So, I was washing my motorcycle about an hour ago. I was very careful to shine the chrome. I stood up, turned toward the front of the house to retrieve a soft cloth with which to wipe the metallic surfaces, when I see something odd.

I saw a Honda Civic, red, going down my street at 70 mph (120kmh). This is not an odd sight. I have grown accustomed to seeing cars breaking the 45 mph (73kmh) speedlimit by upwards of 30 mph. The unusual part isthe orientation of the vehicle as it speeds down the street. It was going sideways. It had two front tires on the median, two on the street. The Honda approaches a tree. The Honda and the tree play chicken. The tree wins, and takes the Honda's engine compartment as it's prize.




(that's my house there in the back)

Seeing this, I immediately dropped what I had in my hands and headed toward the accident. About four steps into my journey, I realized I couldn't help the poor occupant very much, so I ran into the house, grabbed my phone and dialed Emergency. As I spoke to the dispatch, I went back outside. I told them what had happened, and they dispatched the fire department. By this time, back at the accident, a small crowd had gathered, and an off-duty EMT was running the show.

A few moments later the fire department arrived, prepared to pull the driver out of the mangled wreck. They came out with their chainsaws and large cutting tools, ready to pry the driver out. They soon found it was actually quite an easy task, because all they had to do was reach in through the gap previously occupied by an instrument panel and steering column and pull the driver from his seat. His seatbelt was the only obstacle.



The driver, miraculously still concious, was twisted and crushed. His legs, previously under the steering wheel, were now in the backseat, barely attached to his body.

Accordings to the fireman, he'll probably be alright, but don't expect him to walk anytime in the near (or distant) future.

The odd thing is that there is no obvious cause to the crash. He wasn't drunk, there were no other vehicles involved, and his tires were all still in decent shape (considering what had recently happened). He was driving very, very fast, and probably simply wasn't paying attention.



(Please note that I took those photos well after the driver was taken in the ambulence and things had calmed down.)

Tree > Honda

Idiots.

How much damage did the tree take?

That's the tree there in the last picture. The tree is in much better shape than the car or driver.

Ouch.

Cell Phone

Actually without all that bark there's a good chance that tree will die.

Just a sidenote. :p

Poor tree

where are the blood stains?

Something similar to this happened a few blocks from my house. Tree looked exactly like that afterward (except it was a bit thicker). Next time I drive by I should see if it's dead.

This should serve as a reminder to you retards that speed in residential neighborhoods.

Even with cell phone, it would hard to not notice that your "two front tires on the median, two on the street". I guess the world has really bad drivers.

And for those of you, hopefully very few, who say that speeding somehow increases the driver's reaction time...you fail.

Unsettling photos.

If the person had been driving a cement truck, that tree wouldn't be smiling as much.

The trees going to die anyway. Best bet would be to cut it down now, before it rots.

Yeah, a cement truck probably also wouldn't be flying through a residential area at 70 mph.

"When speeding, drive cement trucks."

Seems like he was drifting, maybe?

Poor tree...I hope its alright

Cement truck drifting? Now that would be a sight to see. Or a dump truck full of sand.

I would prefer to see a gasoline tanker try.

This should be a new motorsport. Oversized vehical drifting.

Schoolbus drifting, anyone?

Omg and we have a winner! I would pay many moneyz to see that.

Man... to loose control like that he must have been doing better than 70.

Still, that's one hearty tree.

Yeah, I would pay to see that.

so thats what you were calling about today

damn, i wish i'd have picked up

Ahh sigh that's some pretty bad damage to that tree.

Well, that's the bad thing about speeding when it's not safe too.



Kind of like that time I was hit by a car on my bike...

Seriously though, that car got owned. Hard.

I hope that tree doesn't have any deformities or injuries from the crash. It should consider hiring an attorney to see what kind of things it could get in civil court.

The tree should be fine. Even though a good portion of the bark was taken off, it's still less than one third of the circumfrence of the trunk; there should still be enough of the phloem left to "feed" the tree. Besides, it's an amber tree, which aren't very nutrient-demanding.

I doubt the driver was 'drifting' (purposely, anyway), as there are no curves on the street. It's also a rather busy street, with nearly constant traffic, so drifting there would be extremely stupid. I bet he was on his phone or fiddling with something, or just screwing around with his car, driving much too fast (which was obviously true). It is difficult to determine from the photos, but the car was riced out, and the driver looked to be around 25 years old or so.

legs barely attached to body?

Freaky.

You see kids, speeding down the street doesn't result in bigger balls. It results in tougher trees

It will rot, like Isuwen said. The bark is its primary defence mechanism, and it suffered huge damage. Of course being a tree it won't happen o/n, more likely in years.

For some reason the tree was the very first thing that I thought about when I saw the pics. Probably because it was without fault, whereas the driver most likely was purposefully causing this to himself (unless he was having some seizure, but that's a slimmer chance).

why in the hell... i hope the dude learned a lesson.

It's kind of hard not to learn a lesson when it's unlikely you won't walk again because of what you did wrong.

That is one heck of a tree

It's never supposed to be safe to speed. THAT'S WHAT SPEED LIMITS ARE FOR YOU PUTZ.

Well Baconfish speeding in open driving courses where its legal should be fine, as long as you don't go red line.

....Speeding is the act of travelling faster than the speed limit. You can't speed legally.

Oh, and courses are Private Areas, not public roads. No speed limit.

****.