Tragic 69 Camaro Crash of the Year !!!!!!!

[BARNFOUND YENKO]

Ouch it hurts to look at that! As stated above glad that your friend is ok. What was the cause of the accident?

[72-SS-L48]

I am at a complete loss of words. Thank God your friend is unhurt.

-Dave

[JIM]

Well it may have been a bad ball, the trailer is a month old as was the receiver. The ball snapped clean off have both peices, as he changed lanes to avoid some idiots stopped dead all hell broke loose throwing the truck and trailer into a jackknife and pushing the drivers side thru the guardrail backards with the car and trailer rolling over him !!!!

[69Tom]

[ QUOTE ]
Well it may have been a bad ball, the trailer is a month old as was the receiver. The ball snapped clean off have both peices, as he changed lanes to avoid some idiots stopped dead all hell broke loose throwing the truck and trailer into a jackknife and pushing the drivers side thru the guardrail backards with the car and trailer rolling over him !!!!

[/ QUOTE ]

Jim--glad your friend, or anyone else, for that matter, was not seriously injured or killed. That could have easily been a fatal crash. It seems like he did a great job steering the vehicle away from the rest of traffic.

I'm guessing this is being done, but have your friend make sure a thorough investigation is being done on the cause. He may have a products liability claim against the manufacturer of the ball. While I'm not a fan of unnecessary litigation, in this case, I definitely feel it's warranted--companies can't go around selling defective towing equipment. It's not only dangerous to the driver of the towing vehicle, but also everyone else on the road.

[BUIZILLA]

the reason I asked about the ball is there were 2 incidents that I remember involving high $$$$ offshore boats having accidents due to the ball snapping at the shank taper, a couple or three years back, they were Asian made quality regardless of the stamping rating.... one accident was in the Ft Myers area and the other was out west somewhere... for insurance reasons the ball capacity rating MUST match the trailer GVWR or better... just an FYI

[BARNFOUND YENKO]

Would you guy's think this car is fixable or totaled?

[SuperNovaSS]

What a bummer. The car looks to have faired much better than the truck. Is the trailer that was used to tow the wrecked Camaro home the same one that flipped? If so, how was it checked over before putting it back ito service?
Barnfound Yenko,
Anything is fixable but I imagine it is a parts car at this point. If it is fixed I imagine it will never be the same.


Jason

[JIM]

I tow about 25,000 miles a year from here all the way to Scottsdale , Fla and everywhere and back every year with my own trucks. I am crazy rechecking everything at every fuel stop straps, tire temp, lights etc. I checked the flipped trailer out really well,it faired pretty good a couple of broken hooks where the car pulled out, dented fenders that we straightend , BUT no damage at all to the nose. The ball was still in the receiver. My buddy Jeff was shaken when I got there and he handed me a souveneir from the scene what he thought was a gaurdrail nut that had been sheared. I looked at it and commented thats the ball nut and threads. at that point the nose of the trailer was still 65 feet down burried nose first. When they hoisted it up the bank shure enough the ball was in the nose with no damage to front of the trailer at all. The safety chains were sheared as was the breakawy, but thats it. His Lawyer is looking into the ball and receiver as it was only one month old as was the trailer all being bought brand new from the trailer company. if You look at the pictures of the back of the truck you can see the receiver clearly missing the ball. He had replaced his 3 car wedge last month with this setup just to have fresh equippment and avoid the DOT hassels of the 3 car wedges as of late. I will get picts of the ball and post them.

Jim

[67L78conv]

[67L78conv]