Horrific Subaru Impreza accident 4 teens killed

[joe97]

Learner's permit without adult supervision?

Driving in the middle of the night early morning?

Inexperienced?

Check, check, check. Bad combinations with bad results waiting to happen

The driver is still alive and rest of passengers are killed, what else is new

[TangoRed]

And what's your 17 year old kid doing out at 3AM?? A little parental structure goes a long way, you know. I don't know about you all, but I had a pretty strict curfew and was expected to abide by it... which I did or else my dad would have my hide. It was just engrained in me.

Sad story, especially for the families. But it'll keep happening. Stupid parents will keep buying their kids cars they can't handle and certain kids are always going to push the limits.

It's another case of some spoiled brat bringing his buddies down with him.

Peer pressure and knowledge of ways to get out of your house do a lot. I had friends back in high school who purposefully parked a certain way so they could sneak out of their house and roll their car down or up the street depending on if they were coming or going, all without the their parents knowing. Most of the time this occurred because their parents were so strict in the first place.

Sucks for sure for everyone involved.

[Turbio!]

Learner's permit without adult supervision?

Driving in the middle of the night early morning?

Inexperienced?

Check, check, check. Bad combinations with bad results waiting to happen

The driver is still alive and rest of passengers are killed, what else is new

It sounds heartless, but...play stupid games, win stupid prizes. And that goes for both the driver and the parents.

[Hawk]

Very sad.

When I think back to all the stupid risks I took with cars and motorcycles 20 years ago when I was 17 I just shake my head in amazement that I never got in to an accident.

It's strange when you're 17 the stuff you'll do that later in you're 30's and 40's you'll say, "What the hell was I thinking?"

I don't know if it's a feeling of invincibility or just not weighing the consequences, but it's a strange age for sure and we've all gone through it.

[dieselraver]

i drove past this accident when they were investigating and a few hours later when they cleaned everything up. the images I have will be forever burned in my mind. I saw chunks of flesh and blood splattered on the road. The debris field is well over 200 feet. the first picture is to get a sense of where the debris landed (some was actually behind me about 20 feet b/c i didn't bother to get my phone out) the turn is west bound and their is a sloping incline with a hidden apex, on my way back i saw he was going too fast over the apex, looks like his wheels locked up (a single skid mark going straight) he must have gone airborne b/c the skid disappeared and then there was the trees that were toppled over (about 4-6" diameter trees not giant ones) maybe 2-3 that were broken with bark removed. the body that i saw was a good 60 feet away from where the car lay in the trees.





not sure if you can tell but this second picture is at least 25 car lengths away from me

[Taran]

Bad stretch of road for high speed operation when inexperienced. The entrance and exit ramps on that stretch of the Southern Parkway are very short. The road has many curves where the dividing lines are solid white rather than dashed. There are a few blind rises where you can't see if traffic is stopped ahead. Many motorists veer out of their lanes on curves and aggressively change lanes. The Southern Parkway has a speed limit of 55 MPH like the Long Island Expressway (I-495) and even the Northern Parkway, but there is less margin to exceed the speed limit on this road.

[geofftii2002]

Peer pressure and knowledge of ways to get out of your house do a lot. I had friends back in high school who purposefully parked a certain way so they could sneak out of their house and roll their car down or up the street depending on if they were coming or going, all without the their parents knowing. Most of the time this occurred because their parents were so strict in the first place.

Sucks for sure for everyone involved.

For what it's worth, my parents were not that "strict" by most people's definitions. They taught me to be respectful of their wishes and their reasoning, and that there are consequences should I make poor decisions. I wasn't ruled over with an iron fist or anything, I was given plenty of freedom but knew that I had to earn it.

I was just brought up to be respectful to my parents and family. Sneaking out and all that other crap, sure... kids are going to do it. But so many parents waste time sheltering their kids from consequences (for fear of damaging their artificially inflated self-esteem) and the kids think they can have and do whatever they want and it'll still get a trophy at the end. There's no sense of responsibility to those around you.

Either way, I'm sure the driver's parents sue the state for building an unsafe road or something and take absolutely no shred of responsibility for what happened. I feel awful for the families of the kids who died, I can't begin to imagine their grief in a situation like this. And I feel bad for the parents of the driver, too - they got a wake up call like none other, and way too late to make a difference now. They're likely going to lose their son to jail and a lifetime of mental struggle.

All because the kid wanted a fast car...

