 times the weight of the vehicle. To put it simply, the Wrangler is treated as a convertible when it comes to rollover safety, and when you’re in a convertible, you’re as good as dead in a rollover. Keep this in mind the next time you think of riding in, driving, or buying a Jeep Wrangler.

An unbuckled occupant is a death sentence in a crash

Jesus was ejected from the vehicle. He was the only occupant who left the vehicle during the rollover. We know from reports that he was unbuckled, which is a death sentence in any crash above school zone speeds and in a rollover at nearly any speed. It’s very, very difficult to be ejected from a vehicle in a crash if you’re a buckled occupant, especially if the adjacent door does not open before the vehicle comes to rest.

Keli’s severe injuries likely occurred from one of three factors: the possibility that she was unbuckled, her husband, or the vehicle in which she was an occupant. The first scenario is the most likely: if her husband’s death was assured by being unbuckled, hers would have been as well. The second scenario is the most morbid; it’s highly possible her husband, who would have been the equivalent of a 250 lb projectile launched at her at 50 mph, could have mortally injured her by hitting her in one of a thousand different ways while he was propelled around the front part of the vehicle due to his unbuckled status. This alone would easily have been enough to kill her. Finally, it’s possible that the roof on the Jeep (which, as you remember from above, was not designed to support the weight of the vehicle at rest, never mind from a drop or during a high speed rollover), caved in toward the front of the vehicle if he initial impacts during the rollover occurred there, reducing her survival space and causing significant head trauma.

We don’t know what happened to her. But the odds were against her due to her proximity to her unbuckled husband. We also don’t know if she was buckled. If she was not, that was its own death sentence, regardless of her husband’s presence. However, given the fact that “it was unknown” if she were buckled while it was clearly known that her husband was not and that her boys were, it is highly likely she was unbuckled.

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Khaleesi’s injuries could have occurred due to compromization of survival space due to a roof cave in, but I suspect they are most likely to have occurred due to improper restraint. Specifically, she most likely was not wearing a seat belt.This is particularly likely to be the case when you consider the fact that there are only four seats in a 2-door Jeep Cherokee, and two of them in the back were occupied by her brothers, who were buckled.

That said, let’s take a look at best practices for children her age. The safest position for a 5-year old child (e.g., a kindergartner) is a rear-facing harnessed seat. Indeed, this is the safest position for adults and children of all ages. However, virtually no 5-year-olds rear-face in the United States (you’d have to go to Sweden to see this in appreciable numbers). The second best position is either forward-facing and harnessed or in a high-back booster if the child is mature enough to sit properly all the time. However, the stats show that most parents aren’t doing any of the above; most parents of 5-year old children are using seat belts. And a child placed in a seat belt before ages 10-12 is at a significantly greater risk of injury than the same child in a booster, regardless of how mature s/he is. Yes, middle schoolers often need booster seats. Pre-teens too.

If the Machados were like most parents, they strapped Khaleesi in, but at that age, a seat belt isn’t enough. And if she’d been boostered but wasn’t sitting properly, the booster was useless. News reports have not indicated whether or not she was restrained. However, again, given that a news report identified the husband as unbuckled, the boys as buckled, and the condition of mother and daughter as unknown, the most likely explanation is that she was unbuckled.

The boys may have escaped with minimal injury simply because they were larger and more capable of sustaining the crash forces while seat belted than Khaleesi. As larger children, they’d have had stronger bones and muscles and would have been more likely to fit their seat belts and not submarine out of them the way a younger child would. However, let’s be blunt:

The boys survived with minimal injuries because they appear to have been the only occupants in the vehicle who were wearing seat belts.

We know they were restrained from reports. We know their sister was unrestrained because there literally were not enough seats for her in the vehicle, never mind enough seat belts. We know their father was unrestrained and we are almost certain that their mother was unrestrained as well.

Seat belts made the lion’s share of the difference in their survival.

The statistics of car crashes don’t paint a portrait of survival

This is speculation. But statistically speaking, these were the most likely configurations of each individual, and combined with the knowledge of the vehicle in which they were traveling and what crash forces do to individuals in such a crash environment, these are the most likely results. Thirty-five thousand people aren’t dying a year in the United States because they’re bad people or because they deserved death. They die because of a lack of knowledge and usage of best practices, whether at the individual or societal level. You need to be restrained safely. You need to drive safely. You need reasonably safe vehicles. And most of all, you need safe infrastructure, which includes a culture of fear and respect toward the fact that our bodies are no match for the equivalent of being pushed out of 5-story buildings with the expectation of survival. These are the forces you’re dealing with in a 50 mph crash. Statistically speaking, you’re not going to make it, and if you do, at least one of your loved ones won’t.

