Corvette passengers survive 126mph head on crash!

[CharlesInCharge]

well it wasn't 'head on', he rammed the back of a vehicle with similar weight to his own, heading in the same direction.

So, if the RAV4 was parked but facing him, would that be a "head on" collision? lol.
This is a mere semantical point. IOW, he wasn't T-boning or side swiping someone. I guess if we want to get technical it's a head to rear collision. Yet it's literally the least important point of the story where a person died, another seriously injured, a dog died, and the driver was criminally reckless...

 

[CharlesInCharge]

There's plenty of forensics and evidence to determine who was driving. Witnesses, seat position, airbag and glass evidence, fingerprints, etc. Oh and the cops found Ruggs falling out of the drivers seat at the scene.

Apparently the couple were getting hammered at a Golf resort. I wonder if it will be sued for allowing Ruggs to drive home so drunk? I wonder if it has a valet service that gave him his keys? Or bar tenders that overserved him? This will be an interesting story to follow on that angle.

 

[JeffKeryk]

There's plenty of forensics and evidence to determine who was driving. Witnesses, seat position, airbag and glass evidence, fingerprints, etc. Oh and the cops found Ruggs falling out of the drivers seat at the scene.

Apparently the couple were getting hammered at a Golf resort. I wonder if it will be sued for allowing Ruggs to drive home so drunk? I wonder if it has a valet service that gave him his keys? Or bar tenders that overserved him? This will be an interesting story to follow on that angle.

My fear is that his substantial wealth will buy him a substantial lawyer. But that's our system, I guess.
You or I would be toast, and deservedly so.

And this stuff happens every day; the only reason we are hearing about it is his profession.

 

[Chris Meutsch]

Alcohol makes you stupid. Ruggs may not even remember any of this.

The TMZ video is horrifying, right afterwards.

 

[ArrestMeRedZ]

This accident happened less than 2 miles from my house. My daughter (lives 1/2 mile from the crash) called me to warn of the road closure that was still in effect 6 hours after the crash.
The local paper reported something this morning that is amazing. Ruggs was not wearing his seat belt at the time of the accident.

 

[PimTac]

It's a unique crash, that's always amazed me. The circumstances and outcome are quite improbable, yet it happened. And they might possibly have been harmed worse with lap belts. Which also makes one wonder why car makers are so slow to incrementally implement safety. Why no rear full belts until decades after full front belts? Expense? A few dollars.

I don’t remember this. The only cases of just a lap belt in the rear was the middle portion of the seat. The outboard seats had 3 point belts just like the front.

Airbags did come later for rear passengers. That was a progression of implementing safety just like automakers adding side curtain airbags and knee airbags after the fronts were in place.

 

[vw7674]

So, if the RAV4 was parked but facing him, would that be a "head on" collision? lol.
This is a mere semantical point. IOW, he wasn't T-boning or side swiping someone. I guess if we want to get technical it's a head to rear collision. Yet it's literally the least important point of the story where a person died, another seriously injured, a dog died, and the driver was criminally reckless...

Yes, your first sentence is correct. And it would've been even worse, IF the Toyota was in motion, laws of physics being what they've been since gravity showed up. : )

 

[CharlesInCharge]

The TMZ video is horrifying, right afterwards.

Oh those are terrible videos. The poor victims. And you can see the entitled selfishness of the Corvette passengers, totally focused on their own needs and not those of the dead in the burning Toyota.

What a nightmare.

 

[PandaBear]

That Corvette driver and passenger should have died, not the Rav4 passengers they rear ended.

 

[ArrestMeRedZ]

My fear is that his substantial wealth will buy him a substantial lawyer. But that's our system, I guess.
You or I would be toast, and deservedly so.

And this stuff happens every day; the only reason we are hearing about it is his profession.

He has a very substantial lawyer, David Chesnoff. Chesnoff is the law partner of Oscar Goodman (Tony Spilatro's attorney) and has defended many high profile clients. He is probably the highest rated defense attorney practicing in the state today.
It remains to be seen if Ruggs will be able to continue to afford Chesnoff's services. From the sounds of things I don't believe he was much of a saver, and he has been fired from the Raiders.

 

[PandaBear]

The guy makes hella money. He can afford an UberBlack or a limo/town car(VIP) to his friend’s place.

I’m gonna get banned saying this but there should be a dual-mode airbag that doubles as a Claymore mine if a drunk’s behind the wheel. Too many innocent people died due to drunkards. I think Volvo worked on a sensor to detect a drunk driver. It was a fuel cell like a breathalyzer. If alcohol was detected, no start.

Every car should come with a sensor to detect drunk driver.

