My FIL died in a car fire or so we think. Maybe had a heart attack and then the fire. No way to know. Car was at his farm field driveway in the winter. Maybe got stuck and the front drive tires caught on fire, or jammed the accelerator after a heart attack (my personal opinion). Nothing left, total char. Neighbors remember seeing smoke so lasted a long time.
For those of you who think you know the answers to everything, my SIL smelled smoke that morning 90 miles away. It was so intense she called the fire department twice to check the house. They found nothing. Like someone said thousands of years ago, there is much we do not understand.
Neither have I, but some of the ones I have seen–with just one remaining brake light (center-mounted light + one of the rear-mounted ones burned out)–would likely be bereft of brake lights in the very near future. This was never the case when we still had safety-related auto inspections in my state.
Not in that case, the car was found in a fairly deep ditch on the wrong side of the road almost laying on the driver’s side.
Years ago a few miles to the east of there 2 girls were driving into town when the driver went 20mph faster than the posted speed on a curve and went into the trees. That one caught on fire. Lets just say it wasn’t a pretty picture, according to what one of the fireman on scene told us. This was back in '94. Since then there’s been so much development that there’s a bunch of roundabouts and other measures to slow people down.
I see a few boats on trailers with no working lights. Seems like every other year I have to do something to get my boat trailer lights working.
I failed the simple test last year, both trailer lights no brake to turn signals. First thought bad ground, redid it, no go. Check voltages for lights turn and brakes, all good at the adapter on the car. The connector for the trailer I had soldered the connections, all seemed good. Finally go to check for voltage at the bulb sockets, both bulbs were blown up.
Had a couple of spare bulbs, light fixtures maybe 4 years old at most, as replaced due to failure.
Many people disconnect lights when putting in or pulling out, so I guess I will from now on. 30 Plus years, never saw that happen.
She let somebody burn to death in a vehicle. I can’t say I’m surprised with people today but still… I hope it at least was hard to stand there and watch someone potentially burned alive. Throw a landscaping rock through the window, unlock the door and pull her out!
Yeah I don’t know why but trailer lights are an on-going issue. Lots of times I end up just rewiring the thing instead of trying to find the problem. Last time the wires just kind of fell apart. I went with LEDs though which are nice. Not a boat trailer so no idea how they hold up to water.
The people at my boat storage weed wacked all around the trailer and cut the wires for the trailer lights all up. The tape had come loose and they were hanging down a bit but still!
They could’ve thrown a rock through the window, but honestly, if the flames were already that bad, they were more likely to get hurt or killed themselves than saved the driver. First thing should be calling 911 anyway.
On the road, I’ve called 911 a couple times. Once in a snow storm and called in a car that went in the ditch behind me, the girl argued with me. She said they already had that report and I said you couldn’t have because I just saw it, you’re talking about the other one. Sure these folks are trained for canned responses but still some are better than others. The 2 minutes answering all their questions while a person is burning in a car can make the difference. There is no canned answer. You do what you think best at the time.
