C3 Corvette Crash: Who Is to Blame?
Corvette Forum members attempt to figure out the cause of this C3’s demise.
Corvette Forum member spikebot 81 recently posted video from this street-corner collision that seriously damaged an unsuspecting C3 Corvette on the night of Jan. 3 in Cleburne, Texas.
If you’re emotionally connected to your Corvette, you may not want to watch this video: it’s pretty grisly. The initial collision with the truck is bad enough, but the squealing tires are startling as it jumps the curb and climbs a telephone pole guy-wire.
It is unlikely that the driver of the car was seriously injured, but the car is going to need a lot of work to be returned to proper Corvette condition.
While the thread on the forums has been a bit contentious on who caused the incident, it seems pretty straightforward to us. If you watch the video, it’s pretty clear that the pickup truck is stopped in the middle lane, and then turns across two entire lanes of traffic in order to make a right-hand turn onto the side street.
That is not only an illegal move, but it was apparently not expected by the Corvette driver. The S550 Mustang ahead of the Corvette is seriously cautious about what the truck is doing. The Corvette driver must have assumed that the truck’s turn signal indicator was on to make the move from the center lane into the left-hand lane, and continue accelerating, as is standard operating procedure.
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When the truck merged into the flow of traffic, and then immediately committed to an across-the-outside-lane maneuver, it was already too late for the C3. The driver tried to swerve out of the way of the big truck, but the rear of the car was clipped anyway, sending it into a 180-degree spin. We blame the truck, but if you feel differently, please chime in on the forums.