[dieselraver]

Either way, I'm sure the driver's parents sue the state for building an unsafe road or something and take absolutely no shred of responsibility for what happened. I feel awful for the families of the kids who died, I can't begin to imagine their grief in a situation like this. And I feel bad for the parents of the driver, too - they got a wake up call like none other, and way too late to make a difference now. They're likely going to lose their son to jail and a lifetime of mental struggle.

All because the kid wanted a fast car...

and you know this car was his? and you know this wasn't a straight A student? and you know they are going to sue the state 100%?

get off your high horse. we've all made mistakes, we've all been joy riding in cars and now that we're older we look back on it and think "man was that stupid"

"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone"

[C4 A6]

Always sad when this kind of stuff happens. Wish that the kid and his friends survived so they could learn the lesson instead of just "YOLO"ing

Kid probably made in convincing argument with the parents on how safe AWD is

I love this quote from last year in a Subaru AWD thread:

Yes, the street racers generally have no clue about how a car really handles at the limits. If anything, AWD provides just enough confidence to hit that curb extra hard.

[AHFlynn]

that kid had no business being in a car like that.

in my experience, every young driver who has a wrx or an sti wrecks it. i think ive known one person under the age of 22 who kept it out of the trees long enough to sell it and buy something else and he didnt drive all that fast. one kid in my grade in high school slid off the road and hit a tree, breaking both his legs and almost dying in a fire. another kid was drunk and stoned running from the cops and hit a tree 15ft up in the air and spent a few months in a coma. there are a few more but i dont know the details, just that they dont have them anymore.

idk what it is about sti's and wrx's but everybody wrecks them.

[patrikman]

that kid had no business being in a car like that.

in my experience, every young driver who has a wrx or an sti wrecks it. i think ive known one person under the age of 22 who kept it out of the trees long enough to sell it and buy something else and he didnt drive all that fast. one kid in my grade in high school slid off the road and hit a tree, breaking both his legs and almost dying in a fire. another kid was drunk and stoned running from the cops and hit a tree 15ft up in the air and spent a few months in a coma. there are a few more but i dont know the details, just that they dont have them anymore.

idk what it is about sti's and wrx's but everybody wrecks them.

I blame Ken Block.

[C4 A6]

idk what it is about sti's and wrx's but everybody wrecks them.

It's the thrill of owning a pretty quick car with a turbo, believing that AWD can save you in any situation, and little driving experience.

[.LSinLV.]

sad but......

If I had tried to sneak out of my house at 3:30 in the am.....my parents would have killed me 1st.

seriously, where is the responsibility of the teenages, and their parents??? maybe they had one too few "time outs" in their short lives??

I did stoopid sh1t when I was a teen, but not at 3:30 in the morning during a school week.

[DMACK]

Thats like getting in a roller coaster and saying "nah i dont need the lap bar"

Ive lost a couple friends from either stupid kids who are inexperienced drivers or them not wearing their seat belt. There should be graduated licensing like in gran turismo. So new drivers are stuck with priuses and honda civics.

Not that you cant crash a prius or civic at a high rate of speed but it seems the kids with the fast cars are always the ones who are crashing them.

[dieselraver]

sad but......

If I had tried to sneak out of my house at 3:30 in the am.....my parents would have killed me 1st.

seriously, where is the responsibility of the teenages, and their parents??? maybe they had one too few "time outs" in their short lives??

I did stoopid sh1t when I was a teen, but not at 3:30 in the morning during a school week.

Monday was columbus day. schools are closed.

[C4 A6]

Ive lost a couple friends from either stupid kids who are inexperienced drivers or them not wearing their seat belt. There should be graduated licensing like in gran turismo. So new drivers are stuck with priuses and honda civics.

Japan has a system like that (if I'm interpreting their license system correctly): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_license_in_Japan

Maybe we should make our license tests tougher, really. It takes someone over a year to get their license in GB. Why can't we have that here? Oh right, because driving is a right and not a privilege

[jmj]

Three of my friends died in a similar accident when I was in high school. Mercury Capri drifted off the road on a sweeper and hit a telephone pole at more than 100 mph. Car split in half, driver and passenger thrown onto a lawn, back seat passenger remained with the rear part of the car at the pole. The front half tumbled into some guy's restoration project that was under a tarp in his driveway. The homeowner heard the impact and got out of bed to find the passenger, still barely alive, laying in his driveway convulsing. What a way to be woken up in the middle of the night.

I remember how the passenger's body, at the wake, had an obviously huge gash on the forehead covered over with wax or something and heavy amounts of makeup, and wondering why the family didn't just have a closed casket. They were all decent kids, 17 or 18 years old, just casualties of stupid choices. If there's any upside, it's that I remember them all as the young, vibrant people they were, sort of frozen in time.

