We were rung by Sydney friends Saturday night when they saw footage of the accident on the news and thought they recognised a grey rx8. (We travel this route about twice a month.)

Tony, rather you than my wife or my two teenage driver daughters - or even me. But the car did behave rather well overall.

Someone has asked what colour if you have a choice come replacement. Don't tell Hymee or Timbo nor dozens of others I have not met, but every time I see a red 8...

Can't believe no-one has asked yet what model mobile phone you have: mighty fine quality photographs.

The Hymee exhaust could be marketed as a safety product!

Do keep us up-to-date on NRMA's behaviour.

jack.

Well Michael...

Think of it this way... if the spare had been knocked out of the nut on its bar... and protude towards the cabin ehhhh :eek: - I hate to put my knife into your tummy my friend :o. The boot struture is strong enough though, I would not trust the cross bar on the spare wheel though - it looks like it will slap anytime

An accident that could have easily beena voided if the authorities did their job properly

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/mediapopup.aspx?MediaID=6233

Thanks for the link, AMG. It's amazing that the RTA or the police didn't manage to stop the driver after he did a runner at the inspection station.....could have saved so much carnage. Tragic that someone has now lost their life.

The interesting thing to note from Tony's pics is just how well the crumple zones worked to protect the cabin. The fact the rear end crumpled like tin foil while still allowing the doors to open, speaks highly of the engineering that went into the car.

On a different note, the truck driver will do time for this, no doubt.....

Gomez.

Thanks for the link...

A class action against the driver or RTA is looming... I guess if you are not happy with the car from NRMA, Tony, you can get what you want from RTA -... :o.

Tragic - how come some people are so stupid.

Interesting link. He will go down. Was his name "Lawless"? Pity he doesn't classify for a Darwin. But it sounds like a lot could be apportioned to various agencies of "offialdom" and their inability to prevent - after all, the whole reason for their being is founded on a duty of care to the public. Or is it revenue raising? It seems a few of them have their arse's covered, but it was just not followed through by the higher enforcement agencies.

Very sad for the victims' families.

Now drugs are part of this sad tale
 

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_...E26462,00.html

Without doubt the truck driver will have several books thrown at him...... if not a library......all of it deserved.

and I imagine so too will the RTA for playing a slow game of cat and mouse.

Definetily ahuge stuff up from the authorities :mad: , i smell a collective class action coming on .

The number of truck drivers on drugs is horrendous . :mad:

cheers
michael

Well, the NRMA have found a "replacement" RX8 at a on eof the NRMA's preferred dealers.

Yes, the policy clause says "replace your vehicle with a vehicle of the same make, model, series, type of paint and colour if it is available locally", they will also pay the 12 months rego and CTP, pity that I had just registered it a month ago and the refund goes to the NRMA.

So no statement of "new" vehicle or of condition or age of the "replacement". But "if we cannot agree with you on a replacement vehical, we will pay you: the agreed value OR the market value, depending on the cover shown on your current Certificate of Insurance". So at least I get to look and accept or refuse the "replacement", we will see. Thenif I choose not to take the "replacement", I have to meet the difference between the agreed value and the lease payout, which as it is only 1 year old is a bit of money. Damn and bugger!

Another interesting article on the truck driver's view, and comment, with a photo of the scene is attached. The truck driver is on the concrete barrier next to the semi which caused all the carnage facing the camera ... the 400 metres of carnage is behind him ....

This is indeed a "can of worms" that has been opened.

Tony.

Geez, those pics make nasty viewing. :eek: Sad to see your lovely car in such a condition, but excellent to hear that you survived OK and that the centre shell seems to have held up very well. :)

Tonym

If the owners and passengers of all the vehicles involved in the accident get together and are succesfull in taking action against the RTA and other Authorities , you should benefit financially and you should be able to own about 8 RX8S :D

cheers
michael

I agree, it is a GIANT stuff up and someone has to pay.

Tonym, I was quite bemused by a phrase in the attached articlce....

"Family and fellow truckers have rallied to his defence, saying he has been "doing it tough" since the accident, which left hundreds of people wandering the bridge in
shock."

