That Garda crash
Discussion
Hi all,
I posted this on the '007 Jinx' thread, but i honestly do think it's worthy of a thread on its own 'cos I think the drivers story should be heard, for better or worse:
At the weekend I was talking to a pal who knows and used to work (until very recently) with the driver of the 'Lake' Aston and had heard the whole story from the horses mouth.
The driver maintains he wasn't driving fast and was being followed by engineers in a Punto diesel, but nevertheless the back end stepped out (an ECU glitch?) and the car crashed through the barrier, down the cliff and landed upside down in Lake Garda. The roof of the car was crushed right down to the tops of the doors as can be seen in the pics/film (the car being lifted out is on youtube), the driver was knocked unconscious and had a broken sternum. With no glass left intact, the car promptly sank, upside down and went 153 feet down.
Because the driver was unconscious he continued to breathe whilst underwater and so his lungs filled with water. When the car got to the bottom the driver regained consciousness, possibly because the pressure had burst his ear drums. If you look at the pics of the car and bear in mind it was upside down, and it was pitch black that far down, god knows how the driver got out.
The driver said he can recall standing on the bed of the lake beside the car. With water in his lungs and no or little air in them he had none of the natural buoyancy you'd expect, in fact he was possibly weighed down, and so he had to swim hard up the whole of the 153 feet.
I/we have no idea how he made it nor how he regained breath when he reached the surface, especially with a broken sternum. I understand that he should have heard yesterday whether he's to be sacked or not, but I do know he doesn't really care.
I mean you wouldn't, would you?
I posted this on the '007 Jinx' thread, but i honestly do think it's worthy of a thread on its own 'cos I think the drivers story should be heard, for better or worse:
At the weekend I was talking to a pal who knows and used to work (until very recently) with the driver of the 'Lake' Aston and had heard the whole story from the horses mouth.
The driver maintains he wasn't driving fast and was being followed by engineers in a Punto diesel, but nevertheless the back end stepped out (an ECU glitch?) and the car crashed through the barrier, down the cliff and landed upside down in Lake Garda. The roof of the car was crushed right down to the tops of the doors as can be seen in the pics/film (the car being lifted out is on youtube), the driver was knocked unconscious and had a broken sternum. With no glass left intact, the car promptly sank, upside down and went 153 feet down.
Because the driver was unconscious he continued to breathe whilst underwater and so his lungs filled with water. When the car got to the bottom the driver regained consciousness, possibly because the pressure had burst his ear drums. If you look at the pics of the car and bear in mind it was upside down, and it was pitch black that far down, god knows how the driver got out.
The driver said he can recall standing on the bed of the lake beside the car. With water in his lungs and no or little air in them he had none of the natural buoyancy you'd expect, in fact he was possibly weighed down, and so he had to swim hard up the whole of the 153 feet.
I/we have no idea how he made it nor how he regained breath when he reached the surface, especially with a broken sternum. I understand that he should have heard yesterday whether he's to be sacked or not, but I do know he doesn't really care.
I mean you wouldn't, would you?
williamp said:
scary if true, but cars dont just "step out" these days. And no software glitch would make that happen.
True, and also not true!no car just "steps out" if the driver has not done something to make it do so (even if the thing he has done is "nothing", ie, to NOT have reduced throttle angle etc), but my experience of VH platform astons is that the rear suspension does not possess a particularly linear breakaway characteristic, especially in the v12 engined cars! In combination with the lsd settings that have more locking on negative torque conditions, and less on positive torque conditions, it makes the cars really quite difficult to drive near their limits. Certainly it's not a car that you can "showboat" easily, even when driven by the best (obviously, anyone can "hang the arse out" on a nice wide runway (clarkson style) but it's a different matter on a wet narrow real road.
And also, there are "software glitches" and "software glitches"!! i.e. how aggressively has the torque reduction been calibrated etc. In my personal experience it is totally possible to spin a VH car with the traction control enabled with the application of excessive throttle angle, whereas in say a BMW 330i with DSC on, it's virtually impossible. (note use of virtually)
Ultimately, the driver is still responsible for their actions, they should be mature enough and sufficiently trained so that they know when they might be approaching the cars limits, and drive appropriately.
BUT, if you were given a DBS to deliver to Italy, wouldnt you give it a bit of a squirt when no one was looking...(be honest now ;-)
mainly i'm glad the drivers ok, he's both very unlucky, and very lucky also. I dont really think he should be fired because of it, but certainly needs a quick refresher on the Gaydon drivers course!!!
heebeegeetee said:
At the weekend I was talking to a pal who knows and used to work (until very recently) with the driver of the 'Lake' Aston and had heard the whole story from the horses mouth.
It's a nice story, but a 153 ft self recovery following serious injury ? Wrong end of the horse.The UK record for Constant weight without fins freediving (swim down to the depth, swim back up again, no fins or rope) is 'only' 167 ft.
J111 said:
heebeegeetee said:
At the weekend I was talking to a pal who knows and used to work (until very recently) with the driver of the 'Lake' Aston and had heard the whole story from the horses mouth.
It's a nice story, but a 153 ft self recovery following serious injury ? Wrong end of the horse.The UK record for Constant weight without fins freediving (swim down to the depth, swim back up again, no fins or rope) is 'only' 167 ft.
I reckon he must have been on the bed of the lake, because he said the water was pitch black, and I don't reckon he would have known which way was up without having the bed underfoot as a clue.
toohuge said:
releasing just one air bubble is usually a tell tale sign of which way is up. The figures and the story just do not add up.
In the ideal world yes. When you've just plunged to the bottom of a lake upside down, and its pitch black down there, you've been unconscious and you've broken your chest, you might not see a bubble, or indeed even think of it.The bloke I got the story from is dead reliable, and had had the story from the driver in person that week. Of course, whether a driver who has crashed a car is being totally honest, thats another matter.
Tbh, other than whether the depth is actually correct or not, i'm not sure its a story that needs much embellishment.
unfortunately Ive spoken to the guy several times, helped out on one of our N24's at Spa when it developed a problem and more recently showed me the V12 Vantage when we were at Ricard last month, he was doing a photo shoot with it. Not like he's never driven a V12 before so I wont go either way as to what caused the crash, though I'll ask him next time I see him!
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