Pickup plunges into the Charles
By adamg - Fri, 10/31/2008 - 7:48am.
Location
Accident
Memorial Dr.
CambridgeUnited States
42° 21' 51.4908" N, 71° 6' 57.8052" W
Around 6:15 a.m. between Western Avenue and JFK Street, Channel 4 reports, adding the driver was found soaking wet but otherwise OK.
Channel 4 also reports a driver in Charlestown was not so lucky - He was found dead beside his car after a violent crash in the tunnel on Rutherford Avenue outbound.
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How does that happen?
There is a lot of park land between Memorial Drive and this part of the Charles River. This is not a place where you swerve slightly off the road and plunge into the river.
I had to drive by this
I had to drive by this morning, it was an incline spot (I saw them pulling it out of the Charles, I need a decent small digital camera so I can take pictures of this stuff)so I can see not being able to stop once you cross over. Also it was early in the morning, and those roads tend to be fast if they are not packed. Did I mention it was also at a spot where the road curves?
Curve, incline, early morning driving fast (possibly slick road? I had ice on my windshied from the dew)= splash
Can versus Should
Sounds like another example of why driving as fast as you can is not the same as driving as fast as you should.
I'd bet somebody completely eliminated their entire margin of error and fell prey to a variability in the driving conditions. At least they lived to learn.
HEY Im not justfying it!
HEY Im not justfying it! lol
Im just explaining how it could, and probaly did happen.
I find people either drive way too fast on those two roads or way too slow. Im always finding myself between the two groups stuck behind someone going 15 around the bends on Storrow or Memorial and in front of someone who wants to go 75.
decreasing radius turn
It's a decreasing radius turn, which is a horrible design for a fast, blind corner, multi-lane road like that with a major exit coming up.
If you've never driven it before, you get half-way into the turn thinking everything is swell, and right around the bridge the radius tightens up quite a bit.
Exit?
This is Memorial Drive going by Harvard. No "exits" there, just traffic lights at JFK Street, the Weeks Bridge, and Western Ave. I don't know what bridge or curve you are referring to.
Perhaps Solar Glare too?
Eastbound+early morning=can't see shite.
Solar glare
That was true at 7:30 - 8:00 this morning, but not so much at 6:15, which was an hour before sunrise. The Channel 4 story has a photo showing total darkness, captioned "state police search..before dawn."
no traction
This is not a place where you swerve slightly off the road and plunge into the river.
Stopping distance at 40MPH on dry pavement is supposedly 120 feet including reaction delays. That's in the same ballpark as the width of the grassy area at its widest part (weeks footbridge.)
Traction in grass, particularly if it's wet with dew or the ground is soft from recent rain (ahem), is next to nill. Stopping distances could be more than double...