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

[69Tom]

Andy, interesting explanation there. Hopefully Jim's friend's attorney is on top of this.

Well Jim, if they part the car out, tell your friend I'm in need of a RS headlight set up if he's able to sell it and it still works.

[Canuck]

Gald to hear the driver was OK. That is one sick image.
I would have thaought that towing with a Dually would be a safe bet, however if the only contact point on that long trailer was a 2 5/16 ball that tapers down to 1 inch at the shaft then that was not enough.

There are better hitch solutions out there. This is what I use:



Hensley Arrow

[Steven J]

Wouldn't it be possible that the ball snapped as the truck rolled ? If so, can you prove that the broken ball caused the accident, or was it the accident/loss of control that caused the ball to break ?

[markjohnson]

I see that the 'ball hitch' has become the focus of this thread. Please keep us updated on the cause of this crash. I've seen trailer balls in the store that are 'quickly-interchangeable' by sliding different size diameters over a straight shank. No thanks....not for me! In fact, I have an expensive Stainless Steel ball on the back of my Duallie and sometimes I look at it and hope that it's not that same soft stainless steel that hardware store bolts are made from. Those hardware store stainless bolts are extremely soft and twist off easily. I'd hate to have a trailer hitch ball of the sale material.

[Tarrytown SS427s]

[ QUOTE ]
Wouldn't it be possible that the ball snapped as the truck rolled ? If so, can you prove that the broken ball caused the accident, or was it the accident/loss of control that caused the ball to break ?

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a good point. Regardless of the performance of the ball, it is certainly possible that a similar event would have happened even if the ball didn't break. Perhaps the circumstances leading up to the ball's failure (the jack-knifing, etc) put the load on the metal above its rating..

[Musclecarkid]

If Jim's friend found the nut and shank from that 2-5/16 ball at the scene of the accident, then it did not cause the accident. Most likely it sheared on impact with the guard rail or as it rolled in the ditch. Remember the cause of the accident was hard braking to avoid stopped vehicles, which resulted in jack knifing the truck and trailer. The whole rig hit the guard rail backwards while jack knifed. Anyone want to guess the stress factor on that 1 inch ball shank on inpact?

[JIM]

The Broken nut with the threads attached were laying on the highway in the right lane. If it had snapped when it rolled it would have been down in the mess not just laying there.

Jim

[Musclecarkid]

How far from the scene did he find it? I say it broke on impact or as it was sliding while jack knifed.

[mfchassisworks]

That car is repairable, hopefully it gets saved. Glad he didn't get seriously hurt.



Andrew

[70 Forest Green Zee]

Jim....if you have more pics that you want posted, send them to me via email and I'll be happy to post them for you.

[email protected]

Really sorry about your friends truck and Camaro....if there's any silver linning in this story, at least no one was hurt!!