[redshift]

that kid had no business being in a car like that.

in my experience, every young driver who has a wrx or an sti wrecks it. i think ive known one person under the age of 22 who kept it out of the trees long enough to sell it and buy something else and he didnt drive all that fast. one kid in my grade in high school slid off the road and hit a tree, breaking both his legs and almost dying in a fire. another kid was drunk and stoned running from the cops and hit a tree 15ft up in the air and spent a few months in a coma. there are a few more but i dont know the details, just that they dont have them anymore.

idk what it is about sti's and wrx's but everybody wrecks them.

Doubt it. I bet kids crash just as many Civics and Corolla and even *gasp* Golfs as they do Imprezas. The WRX is just a compact car with 300 pounds of extra drivetrain and a turbocharger anyway -- it's not a supercar. We did stuff that was just as dumb when we were 16 in whatever junk we had -- we were just lucky enough to not crash (or not crash as badly).

[.LSinLV.]

Monday was columbus day. schools are closed.

technically this happened Tuesday morning.....

[Old Windy]

Doubt it. I bet kids crash just as many Civics and Corolla and even *gasp* Golfs as they do Imprezas. The WRX is just a compact car with 300 pounds of extra drivetrain and a turbocharger anyway -- it's not a supercar. We did stuff that was just as dumb when we were 16 in whatever junk we had -- we were just lucky enough to not crash (or not crash as badly).

There is truth in this but still at 17 and 3:00 AM. Not sure about the rest of TCL but the most late I was allowed either weekdays and or weekends was 11:30 and only in our neighboorhod. And not even in a car. But still RIP, and hope that this 17 year old, not only heals his physical injuries but also his mental ones wich I believe will be the worst ones to deal with.

[Tiero]

This kind of stuff doesn't happen simply because a kid has a fast car. I knew a guy that nearly killed himself and a friend of mine by taking a 90* turn into a shopping plaza at 60 mph in his crv. Why did he do something so stupid? He was trying to beat his friend into the plaza. Put a group of kids together with cars and stupid things will happen regardless of what they drive.

[redshift]

There is truth in this but still at 17 and 3:00 AM. Not sure about the rest of TCL but the most late I was allowed either weekdays and or weekends was 11:30 and only in our neighboorhod. And not even in a car. But still RIP, and hope that this 17 year old, not only heals his physical injuries but also his mental ones wich I believe will be the worst ones to deal with.

You're right -- better parenting or respectful kids (one should beget the other, I'd think) would prevent a lot more of these accidents than all the electronic nannies and graduated driver-licences in the world.

On the other hand, some of my worst driving as a teen was on those late nights when I was racing home from way too far away, minutes before curfew.

[flytech78]

Stuff like this happens all the time i wonder why this story got more of a headline? Maybe because of how reckless the parents were to let there kid out so late with a hi hp car, kids gonna be dumb lets not help them....I thank god i am alive with all the dumb stuff i did with out the help of my parents.....
RIP

[DMACK]

When I was in my second year of high school my friends was dating a grade 11 and he was grade 9. Well for fun a bunch of them egged a house in the afternoon and took off in her crv. The guy started chasing them and they pulled onto the shoulder to go around the car in front and hit the dirt and rolled the car. The female driver only got a bit of whip lash and a big seat belt burn. My one friend dating the girl in the passenger seat was ejected out of the sun roof and thrown 300 feet into a farmers corn field. The other 3 girls and guys sitting in the back seat with seat belts on escaped un scarred. My other friend was sitting on a skateboard in the back storage part and held onto both oh **** handles and he was fine too. probably because hes always trained and been a tough strong ****er. Amazing that they could have stopped and delt with cleaning the guys house and instead my buddy died.

3 years ago the best guy anyone could know pulled a drunk girl off the road as they were walking in a group so she wouldnt get hit and she was screaming I want to die I want to die well he pushed her out of the way and got dragged for a km and was killed.

a month ago a girl whos a friend of mine was walking home from a bachelorette party and called her mom to pick her up as she was visiting ontario as she lived in bc. Well as her mom approached where she was going to pick up her daughter a guy stopped her and said that a girl had wandered on the road and was texting and a the guy looked down at his cd player for a qucik glance and bamm squished on the ground she was dead.


If you take proper precautions most of these tragedies can be avoided.

STUPID DECISIONS BY KIDS WILL ALWAYS BE MADE UNFORTUNATELY!!

