Hambers in Serious Accident after Louisville

Amen , brothers and sisters . Go Kitty Kat Go!!!!!!!!!! swaZZie

 

Kool Beans Maynard! Glad to hear both of you are doing much better. If you kiddies get a HAMB thrash together for the broken cars or Megans truck let me know, sounds like a good excuse to get the hell out of Mi for a few hours and hang out with some Kool fellow hooligans. Joe

 

I too have been watching this post daily and I am glad to see that Matt and Megan are doing good...

That and shes an Ohio gal!!!!!! stubborn and awnry as all hell..I know..I'm married to one!

 

It will be awhile until we disassemble and look for the cause.
We never even considered bumping the shfter into park or reverse.
It had a stock tranny and as you can see by the pics. That baby was sticking up in the air about 3 feet. Megan hadn't mentioned hitting it before the accident. But everything happens so fast she may not even knew it happened. i hope we can find the cause.
i will update evryone on what we find as soon as we find the culprit.

 

If she bumped it in park at speed the tranny would merely make a lot of noise - I am not sure what would happen if it landed in reverse. Anyone have any first hand experience? I have thrown a rental excort in reverse at about 40 and it just shut the motor off and rolled to a stop. It didn't lock anything up or grenede the tranny. I am not sure what a th350 would do - I am sure someone on here knows though

 

I have been watching this post daily and I am glad that Matt and Megen are doing good.I do have a response to the previous question of what will happen when you shift into reverse on a TH350 the wheels do lock up just like using the brakes.This happened to me on my '33 Vicky.A friend of mine had an early 80's Mustang and his girlfriend shoved the shifter into park on the freeway because of a tantrum and he almost rolled the car.So it it possible that the wheels can lock up if the vehicle is shifted into reverse or park.Pete Joe keep us posted on what did go wrong.

 

Nick, you're right a lot of us would still be whining, and she is a tough girl! When I met them Tuesday after the accident she was already talking about getting back into a hotrod and not being afraid of roadsters! She had a very positive attitude, and even though she was still in pain, she never whined! Glad to hear she'll be going home soon and I'm looking forward to seing her putting her own two cents worth back on the HAMB! I feel very lucky to have had the good fortune to meet her and Matt. Everything happens for a reason...Keep healing girl!

 

I haven't been able to see the HAMB for a couple of days, this is the first I've heard about it. Matt & Megan, I've never met you, but you are definitley in my thoughts. As you are among literally thousands of others. Good luck.

 

Just checking to make sure everyone is doing alright....
I don't want to see this thread drop off the face of the HAMB until Megan's home & comfortable & everyone's all sorted out.

 

Thinking the good thoughts...you know that everyone that views is doing the same, whether or not they post on the thread. Would have said that sooner, but it's taken all week to read all the posts!

 

Had a friend from Conn. that I was racing at the NDRA drags in Tulsa, he miss shifted and for years was known as Spinner! Lucky for me I was loaded with aluminum and turning an earth shattering 18.25 so I was able to avoid him.

Dennis

 

Slide like a bastard. Found that out the hard way in a pickup by accident. Jay

 

Glad to hear Megan is doing well. I met her in Columbus and was shocked she remembered me in Louisville.

FWIW, I witnessed a super-pro bracket racer who's reverse lockout failed when he was shifting into third gear and the shifter went past that gear, through neutral and into reverse. At close to 110mph, the '69 Camaro's rear tires locked up and launched the rear of the car about a foot into the air, landed whilest still locked and bounced up again. The driver was smart enough and QUICK enough to realize what was going on and able to pull the shifter back into neutral before the car landed for the second bounce. He got on the brakes fast and hard and coasted through the traps at about 25mph. This was one of those weird time where I just happened to be watching the right time run at the right time to see this. Very scary and very weird. This driver was my employer's best friend too.

Even the best parts can fail too.

Vance

 

I'm glad they both are OK, HELL cars can be rebuilt... Heck thats most of the fun. Will continue to pray for ya'll.

 

My thoughts & prays go out to Megan & Matt.
I also drive a Total T & i log on alot of miles, ya get careless & happy when your on the road, But i always try to treat it like a motor cycle, very cautiously.
I have a hurst shifter with a 350/350 & i have put it into reverse at about 30 MPH , the car was traveling forward with the wheels spinning backwards, it literally felt like i was caught on a arresting cable like a plane!! I got lifted out of the seat & was looking over the windshield, so its possible something like that could have happen, I use the detents on the tranny for gears & if i hit a bum it goes into neutral sometimes.I'm sure yuz guys will find out what happen but in the meantime Get Well!!
JimV

 

Any updates?