If you find my information on best practices in car and car seat safety helpful, you can buy my books here or do your shopping through this Amazon link. Canadians can shop here for Canadian purchases.  It costs nothing extra to do so, but when you shop through my links, a small portion of your purchase, regardless of what you buy, will go toward the maintenance of The Car Crash Detective.

Albert E. Dempsey, 51, Killed in Panama City Beach, FL Crash

unsplash-spratt-flowers6Who

Albert E. Dempsey, 51, was pronounced dead at Bay Medical Center Sacred Heart Health System on Thursday, September 24th, 2015 from a collision that occurred on Thomas Drive at 12:20 PM in Panama City Beach, Florida. He was driving a 2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser and killed in a side impact collision.

The vehicle that drove into him was a 2012 4-door Jeep Wrangler driven by Jack C. Payne, 43, from Ringgold, Georgia. Payne survived and was treated at a hospital for minor injuries. He was later charged with a felony on October 22nd for driving unlicensed during a crash that led to a death.

How

Per FHP reports and images from News Herald and WJHG, Dempsey had been facing east in the driveway access for the Dick’s Wings parking lot close to Coastal Palm Boulevard. He was stopped and waiting for an opportunity to turn southbound on Thomas Drive.

Payne was heading south in the outer lane, left the roadway to the right (i.e., westbound), and impacted the driver’s side of the FJ Cruiser. The Wrangler stopped facing south while the FJ Cruiser stopped facing east.

Eyewitnesses stated that Payne appeared to have been undergoing a seizure while driving shortly before the impact. The witnesses stated he had accelerated after a green light before swerving into Dempsey’s SUV. The witnesses had been driving alongside Payne, and stated they could see Payne undergoing what appeared to be a medical issue while they passed the collision.

When officers arrived at the scene, Dempsey was unconscious and a Dick’s employee had held his head in place in order to keep his airway clear, while Payne screamed due to leg and chest injuries. Both occupants were wearing seat belts and alcohol did not factor into the collision.

Why

This is yet another sad case in which a confluence of factors led to an unnecessary auto death. Payne apparently suffered a medical episode, he was driving a dangerously modified vehicle, his vehicle did not offer any form of frontal crash prevention, and most importantly, he was driving without a license. Let’s look at these issues after considering the crash forces that led to this unfortunate loss of life.

The FJ Cruiser

The 2007 FJ Cruiser is a safe vehicle to be in during a side impact collision. At 14.5 cm, its side impact intrusion resistance wouldn’t earn it a spot on the 2015 list of safest SUVs for side impacts (the highest-ranking SUV there had a post-crash B-pillar to driver’s seat gap of 26 cm), and it’s just over half of the value of the current vehicle leader, the 2017 Q7 at 27 cm, but it’s more than good enough to be classified as “good”, structurally, by the IIHS (their threshold is 12.5 cm), and it also has a “good” side impact score overall as well as side airbags with head and torso protection in the front seats.

This is as good as one could expect for a vehicle made in 2007, and it is crucial to note that any vehicle rated “good” in its side impact score overall by the IIHS, regardless of its side impact intrusion resistance, is one where you would expect to survive (and indeed walk away from) a 31 mph t-bone collision by a 3300 lb SUV (e.g., a Honda CR-V). That is the survivability standard of a good side impact score. Or to put it as simply as possible, there was nothing wrong with Dempsey’s vehicle. It’s crucial to note that his FJ Cruiser did come with side airbags, as they were optional in the 2007 FJ Cruiser and did not become standard until the 2008 model year. We know his FJ Cruiser came with side airbags because they’re visible post-deployment in the pictures above.

With that said, the FJ Cruiser was designed to handle 143.7KJ of kinetic energy in a side impact collision safely. In my experience calculating forces, individuals tend to survive up to 200% of designed force tolerances in their vehicles. Above that, however, survival odds drop significantly; I’d estimate the survival rate at 300% of expected forces drops to somewhere around 33-50%. Around how many KJ of energy did Payne’s Wrangler transfer?