This guy killed one person, destroyed a number of cars, caused serious physical injuries to others, and caused irrepairable emotional damage to many, directly and indirectly, on three occasions he has used fake number plates to avade authorities, drives an unregistered, uninsured and unroadworthy death machine, has tried to out run authorities.......and his mates support him coz he is doing it tough!!????!!!??!!

Mate, this guy is a criminal, he has tried to intentionally evade the law on a number of occasions leading to a trail of disaster.

I may be out of my depth here, but I thought maintenance was one of the biggest overheads in the trucking industry. This guy has obviously spent zilch on maintenance ( or insurance or rego) how can he be doing it tough if he has managed to control his overheads in such a way.

His cowboy antics tarnishes the trucking industry, even more so becasue they support him!

Reckness driving causing death has a max sentence of 15 years... see what he will get :rolleyes:

I think the scariest thing is not that this happened with one truck... rather, that this is only one of god knows how many of these maniacs who are probably driving around on our roads every single day... one person dead this time, who knows how many next time...?

Jax8,

The mobile phone is an O2 XDAII which I got the original pics of the accident scene on the bridge - it is only VGA, but the photos in the holding yard are on my wife's 4MP Pentax S4 thats why they look OK.

Cheers,

Tony.

Another update on the truckie, the police are getting some drugs found in the truck, some of which is believed to be morphine! I had my police interview today and it seems there is more stuff to come. Oh brother, how much further will this go? We already have pretty much the "worst case scenario"!

Tony.

Hmm...... the plot thickens.

:mad:

Here are a couple of articles that show that this guy was really an accident waiting to happen ... It is extremely sad that a lady had to die before the huge holes in the system were exposed. They have been there for a long time and both the RTA and the Police will hav emuch explaining to do :(

Tony.

Truck driver charge over fatal pileup
 

Truck driver charge over fatal pileup
November 11, 2004

POLICE have charged a truck driver with manslaughter over last month's multi-vehicle pileup on the Mooney Mooney Bridge north of Sydney in which a woman died.

Thirty-five cars were involved in the accident on the F3 freeway outside Gosford, on the state's central coast, on October 22.

A semi-trailer ploughed through northbound traffic which had been brought to a standstill by an earlier crash.

Fifty-two-year-old grandmother Ann Parker died when her car burst into flames.

Police today said they had charged a 45-year-old truck driver from Merewether with manslaughter, three counts of dangerous driving, negligent driving causing death, and displaying number plates and registration calculated to deceive.

He is also charged with driving an unregistered and uninsured vehicle.

The man was bailed to appear at Gosford Local Court on December 7.

I guess if anything good comes out of this it will be that this guy gets seriously punished and that the authorities have had a major wakeup call, we can only hope.

To finish of this, the NRMA replacement policy does work, I am picking up a "straight off the boat" new Winning Blue RX8 tomorrow, registered and CTP for 12 months. Exactly 3 weeks after my old Titanium RX8 was totaled and written-off.

Also on the drivers seat issue - the people from Mazda Australia have been on top of this in following up my initial email with phone calls to get the details, taking my many photos and getting the guys in Mazda Japan to look at them and evaluate the results. MA also got one of their Newcastle technicians to get some detailed photos of the seat and check the mechanism. The NRMA would not let MA retain the seat as the car was going to auction. Mazda Japan concluded that the seat stood up well considering the impact, and this was ratified by the NRMA "Salvage Disposal" people who commented that this car and its seat stood up better than other cars involved in this incident and other cars that have had similar damage. MA also said that the Australian ADR for the front seats requires that they withstand 530Newton Metres of impact torque, whereas the MJ people state that the RX8 seat is designed to withstand over 900Newton Metres.

So there it all is.

I'm now looking forward to picking up my new RX8 tomorrow and continue enjoying the driving pleasure that is the RX8.

Cheers,

Tony.

Hmmmm congrats , a nice happy ending :cool:

Interesting to hear what price the wreck will get at auction ?

cheers
michael

All the best mate...

Gomez.