Is Megan on her way home yet?

 

I'd heard that there was a wreck on the interstate when I got home Sundy night (after a nearly 16 hour marathon drive w/only 3 stops) and a fellow rodder called because his truck had broken down whilst trying to go around the tie-up but I didn't know who was involved (and neither dd he, at the time) until I was down at 59buickwagon's place rewiring his truck.

When he described the car this afternoon I remembered it from the Executive Inn parking lot one night when I was talking w/Matt, Meagan and a few other folks.

Things like this really suck but it's good to hear that everyone's ok.

 

We used to take rental cars and try and blow up the tannies by shifting them into reverse at highway speeds. Nothing happens because the governor negates the application of the reverse mode until the vehicle slows down enough and, then, unless the engine is racing, the car simply slows down faster.

Similarly, shoving the shifter into park at highway speeds simply wears the end off the park pawl and you usually don't have anything left when the car finally comes to a stop.

HOWEVER, We found that the only way to blow 'em up was to get the car rolling at a moderate speed, dump the shifer into neutral and race the engine THEN dump it into reverse. That'd usually crack the case.

 

Anybody heard ANYTHING?!?

 

Matt stopped by last night after Megan was taken home.
She is doing well. Really tired and sore from her ribs.
I'm sure you will hear from her as soon as she rests up.
I guess she will make a showing at the car show she was suppose to run today. Our group plans on attending it.
Matt showed me the picture of the actual accident on his cell.
It was scary looking. After seeing that its was amazing it turned out so well. I havent figured out how to download the thing from a cell phone and have been unable to get it to send to an email addy. PJ

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=124874&highlight=car+show

 

That's great news she made it home!

 

Exactly!

 

If your car will do 30 mph in first, it'll go into reverse at 30 IF the throttle is open and the rpms are high enough to overcome the counter action of the governor.

It the same situation as pulling the shifter into first whilst buzzing down the highway. If you're going too fast, the worst that'll happen is the transmission will downshift into second. Even if you floor the accelerator, it won't drop down into first until you're going slow enough for the governor to let it shift into first.

If you're off the throttle at even 20 mph and you pull it down into first you'll have to stab the throttle to get the trans to downshift.

Throttle pressure and governor pressure have to be pretty closely matched before the trans will downshift. ....or go into reverse, for that matter.

At 70 mph, I seriously doubt that the trans shifted into reverse. Something probably broke to cause it to lock up.

 

Glad to hear everyones doing ok and that Creator was watching over them both In 1974 I had a 1969 Dodge Coronet police cruiser it was built as a highway intercepter so everything was heavy duty police optioned.I had a passenger hit the shifter into reverse at 70+ on the interstate ,Now I can't say if the rear tires reversed or if the trany just locked up but before i could shift it out of reverse I left more than 80 feet of dual tire marks in the road it could be coincidence but right after this both front and rear main seals began to leak really bad like within a day or two of it happening no other problems with the trans for 2 years after this when i sold it

 

Good deal. Get back to abnormal soon

 

prayers for continued recovery...

 

i've had a TH350 go into reverse at about 70 under full throttle years back. maybe it was a fluke, but it sure as shit happened. that convinced me to never use one of the cheap shifters on a car that gets driven hard.

 

Ray - please described what happened when it did. I see conflicting reports on what would happen and can't afford a self test

Glad the girl is home and on her way to feeling better.

 

Well, here I am, back on the HAMB. At home, alive and pretty well.
I cannot begin to express how thankful I am for all of the thoughts, prayers and kind words expressed in this post, the telephone calls and cards I have received since the accident. I am truly convinced it was all of you that have made me get well so fast!

Ok, now the story...
I had drove Matt's t-bucket the 400 plus miles down to Louisville the Wednesday the nationals started without the slightest of problems. I had driven the t bucket alot since it was done, so it wasn't any big deal. I had a great time at the nationals with lots of new and old friends. We had decided to leave Sunday afternoon after the drawing and more importantly after Plowboy gave me my much deserved ride in the Lunar Lander! So after that was over we finished packing up everything and jumped in the cars. It was going to be a nice afternoon/evening so I told Matt I would keep driving the bucket and he could drive the giveaway truck. We went a few miles up the road and fueled up the cars and headed off. I had decided to be in the middle of the pack since I had a tendency to go a little faster than my friend that was trailering two cars wanted to go. So, my friend Devin was in front, me in the middle and Matt behind me.

