Dead IROC Driver

The BBQ Pit
1

Today, my family went to a cook-out/birthday party at one of my daughter’s friend’s family’s house. They live down what looked like a nice quiet backcountry road (the road looked like it’d been 15 years since it’d been last paved).

The speed limit was 35 MPH, which could’ve been 30, since there were many restricted view and hidden driveways.

After we got there, our host suggested we park closer to his workshop garage, since many more guests were due. So I started down his secondary driveway, which paralleled the main road.

Just as I started down it, two cars going the opposite direction as me came racing down the main road (going at least 50 IMO). The lead car, a black Iroc, in addition to going way too fast, was spinning out his tires, i.e., he was accelerating. Instantaneous though of mine: Assholes! Going that fast on a narrow residential road! You’re going to kill someone!

THUNK!!

Mr. Iroc had lost control, gone off the other side of the road, T-boned a guard rail (with his car as the top of the T), hit a tree, and spun back around. I hurriedly parked and ran back to the road. The driver and passengers of the other car were trying to get their friends in the Iroc to wake up. But long story short, the driver will never wake again.

Turns out, he was a neighbor from two houses down. He and his buddies were always taking the road too fast. One of the party guests said that they had put up orange cones late last night and were drag racing.

Looking at the tire marks of the Iroc, I could see that he was halfway in the wrong lane when he was doing his spin-out. Also, he’d just come around a blind curve. If one of the other guests or I had shown up a minute or two later or earlier, we would’ve been hit head on by this piece of work.

On top of that, everyone gathered was in the front yard watching the EMS and police process the scene instead of helping a little 6-year-old celebrate her birthday. Lord help her that this is what she’ll remember from her birthday. (One young guest asked why did the driver have to die. Her mom told her to look at the wreckage as the tow truck pulled it back to the road, and she’d understand.)

Afterwards, his friends started coming by to see what had happened. Some arrived in cars that were clones of the totalled Iroc. When they left, they accelerated recklessly, not learning what had caused their friend’s demise. (No, they didn’t wreck. I would’ve been perfectly poetic, though.)

I therefore pit the following:

  • Dead Iroc Driver (DID) (God rest your soul) - though living through this you hopefully would’ve learned a lesson, I think your death will teach more (not that I was hoping for your death; I was praying for you)
  • Other driver - after looking over the scene, I suggested you move your car to a driveway so the EMS could make it through. Instead of going where I directed, you drove away. (I didn’t think to get your plate number.) You and DID’s desire for speed and careless disregard for the neighborhood have left a scar on the neighbors, their children, and DID’s family.
  • County Officials - No, not the EMS/Fire/Police. The powers that be that denied the road’s residents permission to have speed humps installed. (Fast drivers had been a bane there for years.) An overwhelming majority of residents wanted them, and were willing to pay for them. For whatever fucked up bureaucratic reason, saving a few tax dollars outweighed the safety of a neighborhood.
2

Somewhere Darwin is smiling.

3

We live near the top of a winding hill which some idiots treat as a high-speed slalom course. Our complex is situated that each unit’s balcony faces away from the parking areas, so all the balconies overlook either the road or the woods. Ours is one that overlooks the road. This one afternoon, my SO was on the balcony when one of those idiots came roring up the hill in a little black coupe, crossed the center line, and struck a sedan headed in the opposite direction hard enough to spin it around at least once. The sedan had gone through a fence on the opposite side of the street and came to rest in someone’s back yard at about a 30° angle to the road, its front end pointed uphill. The driver of the coupe stopped to quickly assess the damage then took off. Some really shaken older woman came around when the county PD was taking reports; I think she lives in the condo ~10’ from where the sedan came to rest.

Just last Saturday we saw another idiot in a sports car come zooming up the hill, immediately followed by county PD. The idiot decided to do his Vin Diesel impression when our neighborhood was holding its annual community day in the park at the top of the hill.

One of these days, some fast 'n furious wannabe is going to slam into some parked cars here and end up in the morgue. Assuming the one who overshot one curve going downhill and hit three parked cars made it home.

4

What the hell is an Iroc?

5

IROC-Z

6

A couple of weeks ago I rode my R1 to work. Seattle is 100 miles away from my house. I’m on a 4/40 schedule, so my days are long. I love my R1, but a touring bike it isn’t. After about 80 miles, and after a long day, I just wanted to get home and get off of it. I’m on the freeway in Bellingham. There’s a car and a delivery truck in front of me, and the right lane is packed. No lane splitting here, so I’m stuck with it. I look over at the car at my 2 o’clock. the passenger is pantomiming rolling on the throttle and jerking back. He wants to see me wheelie. :rolleyes: First, I’m tired. Second, my backside is sore. Third, where the hell am I going to accellerate to? There are vehicles in front of me. Fourth, I have no need and see no reason why I should impress people; especially upon request. I shook my head and disappointed him.

It strikes me that if Passenger Boy were to get a bike, he’d probably end up like your IROC driver.

7

Wow! That’s exactly what the car looked like; “looked” being the operative word.

Now:

  • the driver’s door is folded in half, cutting about 2 feet into the car
  • the left front wheel is where the engine used to be
  • the engine is halfway into the front passenger seat
  • the hood is hanging one foot over the right front tire

(wish I’d had my camera; would’ve been a good object lesson for my high school students)

8

ICUR(not)OK by Klaus Nomi. Eh?

9

Just sayin…

Sure the guy was a dangerous asshole, but he’s dead now, and isn’t pitting him just a little bit piling on? :wink:

10

Suicide is a selfish act.

11

Even terminal stupidity is worthy of a rant.

Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can’t help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity

— Robert Anson Heinlein

12

Well, whaddya expect from a guy riding around on a giant mythical bird? Got what he deserved, he did!

13

Me too. Well, not really, but I certainly feel no sadness for a wreckless idiot’s death.

14

But he wasn’t wreckless. That’s the point of the OP. :wink:

15

What is it with adolescent (and even older) males and this drag racing crap? Aren’t there abandoned runways where they can do this stuff? Granted, I wasn’t above peeling out in my 4-banger Isuzu I-Mark at 16 (hitting a top speed of 55 on the highway), but giving a teenaged kid an IROC is asking for trouble. Teenaged males are notorious for being impulsive and stupid… giving them, or even allowing them to have a car that’s more engine and horsepower than anything else (if the dead driver bought it himself) is irresponsible.

I used to live in Houston, and these jackasses would convene in a parking lot in front of the Super K-Mart on Westheimer, then go out into the street and drag. Zipping around other cars and the like. If these guys want to go out like the IROC driver in the OP’s story, please do it in a place where the only lives at risk are your own.

Man, I never thought I would be advocating for speed bumps at 35, but here I am doing exactly that!

16

Well, you have to keep those damn kids from driving on your lawn!

17

Sometimes I’m amazed I survived to be 37. When I was 19 I saved up and bought a 1974 formula 400 Firebird. (in 1989).

http://ww2.collectorcartraderonline.com/morephotos.php?adId=83454080

I drag raced, I drove waaay tooo fast and did more than a handful of flat out crazy things. In retrospect, WAAAY too much car for me.

God that car was fun.

18

That comment shows you don’t have a clue as to what you’re talking about.
Comment for the OP: The dude was in some kind of road race with a friend of his, you say? Nice friend to leave his pal dead, huh?

19

Older male in this case. About 25, if I heard right.

20

Sorry, I must respectfully disagree. Road humps are the bane of emergency vehicles.