Bad accident in Tempe - '59 El Camino

Who gives 2 ****s about your theory? I hope the driver survives!

 

You hit the nail on the head, Tempe/Scottsdale cops are the ****ing worst. I was thinking the same thing on him allegedly blazing through a red light. I really hope they don't try to throw the book at him.

 

we had an officer run thru a stop sign and total a new charger 19 miles on the clock he hit a car two lanes away and wasnt sited! no lights no code nothing. all that was in the paper was a city car was wrecked on terry ln. my wife seen the wreck and they didnt take one witness report.

 

damn....

 

Too bad the witnesses didn't have the balls to step up and say what they saw... no one had to "take their report..."

 

This is the first thing I thought of when they said He ran the light,

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=292197

 

That crash looks real bad for the driver.
About a month ago- a good friend was driving his new Dodge pickup & was hit head on during a police chase (chasing a stolen BMW) on city streets. Happened riht in front of me. His truck wound up in my front bumper. I didn't recognise him or his truck at 1st. He had the benefit of a safer built truck- crumple zones & air bags. Didn't look near as bad as this car. My friend died 2 hours later.
Sad for the driver. I really hope he's ok.

 

I hope the driver's OK.

 

X2.

 

Does anybody have an update on the divers condition? Also, maybe I didn't read right, but does anybody know which news agency made the crack about "bombing around in an unsafe old car?" I'd like have a "small" discussion with these folks...

 

i'll throw in my 2 bits here, i just had my 57 totaled 2 weeks ago by an idiot that ran a red light 60 mph and never even braked hit my drivers door and rolled me over and pushed into a pick up, so i guess you can see where i'm going here i wish him a speedy recovery but i have absolutley no sympithy for him ,oh and the local rag headline was( cl***ic blunder) like it was my fault

 

Phoenix has been #1 on the red light runner list several times,I ran routes in California for 16 years no accidents, I came to Phoenix and got hit twice the first year I was here.The second time I was hit by a DPS investigator in Tolleson who was out buying party supplies in a DPS vehicle, upon impact there was beer,sodas and snacks all over the intersection at 9 AM, the Tolleson police chief was behind me and saw the whole thing.After running routes here over fourteen years I have to say the Police need some serious Drivers Ed.They almost never use signals and drive at speeds over the limit almost always,police involved accidents show up on the news fairly often here so I think there is 50/50 chance as to who might be in the wrong.Hope he pulls thru OK,I wish Him the best.

 

That was reader comments on the story.

 

As an owner of 4 59 Chev Wagons, it makes me sad to see that car destroyed, but my thoughts are quickly directed to the driver. I really hope he gets better.

 

Ya, I see this guy all over town too, he and some freinds usually has a spot at the Gledale swapmeet. I hope he recovers from this OK.

P.S. I've been mostly using my '59 El Camino as my daily driver for the past few weeks.

 

We all thought about you first when we heard about the accident, thinking it was you...

 

Yeah hope the guy has pulled thru OK,shame about the 59 but I also wonder about the redlight "story" I drive a city bus and you wouldnt believe the **** I see everyday,and the cops are the worst at traffic lights

 

First and foremost, I wish the driver a quick and speedy recovery. When it's all said and done, cars are replaceable and people are not.

Do you wear a tin foil hat?

 

Judging from the pic, he had to be moving a high rate of speed to clip a car, hit another vehicle and run into that support and sustain that kind of damage.Wonder how fast he was going?

 

Maybe....Just Maybe he had the right of way and was doing the legal limit............dont believe all you read,they seem to lay blame on the old car first and then you gottaa prove your innocent

 

I don't believe all I read but I believe my lying eyes. It looks like he was going at a pretty good clip. What is the speed limit there?

 

I didn't like wearing seat belts when they first came out, then they became law, but now I wouldn't drive without one. To many chances to get wacked now a days.

 

Yeah, well just wait and see till the dude gets out of the hospital to see what he says, cops never to anything wrong you know!

My buddy hit a cop car once, after running a stop sign, he was late to get to court over a past ticket, guess who he hit? the cop he was going to see in court! dumb***!

jeff

 

if its where I think it is the limit should be about 40-45mph.and IF he had the green and the cop is covering his *** this scene looks about right,,,,,inocent until proven guilty! a while back we had a cop pull a u-turn infront of one of our buses and when he was hit,he went back into his car and turned on the overheard lights to make it look like it was our drivers fault,only thing that saved our driver was cameras on the bus

 

That's the thing... Here in the phoenix area, our speed limits are pretty high by comparison to most areas around the country. Whereas Some one in the Midwest might have a speed limit of 30 on a given street, ours will probably be 45, and everybody is actually going 52. Comes from allot of years of being a huge town with very little freeways to get from place to place. Our freeway system, other than through town has only been in place for about the last fifteen years. So what I am saying is, this level of damage is pretty common around here. He very easily could have been rolling along at the same pace as the flow of traffic and sustained the damage you see.

 

Thanks for all the well wishes! Sparky will be fine, nothing that a little muscle and grease can't fix!
Just so that everyone has the other side of the story, the distance from coming into the intersection to where the impact was is about a 200 feet overp*** and where the officer was is an exit from the freeway. He is clear that he did have the green light at the start of the intersection and since it was at 5:30 in the afternoon going West the sun did play a factor, maybe it was yellow by the time he got there. He saw the DPS officer pull out in front of him (going West) and to avoid him as much as possible he swerved and hit the mini-van on the p***enger's front panel, spun around and ended up at the South-East corner of the intersection. he wasn't speeding and he does drive defensively as his car is his pride and joy! As well as he does not wish to injury anyone with the heavy metal machinary that he drives around.
Thankfully, he was in that car because the heavy metal is what saved his life. We have brought his baby home and are waiting for him to come home to ***ess the amount of work he and his friends have vowed to begin!

Thanks!

 

Well you may need your sympathy for someone who is close to you some day!

 

The speed limit posted is 45 mph and he was under the speed limit according to the citation.

 

So, if I read this right, the name of the car is Sparky, not the driver, he did run the red light, (but maybe it was yellow) not the cop, the driver will recover, and you and other friends will rebuild the car? If that's the case, he's got some really, really good friends there - because it will need a whole front clip, frame, LR 1/4 work, and the body pulled back out because it looks like the driver door post was pushed back as the door hangs too low and probably doesn't close. That's a lot of work, the whole car needs to be basically built from scratch with a good parts car on hand. Of course the main thing is the driver, everything else is secondary.

-KK

 

Glad your okay - maybe you can get another '57 and put together another project.