The Most Expensive Car Crash in History?

[Guest fountainhall]

I know this should not be a source of amusement, and thankfully no-one was seriously hurt. But when you have no less than eight Ferraris, a Lamborghini, three Mercedes-Benz and two other vehicles involved in one pile-up, there seems something surreal about it - the more so as it happened in Japan where you rarely see expensive European sports cars. Total losses were in the region of US$4 million. One site even claims the drivers were all foreigners!

 

The sports cars - driven in convoy by a group of automobile enthusiasts - were on their way to Hiroshima, reports Japanese newspaper The Asahi Shimbun.

 

Police say they believe the accident, which took place on Sunday, happened when the driver of one of the Ferraris tried to change lanes and hit the median barrier.

 

"A group of cars was doing 140-160km (85-100 miles) per hour," an unidentified eyewitness told Japanese broadcaster TBS.

 

"One of them spun and they all ended up in this great mess."

 

Ten people received minor injuries in the crash, police said.

 

They said some of the vehicles were beyond repair.

 

"I've never seen such a thing," highway patrol lieutenant Eiichiro Kamitani told AFP news agency. "Ferraris rarely travel in such large numbers."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16027006

Photo from AP Photo/Kyodo News

[Guest thaiworthy]

Great story, Fountainhall. I wonder why they were exceeding the speed limit. No doubt the insurance companies will balk at this, as they were breaking the law, so mebbe the owners will have to swallow the loss? Luckily for them no one was killed-- and true, it is no laughing matter. I personally witnessed a spinout from a car speeding past me and zig-zagging around other cars with similar results. My recollection is not unlike the description in this story, only this was only one speeding car, not a whole group. These drivers are not hot-rodding teenagers, you would think that people who could afford cars like this had enough savvy and common sense to behave intelligently behind the wheel. But then, wisdom knows no age boundaries. Stupid is as stupid does.

[Guest]

Not everyone who owns an expensive car is savvy. Some earn no more than is typical for the middle classes, but then spend an obscene proportion of it running some expensive car & have no other cash left.

[KhorTose]

Actually, I think the central valley of California holds the record of the most expensive crash in History. Every year we have massive car pile-up due to the tule fog that plagues the central valley. This fog is so thick that you can't see the front of your car and it can be like a solid wall where one minute you can see and the next you can't. In 2007 we had 108 cars and trucks in a pile up and similar events happen every year.

 

[kokopelli]

Great story, Fountainhall. I wonder why they were exceeding the speed limit.

 

The speed limit of those cars is about 200mph so, at 100mph, they were just idling. 555

[Guest]

555

=gogogo!

[Bob]

Actually, I think the central valley of California holds the record of the most expensive crash in History.

 

The drivers in California whizzing through some of those fogs are simply insane. I only did it once a long time ago. I didn't dare to slow down because everybody was going like a bat out of hell and you knew somebody would ram into your backside if you tried to slow down. I was desparately looking for an exit to get out of that madness but, hell, the fog was so bad you couldn't see either exit signs or exits! A not-so-thrilling white knuckle ride.

 

The Japan crash FH posts about sounds like a bunch of juvenile boneheads trying to outdo each other. It brings to mind the Thai idiom "som nam naa" which means "you get what you deserve" or "serves them right!"

[Rogie]

Looking at that photo in post number 1 I'd love to know how these cars are crash tested at the development stage. Maybe they are safer than they look but those crumpled bodies look rather pathetic. There's probably excellent driver protection but the actual bodywork has none. Sorry to be somewhat reactionary but if a convoy of Aston Martin DB6's had suffered a similar calamity, my guess is the bodywork, protected both front and back by gleaming chrome bumpers, would sustain nowhere near that degree of damage. Of course we all know owners of modern super-cars are easily able to afford 'a little local difficulty' but I think it is cynical of the manufacturers to take them for a ride like that.

[Rogie]

Every year we have massive car pile-up due to the tule fog that plagues the central valley.

 

The drivers in California whizzing through some of those fogs are simply insane.

 

What's a 'tule' fog

 

I don't wish to make light of those occasional accidents, but as a native of dull and boring British weather (and it's excellent road safety record) I'd swap that for the glorious California climate and its sun-ripened fogs any day!

[KhorTose]

What's a 'tule' fog

Tule fog is a radiation fog, which condenses when there is a high relative humidity (typically after a heavy rain), calm winds, and rapid cooling during the night. The nights are longer in the winter months, which creates rapid ground cooling, and thereby a pronounced temperature inversion at a low altitude.

 

In California, tule fog can extend from Bakersfield to Red Bluff. Tule fog occasionally drifts as far west as the San Francisco Bay Area, even drifting westward out the Golden Gate, opposite to the usual course of summertime ocean fog.

 

It is formed when cold mountain air flows downslope into the valley during the night, pooling in the low areas until it fills the valley to the "brim" formed by the Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada. This occurs because most areas in the Great Central Valley have little or no air drainage below the level of mountain passes. Because of the density of the cold air in the winter, winds are not able to dislodge the fog and the high pressure of the warmer air above the mountaintops presses down on the cold air trapped in the valley, resulting in a dense, immobile fog that can last for days or at times for weeks undisturbed. Tule fog often contains light drizzle or freezing drizzle where temperatures are sufficiently cold.

 

Visibility in tule fog is usually less than an eighth of a mile (about 600 feet or 200 meters), but can be as little as a foot (about 30 cm.) Visibility can vary rapidly; in only a few feet visibility can go from 10 feet to near zero.^[1] The variability in visibility is the cause of many chain-reaction pile-ups on roads and freeways. In one such accident on Interstate 5 near Elk Grove south of Sacramento, 25 cars and 12 big-rig trucks collided inside a fog bank in December 1997. Five people died and 28 were injured. In February 2002, two people were killed in an 80-plus car pile-up on State Route 99 between Kingsburg and Selma. The visibility at the time of the accident was zero. On the morning of November 3, 2007, heavy tule fog caused a massive pile-up that included 108 passenger vehicles and 18 big rig trucks on Northbound State Route 99 between Fowler and Fresno. Visibility was about 200 feet at the time of the accident. There were two fatalities and 39 injuries in the crash.^[2]

 

 

^[/url]

 

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tule_fog}

 

 

[Rogie]

. . .resulting in a dense, immobile fog that can last for days or at times for weeks undisturbed. Tule fog often contains light drizzle or freezing drizzle where temperatures are sufficiently cold.

I've changed my mind! Not worth swapping my British weather for

 

 

 

[Rogie]

Interesting article

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15820069

[ChristianPFC]

There was a car crash in Germany, I remember the article in the newspaper because it went something like this: an illegal immigrant who drove drunk in a stolen car and overtook exceeding the speed limit crashed into a tank lorry. The tank lorry burned down and as this took plance on a bridge or under a bridge, the bridge was damaged and had to be replaced. The article mentioned that this was the most expensive car accident in Germany, but I don't remember the cost and the year it took place.

[ChristianPFC]

There was a car crash in Germany, I remember the article in the newspaper because it went something like this: an illegal immigrant who drove drunk in a stolen car and overtook exceeding the speed limit crashed into a tank lorry. The tank lorry burned down and as this took plance on a bridge or under a bridge, the bridge was damaged and had to be replaced. The article mentioned that this was the most expensive car accident in Germany, but I don't remember the cost and the year it took place.