I think the rear end of another car is a pretty soft energy absorber compared to the front end of a car. Almost all the crash testing involves making the front of the vehicle stronger while I don't see much on improving the rear crash protection. 120mph is still very fast though and I guess he was still "lucky" to survive it.

Yes, because head on collision / hitting a tree is the problem, not rear-end usually.

So, if the RAV4 was parked but facing him, would that be a "head on" collision? lol.
This is a mere semantical point. IOW, he wasn't T-boning or side swiping someone. I guess if we want to get technical it's a head to rear collision. Yet it's literally the least important point of the story where a person died, another seriously injured, a dog died, and the driver was criminally reckless...

No, head on collision is usually either another car of similar mass hitting you head on with similar speed, so the momentum didn't transfer but both of you guys take your own momentum. This also happens if you hit something that won't move and has much more mass than your car (i.e. a concrete barrier with rebar to the foundation, or a very big tree with a lot of root to keep it down).

What happens here is this car crash into another car at a stop and they will both move forward with half the momentum, so about half of the energy (assuming similar mass on both cars), or equivalent to a head on collision of about 71% of the speed.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Wonder if the built in video cam was rolling in the Corvette? With that and the black box data (or just the black box), no lawyer is going to get this guy off for doing something illegal that caused this carnage.

 

[JeffKeryk]

Wonder if the built in video cam was rolling in the Corvette? With that and the black box data (or just the black box), no lawyer is going to get this guy off for doing something illegal that caused this carnage.

I hope you are right. I just don't think you are. All to often, it is not how guilty you are; rather it is how much justice you can buy.
My understanding is, Nevada is not a good place to get into trouble in. We'll see.

 

[4WD]

No there is zero excuse.

Who is making excuses ? … You don’t comprehend well … Blocked

 

[john_pifer]

I would say his life is pretty much over, but his problems are just beginning, prison time, lawsuits, career.

There is opportunity for the football player, Ruggs.

He has 2 choices. He can attempt to make excuses, obfuscate, defend himself, etc.

OR…he can come to the realization that he made a series of decisions that were the worst of his life, accept responsibility for his actions, show true remorse, financially compensate the victim’s family, and dedicate himself to making the country a better place by educating others about the bad decisions he made and the absolutely horrible consequences that were born from his choices.

Either way, he’s headed for a stint in prison. But the latter is the right thing to do, and would be a path to rebuilding his life, and possibly becoming quite successful again.

What he will never be able to regain, is peace, knowing that his positively moronic choices led to someone’s horrible and premature death.

But he can make a difference in the world.

What I hope I don’t see is a high-powered defense team attempting to portray Ruggs as some sort of victim of his fame and fortune and quickly-gained wealth. But it’s been tried before.

RIP and prayers for the victim’s family.

 

[ZeeOSix]

I hope you are right. I just don't think you are. All to often, it is not how guilty you are; rather it is how much justice you can buy.
My understanding is, Nevada is not a good place to get into trouble in. We'll see.

I'd like to watch that trial if it makes it to Court TV.

 

[ZeeOSix]

He has 2 choices. He can attempt to make excuses, obfuscate, defend himself, etc.

Maybe he and his lawyers will blame GM for making such a powerful car. Or maybe they could blame the woman who got killed saying she shouldn't have been on the road at that time and interfere with his "private" race track.

 

[gman2304]

Either way, he’s headed for a stint in prison

Sadly, I’m a bit skeptical. I’m betting in these times he will never serve a day in prison.

 

[The Critic]

Does it matter? That is like shooting some on and saying, I didn't know the gun was loaded.

It definitely does. Liquor liability laws exist for this reason.

 

[Gokhan]

Sad story in the news about a NFL player drunk driving his Corvette, rear-ended a Toyota RAV 4 killing that female occupant and her dog. The RAV4 caught fire, and the occupants died. The impressive part of the story is the Corvette safety. Both the driver and passenger survived, albeit with serious injuries. I didn't link to the story but you can find it online. Not intending to make this about the individual or anything other than the impressive safety of the Corvette here.

I cannot fathom the amazing safety devices in a street vehicle that allow occupants to survive 126mph (speed at which the airbags deployed)! Apparently there is information he had been traveling over 150mph.

I was once in a collision going maybe under 20mph. I was in the front seat and not belted in, and was thrown forward with force... That taught me a lesson on wearing a seatbelt because the force was impressive. Going from 126mph to 0mph instantly, is unbelievable force.

It is not as much about the safety features but the physics of a particular collision. If they hit a pole head-on at 26 mph, let alone 126 mph, the Corvette passengers would be dead. It is the g-force of the collision, which determines the danger to the occupants. In this case, the Corvette didn't see much g-force. It looks like the death in the RAV4 was caused by the fire and not much by the collision, which may have been caused by a gasoline-tank or lithium-ion battery explosion.