| RV
Accidents
Couple
and pets escape RV fire
Glenn and Barbara
Smith, of Topeka, Kansas, were traveling with their 1999 Newmar 35' motor
home on the Kansas Turnpike when they saw smoke and pulled over to stop.
They were able to quickly remove several pets traveling with them. Flames
fully engulfed the motor home and a towed vehicle.
Firefighters estimated the blaze caused $100,000 to $150,000 damage
to both vehicles. The fire's cause and point of origin appeared to have
started in the motor home's engine or drive train.
A Ford Explorer towing a trailer suddenly swerved while traveling the inside lane of a divided highway next to a tractor-trailer truck in the outside lane. The trailer then started to sway and the entire rig went out of control, flipped, and then rolled three or four times before coming to rest upright in the median strip. Both vehicles were totaled. The driver, who was wearing a seat belt, sustained multiple injuries, including broken ribs, a collapsed lung, concussion, and numerous cuts and bruises. The roof of the Explorer, which was crushed to seat level during the rollover, formed a V-shape directly over the driver's head. Had the headrest been sheared off, as it was on the passenger side as a result of the crushed roof, the driver would surely have been killed. In retrospect, the driver believed that he may have lost control of the rig because of a draft created by the adjacent tractor-trailer, or a failure of his left rear tire. The Explorer was equipped with Firestone tires. After learning of the recall of tires of the Firestone brand and of reports that the Explorer SUV may have a tendency to roll over under certain conditions, the driver thinks these factors may have contributed to the accident.
Editor's
note:
While the Firestone tires could have played a role in causing this
rollover accident, the driver's description of the swerve and sway of
the vehicles leads us to think that improper hitching — either
wrong choice of hitch and / or faulty hitching procedure could have
been part of the problem.
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