Cheerish the good moments and mourn the sad...
 

Occupants in both vehicles were wearing seatbelts and the air bags in the SUV deployed, police said.

A very tragic event, indeed, and also a statistic for the seatbelt advocates in this state to ponder.

Wonder how many of the seatbelt advocates “buckle-up” in their boat or lecture to their children to “buckle-up” on the bus, to and from school?

Sometimes life just takes a turn for the worse and we are reminded of how little control we, as humans, have over some events in our life.

Cheerish the good moments the Lake provides; because you just never know...

"Arrive Alive"
 

When I read this article this morning, I had never been concious of my facial expression when surfing the on-line news.

Directly upon reading the headline ("Double Fatal, mother/daughter") to this article, I noted that my eyebrows sagged, and my mouth fell to a deep frown.

Encountering one of the largest of the SUVs was bad enough; being "T-boned" reduced seatbelt use to "nearly inconsequential". "Side-impact" airbags could have made the difference. I've noted a record number of NH highway fatalities this past year.

The black marks on the asphalt indicate that the driver had the brakes locked up returning to the paved surface. This is typical of an "overcorrection".

The driver drove onto the loose surface of the road's swale "at speed", steered back to the pavement (where the front tires grabbed the better surface), throwing the rear around. The first and third skidmarks are the front tires, the 2nd and 4th are the rear. The third skidmark is light because it is the most "heavily loaded" tire (engine location, braking forces), and grabs best. I'll not opine as to the speed, but those long skidmarks can't be made at slow speeds -- even sideways.

The car was pushed sideways from the location of the scene's white-and-red sawhorse (the end of the skidmarks) to where it is resting in the photo. Not all that far, but enough.

While posting in the "Best Way to Alton" thread, I noted the two ..."getting stuck behind"... comments and thought to myself "it might be best to 'arrive alive'" but thought better of posting that.

When I get close to the Lakes Region, I get a sort of "racing home" mentality. It's a difficult urge to discipline.

I'm reminded of the Bobby Likus Car Clinic radio program "Like us? You'll Love us!" He's a circle-track auto racer, and once remarked: As an amateur racer myself, I had already reached that realization years ago.

Drive like Bobby Likus says. Wear your seatbelts.

APS or MADRASAH,

I think I'll leave the accident reconstruction to the pros and not speculate based on a one dimensional picture.

May God bless all of the people involved.

Blue Thunder

Acres,you discribed that exactly as it happened.Sad as it is,I guess the lesson to be learned is......if you should happen to drift into the shoulder,resist the urge to swerve and steer gradually onto the pavement.I know that's easy to say when you're sitting in your living room but it's very true.I've seen several accidents in recent years that were very similar.Two years ago two teenagers were killed on I-89 when they drifted to the shoulder,overcorrected and rolled over several times ,ejecting the occupants.

This is such a horribly sad and tragic accident. Everyone should take this lesson to heart so this won’t happen to yourself or a loved one. My heart goes out to their family and friends.

A couple summers ago when my son was learning to drive, we were almost to Alton, where the road no longer has a wide edge on Route 11. I was describing about a potential for an accident if you drift onto the soft shoulder. No sooner were the words out of my mouth, when a car coming from the opposite direction was a little over the line, which had him correct and hit the shoulder. Thankfully he made the correction perfectly. Talk about a lucky day.

Oh Gosh...Here's another one:
 

http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll...8137/-1/NEWS02

Happened on Rt 28 -- Barnstead -- unknown if this was a crossed-lane case.

Looks like the officer is open to lawsuit -- she should have been arrested.

BTW: 'Should have mentioned that US taxpayers had sent me to the Northwestern Institute for Northwestern's traffic accident reconstruction course.

It's not Rocket Science until lawyers -- and five-figure testimonie$ -- get involved.

:rolleye2: