Aren't you in the DFW area? If so, you may have heard about the horrible accident at Custer and Legacy in Plano back in '08. It was a Sunday morning, and a dude who was pissed at his ex was driving 90 mph westbound on Legacy (this is a six lane major road in Plano, which has a great system of 12 or so east/west and north/south thoroughfares that are all six lanes across with turn lanes in the middle.) A family of five was leaving church that morning, heading north on Custer (the school where I teach is about 3 miles south of there.) The dude plows through a red light and hits the mini-van at full speed and killed all of the passagers instantly. The two youngest girls were hit so hard that their properly-installed car seats were ejected from the van, leaving them dead on the street. It upsets me just typing it. The police on the scene were said to be beyond horrified. A woman I met the next year at Bunco was in the left hand turn lane on Custer (southbound). She was just a sitting duck waiting for her arrow to turn onto Legacy. When the van was hit, she was knocked sideways in her truck, then the van landed on top of her truck. Her collarbone was then sticking out of her shoulder, she was bleeding, and the dead family was in her line of sight on top of her before she mercifully blacked out. She is a psychiatrist and needed extensive therapy herself to get somewhat past the horror of that accident. All of this was less than a mile from my house, and I still can't go through that intersection without thinking about it.
Yes. I live in Frisco. I remember something vaguely. I went back and googled the reports. His car went airborne over a curb and into the minivan. Incredible. The guy got 15 years for killing 5 people and his latest appeal was last year. I would say that is an incredibly light sentence but at least he didn't get off on an affluenza defense.
I've been working wrecks for 14 years now. I worked one a few years ago on #1 hwy outside of Friars Pt.,Ms. 4 adults, 2 infants in a midsize 4 door car ran a stop sign and went under a south bound 18 wheeler loaded with granulated fertilizer. The driver side of the car went under the passenger back tire of the cab and got wedged between the 2 back axles of the trailer. All 4 adults were dead on impact. The infants weren't in car seats. One was in grandmas lap in the front passenger seat. The other was in the mothers lap passenger side backseat. Both of the women were big and acted as a cushion for the babies. The baby in the front was pinned between the dashboard and grandma and was gasping for breath when the first volunteer FF arrived on scene. The top of the car was gone so he was able to use a crowbar to pry the dash back. The 2nd arriviving FF was able to get the baby out and lay him in the seat of his vehicle till ambulance arrived. When I made it to the scene we heard the 2nd infant in the backseat. We had to finish taking off the roof and remove the back door and the woman to get to the baby pinned between the backseat occupants. Both of the babies were airlifted to Lebonheur and had no life threatening injuries. We were able to remove 3 of the adults with extrication tools. The driver was pinned under the back tire of the hopper trailer. He was still in his seat but had been folded over, like he was touching his nose to his knees, and compressed about 10-12" thick. He weighed 270-300 lbs. To get him out we had to wait on a semi-wrecker. That wrecker lifted the trailer as we lifted with bags. When the trailer was lifted high enough to clear the car I put our stands under the axles for safety and took pics of the driver for the HP. The 2nd wrecker then had to winch the car out from under the trailer. The whole operation took about 3 hrs. It's amazing that those babies survived. That was one ugly sight to see.
So, the two babies survived by not being in car seats because the obese women holding them cushioned them? Damn... Will they be better off if they ended up going to people with better sense?
If they had been in car seats they would've been ok I believe. They would've been between the adults and still probably survived. The uncle has them now. Haven't heard from him since then.