I was cruising along at about 75 when I went over a bridge. The engine changed pitch slightly and I wasn't sure what was wrong, but the car was still moving forward. I decided that I had better slow down and pull over to check things out. I didn't want to put on the brakes since I wasn't sure what was wrong. We were ascending a hill so I figured I would just take my foot off the gas and naturally slow down. Well that all went through my mind in about three seconds. The next thing I knew the wheels were skidding and the bucket was out of control. I remember ramming into the guardrail and then my body rolling in the grass. The next thing I remember was Matt yelling my name. I was laying in some tall grass and thought he might not see me so I got up and ran up the hill so he knew where I was. I don't remember hurting, but I'm sure I was in shock. As soon as I got to the top of the hill everyone was yelling at me to lay down.

Traffic had come to stop and there were people everywhere. Within what seemed to be seconds there were people hovering over me on the ground all asking questions and yelling and talking on their cellphones. A State Highway patrolman had the nerve to ask me why I wasn't wearing a seltbelt and consequently had the seatbelt argument with me at that very moment. I think he finally saw the light though that I would have been dead if I would have been strapped to that machine. Some very nice registered nurses happened to be travelling on the highway in the traffic with me took care of me until the ambulance arrived (thanks if you are reading this, I know at least one of you was a rodder). All in all I felt pretty good. I knew there was some bleeding on my face from when I hugged Matt but wasn't sure what else was wrong. I felt like someone had kicked the wind out of me but I was still breathing. One of the nurses told me I had a really bad cut on the back of my right leg so she was compressing it. I really didn't have any pain though.

Then the ambulance came. The strapped me to one of those boards so so so tight I thought I was going to die! They also put one of those neck braces on so I was completely immobile and I HATED it. Then the biggest crime occured....they cut off my brand new Halibrand shirt that I had been wearing for a total of 8 minutes. I told them I would just take it off and not to cut it but they didn't seem to care. The lady then told me that I had to go to the hospital to get checked out. I told her I was fine but she said I at least needed some stitches. I told here I wanted to go to Cinci so I would be closer to home but she said the the helicopter would probably take me back to Louisville. Wait...did she say helicopter? Yes, she thought I needed airflighted because of my 'condition' and the type of accident I had been in. I fought with her about it but she really didn't care. So the helicopter came and landed in the middle of the freeway and they took me away all by myself. They wouldn't let any of my friends ride along.

They took me to the U of L Medical Center where a trauma team got right to work taking scans and poking me with needles. After a couple hours of tests and observation they came in and told me I was going to have my spleen removed and that they would stitch up my leg while I was under. I told them I didn't want to have surgery and that I was fine. The next thing I remember was waking up and having a nurse tell me that I needed to find a way to get comfortable to have my leg stitched up. That was the first chance I had to move with my newly cracked ribs, that was fun. She also told me the doctors had decided to just keep me under observation and not remove my spleen.

So I spent the next week in the ICU getting my blood checked every two hours and laying around. They could tell from my blood count that my spleen was ok. I have LOTS of stitches in my leg. Not sure the exact number but it took an hour and 45 minutes to stitch it shut.

I came home from the University of Louisville Hospital on Saturday afternoon. It was a long ride but I knew I would be rewarded in the end by finally being at my own house! It was nice to sleep in my own bed without being poked with needles or having tens of wires hooked up to me. Don't get me wrong, the care I received there was great, but I don't plan on going back anytime soon for more.

Thanks to TimW here on the HAMB, a Louisville native, for the visit and also bringing me the posts from the HAMB. Thanks also to the HAMBer who sent the balloons and little stuffed dog anonymously. I'm not a big stuffed animal person but it was nice to have something soft and cuddlely so far from home.
Thanks also to Denise and the rest of th HAMBers who called and posted about how I was. Huge thanks to PeteJoe for keeping you all up to date on how I was doing and for the many things he did for Matt and I back home.

And thanks to Matt. As one of the eariler posts said I have a great friend in Matt. He spent the week with me around the hospital making sure they took good care of me. I feel terrible about crashing his car and consequently causing him to crash his giveaway truck. I know cars can be replaced but I still feel really sorry.

I had plans to head out to Bonneville to look at the tankers to start work on mine but that didn't end up happening. At least I am alive to go another time. Maybe October. When I was in the hospital I was pretty bummed about it but I guess like everything else, time will help me get over it.

Well, that's enough for now. This is probably the longest post ever. So if you read it all, thanks.

I'm so thankful to be home in once piece able to post on the HAMB!

ChevyGirlRox

PS- we have a cellphone pic of the bucket rolled over the rail PeteJoe and I are trying to figure out how to post. Then you will really know what it was like!