The area around Quartzsite, Arizona, gets pretty busy this time of year. With the “Big Tent” RV show, and the gem show at the Quartzsite Improvement Association, traffic begins to get tricky. Sadly, Wednesday, January 17, was one of those big traffic days marked by a Quartzsite fatality accident.
Quartzsite fatality accident north on the 95
Highway crews had set up shop north of Quartzsite on Highway 95 working on the east shoulder. Signs were posted, and electronic alerts were issued. This writer received one of those alerts on his GPS. The alert indicated the potential of a one-minute delay for traffic in an area around milepost 124. It was somewhere around 2:15 in the afternoon, and I was headed up to Parker.
Heading north, a mile or so back from where the road work was set to begin, I spotted plenty of flashing lights, and traffic was backed up in the north-bound lane. A semitruck with a tall trailer was one of the vehicles stopped ahead of me in line, so seeing just what the road work was, and just how far ahead, was impossible.
When the “one-minute” delay turned into a great deal more, it should have been a warning. As traffic slowly eased ahead, and on into the oncoming lanes, things got a lot clearer. A mass of emergency vehicles and “uniforms” indicated something far more than shoulder work was going on. What looked to be a surveyor’s transit was set up—framing what was to come.
Fifth wheel—minus a great deal of its rear end
The first “out of place” vehicle was a pickup truck, pointed north in the northbound lane. A few feet ahead of it was what remained of the rear end of a fifth wheel. The fiberglass rear end of the fiver was splintered, with a fair-sized hole showing the rig’s innards. But then my eye was drawn over to the far right shoulder. What was left of a fair-sized SUV was rolled into the area off the highway.
With sketchy information provided by the Arizona Department of Public Safety, this is what we know so far. At about 1:00 p.m., it seems traffic may have stopped or significantly slowed, presumably for the shoulder work. In the lineup was the fifth wheel. Behind the fiver was the SUV. Says the initial release from the State, “vehicle #1 [apparently the pickup] rear-ended vehicle #2 [the SUV].” From the perspective of the layman, that pickup must have been traveling at a pretty high rate of speed. Continues the report about the mashup of the pickup with the SUV, “pushing the vehicle off the roadway and causing it to roll.”
But it didn’t end there. After blasting the SUV off the roadway, the pickup continued forward. “Vehicle #1,” continues the report, “then rear-ended Vehicle #3 with an attached travel trailer.”
Coach off chassis by two feet
As I was able to see clearly on my return trip from Parker, about an hour-and-a-half later, the impact on the fifth wheel was devastating. The entire coach portion of the fifth wheel was detached from the chassis, and shoved back toward the rear of the chassis by at least two feet.
My entry-level college physics classes came back clearly. Our instructor would illustrate mass and velocity reactions by using Volkswagen “Bugs” versus semi-trucks as part of the equation. The fifth wheel had plenty of mass, and part of the force of the oncoming pickup had already been absorbed by the unfortunate SUV. The “velocity” of the pickup must have been really something. Sad to say, a passenger in the SUV that was rammed off the roadway didn’t make it.
Not the first time for this stretch of highway
This isn’t the first time I’ve had occasion to end up in a fatality accident zone in this neighborhood. A few years ago, I got a frightening call from a family friend. She was heading back to Quartzsite from Parker near the same area where Wednesday’s accident happened. In her case, she was in the southbound passing lane section when her car was smashed into by an oncoming car. While the car was totaled, she came out with relatively minor injuries. Sadly, three people died in that incident, when a driver had a medical emergency and crossed the centerline, involving several other cars in the process.
In that incident, I spoke with a law enforcement officer on scene. He told me that accidents along this particular stretch of highway are relatively uncommon. But he added, “When they do happen, they’re usually real bad.”
While this week’s Quartzsite fatality accident may have been “relatively uncommon,” it’s certainly left behind a gaping wound for grieving family and friends. Our thoughts are with them. We’ll update when the detailed highway patrol accident report is made public.
##RVT1140b
I was not there for the incident above; I can only speak to my own experience towing a heavy trailer. We do not stop as fast as a little car with antilock brakes towing trailers and we have much more mass too. And far too often my required lower speed in California by 10 or 15 miles per hour has resulted in drivers of little cars pulling in front of me and slowing down rapidly to make their freeway ramp at the last moment, there were some occasions I thought for sure we were going to smash into their rear bumper. But as luck would have it, we escaped a few almost certain collisions. Just like that semi-truck trailer, small cars cannot see around or through many RV’s.
Although it says no where in the article but because of the headline are we to assume the decedent in the SUV was an RVer? Wonder how they could tell ?
Hi, Grumpy. Maybe it would have been more accurate if the title said “Quartzsite fatality accident involves RV.” But since there was someone driving it (an “RVer”), the accident technically involved them, also.🤔 Have a great day. 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
“Fatality accident” ???
Hi, Keith. An “accident which resulted in a fatality”? Does that make more sense to you? Have a great day. 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
Why are they scheduling road work this time of year when the area’s population and traffic goes up? Why don’t they schedule this during the off-season? Granted that’s no excuse for the pick-up truck, which was clearly driving way over the speed limit.
The headline wording is unfortunate and perhaps inaccurate?
Another traffic death on a highway doesn’t seem to be newsworthy. There were 117 fatal automobile accidents DAILY in the USA in 2022, all of which would be life changing for anyone involved.
Someone lost their life here. You’re not telling a “story” you’re reporting the news. Have some class.
I don’t consider clueless driving in a marked construction zone an “accident”.
Usually this ugly result as described is charged as involuntary manslaughter.
? If the SUV was behind the fiver in the lineup how’d the truck rearend the SUV? And how’d the fifth wheel sustain rearend damage if the truck hit the SUV? Who hit the fifth wheel?
The fifth wheel and the SUV were both stopped for road construction,the truck hit the SUV at a high rate of speed that he sent the SUV through the fifth wheel and rolled it off into the desert.
Why did a truck pointing north in the northbound lane look out of place? Don’t northbound trucks usually point north?
Thank you, Russ and Tina! Yikes! The truck towing the fifth wheel must have been “flying.” I wonder, too, how much attention the driver was paying to the task of driving safely; arguably very little. Very sad that someone else paid the ultimate price for the carelessness of another person. 🙁
Did you just guess what happened? There is no proof to what you reported. I went right by it right after it happened and my guess was totally different than yours. Did you see a police report before posting? Are you certain of what happened?
Hi Jack. The report was not yet made public at the time of the post. However, I did speak face-to-face with the Sergeant who is in charge of the sector. While he was off duty the day of the incident, he had been briefed by other troopers. He did what little confirmation he was allowed to do, and the quotations about ‘vehicle 1,’ etc., came straight from the Public Information Office of the state’s Department of Pubic Safety.
Be kind. One of the people killed was one of my neighbors.