By Chuck Woodbury
I have struggled for a month now whether to show you the video directly below. But I have decided to go ahead and do it as an excuse to deliver an important safety message. While I do not know exactly what happened here, where a motorhome is pulverized within seconds, I have an idea: that the RV blew a front tire and the driver did not know how to react. Would you? If you acted improperly and went with your natural instinct, there is a significant chance you might not survive. WATCH THE VIDEO WITH CAUTION. GRAPHIC CRASH SCENE
What horrified me so much after viewing this was how fast everything happened. The motorhome and its occupants were driving normally on a divided highway, and then, within three or four seconds, the motorhome and its occupants were obliterated by a big rig truck. One theory is that the RV driver fell asleep at the wheel. Another, which I favor, is that the motorhome blew a front tire.
Watch the video with caution
Do not watch the crash video if you are traumatized by seeing disturbing images or, in this case, video. But whether you watch or not, please do yourself a huge favor and watch this other video from Michelin described below about how to react to a front tire blowout. We show this to RVtravel.com readers at least once a year. We know from letters that some who have viewed it have been later spared from serious injury or even death.
Click here to watch the Michelin video. Then tell your friends or loved ones to watch it, too. Be sure to answer the reader poll before you watch the video. As you will see, a large number of the more than 4,500 RVtravel.com readers who responded guessed incorrectly! Not knowing what to do could have landed them in big trouble one day.
And, while I have your attention, please do not tailgate!
##RVT1152
Thank you. Good reminder I hope I never have to actually remember!
The video is a very good example why there needs to be a special license,with more restrictions than normal drivers have,for large motor home jockeys. Many of these people have no business behind the wheel of a large box sitting on a truck chassis. They cannot, or have no idea, understand why an 18 wheeler won’t stop on a dime for them.
I would add:
All new drivers must spend 8 hours of behind the wheel drive time of a large vehicle, like a 20′ box truck. So that they can experience how it feels to navigate traffic, while other drivers are cutting you off, generally being selfish and often making rude hand gestures.
Perhaps that experience will help change how people drive. Just saying. 🙂
This is what scares me about some highways. Take NV 95 along Walker Lake for instance. For several miles you have a cliff on one side dropping down to the lake. On the other side is a sheer mountain cliff going up. Nowhere to go even if you see disaster building up in front of you.
Thank you, Chuck! 🙂 I have watched tbe video numerous times and probably will continue watching it. It looks as though the motorhome was obliterated when it hit a dump truck and the pickup truck was (was nearly?) collateral damage. I suppose, given the dual hood mirrors, that a tractor-trailer rig dash camera captured the event from a great distance and subsequently drove through bits of the wreckage. The motorhome was initiallly traveling in the opposite direction (?), but crossed the median and soon blew up. 😯 Thanks again and safe travels! :-).
I thought maybe the pickup was a toad.
Could be Snayte. I could watch it 10 more times and probably have 2, 3, maybe more, ideas of what happened to what. Thanks, safe travels! 🙂
Watched this video in slow motion many time frame by frame and it looks like speed of the class A was excessive. It shot across the medium like being shot out of a cannon. Causes are many. Mechanical failure, sudden large road hazard lost control and falling asleep at the wheel, who knows. The tragedy is someone or someone’s lost their lives here.
What this does show don’t speed, the rig you drive is not build like a car and will demolish around you in a very bad situation.