[McBanagon]

that kid had no business being in a car like that.

in my experience, every young driver who has a wrx or an sti wrecks it. i think ive known one person under the age of 22 who kept it out of the trees long enough to sell it and buy something else and he didnt drive all that fast. one kid in my grade in high school slid off the road and hit a tree, breaking both his legs and almost dying in a fire. another kid was drunk and stoned running from the cops and hit a tree 15ft up in the air and spent a few months in a coma. there are a few more but i dont know the details, just that they dont have them anymore.

idk what it is about sti's and wrx's but everybody wrecks them.

Doubt it. I bet kids crash just as many Civics and Corolla and even *gasp* Golfs as they do Imprezas. The WRX is just a compact car with 300 pounds of extra drivetrain and a turbocharger anyway -- it's not a supercar. We did stuff that was just as dumb when we were 16 in whatever junk we had -- we were just lucky enough to not crash (or not crash as badly).

While it's true that anything can kill you....

A Corolla would have hit the tree at a lot slower rate.
I doubt five kids would have piled in a Yaris in the middle of a night for a joy ride.

[redshift]

A Corolla would have hit the tree at a lot slower rate.

Not necessarily. You can still do 80-90-100+ mph in any of those economy cars. And crash just as badly.

I doubt five kids would have piled in a Yaris in the middle of a night for a joy ride.

Weren't you ever a teenager? We used to pile 4 or 5 into my friend's Mercury LN7 when we were in HS -- and that only had 2 seats!

I'm sure it goes without saying, but if the me of today could talk to the 16-year-old me, I'd kick my ass up and down the block.

[BMP_3918]

This is why you don't give fast cars to young kids. I had a 20 year old friend who got a C63 AMG as a graduation present and he crashed it against a guard rail in the freeway. Now he has an M3, which he still drives in the same, stupid manner (taking onramps and offramps at a high rate of speed, speeding over 80mph, etc.)

[Cousin Eddie]

Save the Children! Mandatory Subaru 360s for all Learner's Permit drivers!



The thing with any teenager is, they're dumb. They think they're smart, they think they're skilled. But they aren't. We've all been there, nobody could tell us anything. Didn't matter what car it was we all wanted to "see what it would do". Hell, I pegged my 1990 Subaru Justy off the rev limiter at 155km/h in 5th gear just to see how fast it would go downhill on the highway. That's stupid fast in a small 3cyl car. So even slow cars don't make safe drivers.

Kids have been taking chances since the beginning of time. Some make it out and survive to adulthood, others don't. It's a shame but that's life and it's all part of learning and growing up.

[McBanagon]

Weren't you ever a teenager?

LOL, of course. That's what I was basing that on. I tended to show off less if I was in a slower, ordinary car.

Update - his parents just found this on their front porch. Sad, it came a day too late.

[Aonarch]

Damn and up go the premiums. I wanted one until I saw the insurance premiums!

[Tiny Voices]

Something very similar to this happened to a kid I knew from high school last Monday. He just turned 18. (I'm 20). He is a senior and he got an M3 as a first car. He crashed in a horrific fashion, at 110mph (speedometer is stuck there), the day he got it. No insurance or anything. He spent the week in critical condition. Broke his neck and had head trauma and all that good stuff. He was, however, wearing his seat belt which surely saved his life. Here is a picture of the car.

[Cousin Eddie]

Update - his parents just found this on their front porch. Sad, it came a day too late.

What is it? A book on how not to drive like an asshat?

[McBanagon]

What is it? A book on how not to drive like an asshat?

Nope, Cobb short shifter.

[Cousin Eddie]

Nope, Cobb short shifter.

See i'm all for being an enthusiast and all, hell I was ridiculously into cars my entire life.

My parents probably saved my life by encouraging me to buy a Jeep YJ as my first vehicle. Seriously. I was always into Jeeps too and my parents would tell me how stupid it would be in our winter climate to own a 240SX or anything "sporty".

I didn't get into any sports cars until age 22-23. Probably would've taken too many chances at a younger age. My parents don't give a rat's ass what I blow my money on now that I own a house and have proven I am responsible with cars, they encourage the car hobby. But to encourage short shifters, "go fast bits" etc. at 17 with a learner's permit is borderline assisted suicide. This isn't a new concept either.

[WakusPakus]

odds are he won't learn.

back in high school a kid i grew up with was drunk driving his audi with another friend - crashed it, killed the kid.

Fast foward..eh...6-7 years - pulled the boat out of the river, hear some cans fall in the parking lot - there he is - picking up his beers, drunk, locks his car, hops on a boat full of the same kids..just now grown up.