The 2012 4-door Wrangler weighs around 4365 lbs, depending on the trim level. It comes with a “good” frontal score. Given the likely speeds of the collision (I’ll estimate ~45 mph), the collision likely imparted at least 401KJ of energy into the FJ Cruiser / Wrangler. The standard side impact test simulates 143KJ of energy (a 3300-lb sled impacting a vehicle at 31 mph). In other words, the FJ Crsuier faced 279% of the force it would have experienced in the types of crashes cars are rated to make survivable. Given these forces, despite the seemingly minor degree of vehicular intrusion, it is sadly understandable that Dempsey succumbed to his injuries, even with the use of seat belts.

Payne’s survival was expected, in contrast, as he experienced a frontal impact that featured survivable forces. The Wrangler would have been expected to perform safely in a 316KJ collision, which means that Payne experienced 127% of tested forces. His survival was almost guaranteed as a result.

The Medical Episode

However, additional factors tipped the odds against Dempsey. For starters, presuming Payne had indeed suffered a medical episode, it was purely bad luck that he ran into Dempsey to begin with, rather than merely off the road. Beyond that, he could have been traveling at significantly more than 45 mph, if, as witnesses noted, his seizure began from shortly after his acceleration past the green light; every additional mph would have significantly increased the forces Dempsey experienced (remember that forces quadruple as speeds double), significantly reducing his odds of survival.

The Modified Wrangler

Beyond the apparent medical issue, Payne was also driving a dangerously modified vehicle. This video shows the difference between a stock Wrangler and two lifted / raised Wranglers that are “only” 4 inches taller. The higher a vehicle is, the more of a risk it poses to other vehicles because it becomes a.) more likely to bypass crash-resistant structures (bumpers, reinforced steel, crumple zones) in other vehicles, and b.) more likely to override other vehicles in frontal collisions.

The first image clearly shows the absurd height of the Wrangler; the top of its nose is significantly higher than the window sill of a comparable mid-sized SUV, the FJ Cruiser, suggesting it was raised by at least 4 inches, if not more. Along with the speed of the Wrangler, the increased height of it almost certainly directly contributed to Dempsey’s death, as it reduced the amount of protection the FJ Cruiser’s door and body frames could provide by towering above them.

Raised vehicles have no place on public streets. They reduce the effectiveness of crash-resistant structures and place everyone driving normally-dimensioned vehicles at significantly greater risk of injury and death.

Ironically, given that Payne’s Wrangler had also been modified with a door deletion, he would almost certainly have died in a much milder side impact collision, given the near-complete absence of any side impact-protection whatsoever in his Wrangler. The Wrangler, by the way, is also one of the few vehicles still sold new in the US without side airbags as a standard feature.

The Lack of Autobrake

Beyond these factors, it would have been helpful if Payne’s Wrangler had come with some form of frontal crash prevention, as autobraking software is specifically designed to stop vehicles from running into other objects. Granted, current autobrake technology is only rated at up to 25 mph by the IIHS, but it does still retain some effectiveness at higher speeds, depending on the company’s technology, and any mph reduction could have potentially given Dempsey a fighting chance at life.

The Unlicensed Driver

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Dempsey would almost certainly have lived if Payne had not been driving to begin with. He shouldn’t have been driving to begin with because he didn’t have a driver’s license. Unfortunately, there are thousands of unlicensed drivers on our roads every day.

Takeaways 

None of this brings Dempsey back. But knowing what we know about the circumstances of the crash suggests that it could have been prevented or at least ameliorated a number of ways. Unfortunately, it’s difficult for us to protect ourselves from the unsafe choices of other drivers and their vehicles. My main suggestions for keeping yourself and loved ones safe on the road remain to:

1.) Avoid driving (e.g., by using public transportation or by cycling or walking…eventually this leads to a critical mass where everyone is safer by having fewer multi-ton machines speeding everywhere).

2.) Limit driving (by the same measures above and by combining trips…it’s a significant part of why many European countries like Norway have far lower driver death rates than we do).

3.) Drive safely (by wearing your seat belt, driving the speed limit or slower, driving without distractions, driving sober, using your headlights 24/7, checking before entering intersections…basically, these tips).

 3.) Drive the safest vehicles possible (by choosing, at a minimum, vehicles with side airbags and electronic speed control).

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Three Killed in Sedro-Wooley, WA in Car vs. Car Crash

unsplash-spratt-flowers5Who:

Fredrick Brand, 65; Nicole A. Washington, 23; Megan L. Brown, 21 lost their lives at around 5:10 AM on Friday, 5/30/14, in Sedro-Wooley, Washington on State Route Highway 20, close to E Hamilton Cemetery Rd. Alfred Navarro Jr, 19, the driver of the Audi, was also seriously injured with a broken arm and leg, as was Quinnton A. Baxter, 22. Brand was in a 2006 Ford Fusion while all other individuals were in a 1998 Audi A4 that crossed the center line in Skagit County. Brand was marred and a father of 3, and was likely workbound at the time of the crash.

How:

Per police reports, the A4 was eastbound on Highway 20. It crossed the center line into the path of a westbound Fusion, killing Brand, Washington, and Brown. Per troopers, beer cans and bottles were found in the A4 and alcohol is a potential factor. The A4 rolled over as a result of the collision and landed in a ditch. Navarro Jr. was later found to be high on marijuana and alcohol and fled from his hospital with family assistance after being checked out by his parents. He has a prior DUI charge that was dropped as well as a prior charge of eluding police, and has been charged in this case with vehicular homicide and assault. He was later apprehended, charged, and pled not guilty.

Why:
This is another sad case of alcohol, speeding, and driver error leading to a preventable collision.

The 2006 Fusion weighs 3386 lbs and comes with an “acceptable” IIHS frontal score. Every subscore was good besides right leg scores, which were poor. It was impacted by a 1998 A4 that weighs between 3100 and 3500 lbs. As a result, weight differences were negligible. As the A4 is essentially a fancy Passat and the 1998 Passat had a “good” frontal score, we can assume the A4 would have had one too.

Given the likely speeds of the collision (~65 mph, judging by the destruction of the Fusion’s engine bay), the collision likely imparted at least 648KJ of energy into the Fusion / A4. The Fusion frontal impact test simulates 245KJ of energy (a Fusion impacting another at 40 mph). In other words, the Fusion faced 264% of the force it would have experienced in the type of crash the vehicle was rated for. Given these forces, survival odds were low, though still possible. I suspect the deaths of the victims in the A4 were due to sitting in the front of the vehicle, and that the survivors sat in the rear.

This is another senseless tragedy that could have been prevented if individuals took driving as seriously as it merits. Unfortunately, young adults are more likely to drink, speed, and drive carelessly, especially when several are combined in the same vehicle, and it appears these risk factors were all in effect that morning, leading to the loss of three lives.

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Santos Reyes, 26, in Etowah County, AL, Killed in Semi Crash

unsplash-austin-flowersWho:

Santos Reyes, 26, was killed at around 2:30 AM on 3/31/14 by the 178.7 mile marker on I-59 in Etowah County, AL, when he crashed his northbound 1999-era Volkswagen Jetta into a southbound tractor-trailer. He died at the scene, while the trailer driver was uninjured.

How:

Per reports, Reyes was driving northbound in the southbound lanes when the collision occurred. He was not wearing a seat belt, and investigators believe alcohol was a factor in the crash. His car ended in the median while the tractor-trailer ended in roadside brush.

Why:

This appears to be a textbook case of wrong way driving caused by alcohol impairment leading to a high speed head on collision. I’ve written about cases involving alcohol before, and fatal wrong way collisions almost always seem to involve impairment.

Looking at the forces, the 1999-era Jetta weighed ~2932 lbs and was received a “good” frontal score. It was impacted by a semi trailer, which can weigh at least 36,000 lbs. That’s at least 1228% of the simulated weight the Jetta would have experienced in an IIHS front impact test.

Given the likely speeds of the collision (~55 mph), the collision likely imparted at least 4.93MJ of energy into the Jetta. The standard front impact test for the Jetta simulates  213KJ of energy (a Jetta impacting its twin at 40 mph). In other words, the Jetta faced 2315% of the force it would have experienced in the types of crashes Jettas are front rated for. Given these forces, he had no chance of survival.

I rarely cover car vs. semi, bus, dump, or garbage truck head-on crashes because the survival rates are essentially zero. I added this case as a reference of both what to expect in such crashes and as one more data point regarding the dangers of driving intoxicated and driving the wrong way down undivided highways. Fortunately, Reyes did not collide with a regular vehicle, or there would almost certainly have been several innocent fatalities to accompany his death.

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If you find the information on car safety, recommended car seats, and car seat reviews on this car seat blog helpful, you can shop through this Amazon link for any purchases, car seat-related or not. Canadians can shop through this link for Canadian purchases.