Something "Twilight Zonish" about the Gawker Artist ad that came up to the left of this story....young girl in a prom like dress laying on the ground of under the trees...you could have almost combined the ad with the pic above....

One of the first things my dad told me when I began driving: "The tree always wins. Always." Hopefully no one I know will ever test that wisdom.

I agree Adplusone, I had to refresh the page several times before that particular pic came up. I doubt if the bodies in this accident were quite as pristine though.

Why can't we build cars as durable as a tree?

My dad said "It's not the speed that kills you, it's the sudden stop."

I got nothin.

@SLRSpeedshop: Barney Rubble had one!

Actually, there doesn't seem to be much mystery as to what happened here, so I'm not sure what the black box info would clear up.

Re Gawker--roll over the little arrows in the upper left corner and the pic changes, you can get rid of it that way.

This should be pretty simple to sort out.
.
1. Idiot thinks high-performance car puchase comes with free God-like driving skillz.
2. Darwinian principles take effect.

this is just like that accident a couple years ago where that 18 year old girl had some insane porsche and crashed it into a tollbooth in california. it brought up the question of why would an 18 year old be given a car like this? when i was 18, i had a 1978 subaru wagon. that was dangerous enough. science has actually proven that 18 year olds are functionally retarded when it comes to risk taking.
anyway...

@harumph: I just saw a recap of that Porsche story the other day. She took the car without permission. It was her dad's car. The carnage was pretty crazy though. File it under "at least they didn't feel much when it happened."

@HARUMPH: how about the Smart ForTwo diesel - 0-60 in 20 seconds, and the ability to kill only one passenger.

My oldest will be of permit age in a decade, maybe they'll be cheap secondhand by then.

Robert Kubica would have walked away.

Did the driver had an onboard computer?

I'm still surprised they haven't found a digital camera on one of these kids with a video record of the whole event.

@harumph: My fiancee went looking for those pictures a few weeks back. I refused to look at it. I just find that whole story too sad for words.

eeewwww! I just got the Gawker ad...tree girl next to tree car. *shudder*

@MotownWonker:

Consider yourself lucky. I keep getting the pale red-head guy with the ohface.

Freaky juxtaposition. It came up for me, too - does GA plan this?

Pale redhead ohface guy creeps me out, too. Especially the shot in the locker room where he's apparently watching an unpleasant VD film in his underwear.

That was a car? Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck...

@acarr260: @harumph:
Crazy story... insane pictures...

She wasn't given the car though, she took it without permission.

She then tried to pass a Honda (i believe) at a very high rate of speed, clipped the bumper and hit a toll booth... The toll booth barely has a sratch, whereas her head looks like one of those tubes of biscuits from Pillsbury Doughboy, the kind you pull the tab and then it *pops* open...

The police are/were/did(?) get their asses sued off for somehow letting those shots leak...

Jay Leno recovered the black box?! Cooool.

"high school physics club"??? I thought this was a cool website until I read t.h.a.t.

I think everybody would have stood a better chance if trees and cars were made of Nerf!? The people too. Why not? As it stands, I guess those poor souls' gray-matter was made of Nerf on that day.

Back in the good o'l analog days, you could just look at where the speedo stopped - case solved.

Still sad ...

So the story is apparently that this was his dads M5 - no word yet on whether he had permission to drive it or not. He was driving it for a few days prior at least. The story is really sad and spooky.

Cars keep getting faster, and rich kids (and their rich parents) are just as stupid as they ever were. This kind of thing is sad, but inevitable.

@Ellomdian: Spooky? Should we call in the Mystery Machine to pull the mask of the tree, revealing Global warming - THE TRUE KILLER OF MEN?

@harumph: She wasn't given the car. She took her dad's keys without permission. The accident was beyond horrific. Estimated speed 105 mph. I drive that toll road every day and people routinely drive 80-85 mph.

@fatbraff: And, Fatbraff beat me to it.

A point that I think is missing here is that not everybody is a speed junkie. Allow me to explain ...

One day I was late for a meeting and the thought crossed my mind as I was zipping along that not everybody that drives or even drives semi performance cars has ever actually driven over 100 mph. I decided to check this out when I got to my destination and out of eight, I was the only one.

I know that I'm preaching to the addicted here, but sometimes the 18 year old in the zippy car will never actually consider trying to hit the speedo limiter on the M5 (ok on the M5 that might be tough).

Just a zen thought for the day ...

Seriously, how many of you remember your personal moment of automotive terminal velocity more fondly than a perfectly controlled four wheel drift, bombing over a undulating, snowy Forest Service road at more the local legal limit on pavement, or finally stumbling on to the fact that the fastest line through a given corner wasn't the obvious one?

Top speed kills, conservation of momentum thrills.

Simply put, top speed kills, and conservation of momentum thrills.

@myself: impatient drunk bastard!

You know you don't need 500+ hp to get results like that even todays standard Toyotas and Ford are pushing 200 horses no sweat and that is plenty of go power for a car that people think is safe. Any kind of airbag and crumple zone is still not enough for complete safety.

why do they need a black box? It's painfully obvious he was hauling butt. Is there really going to be a difference in the stream of lawsuits to follow if he was going 95 or 155?

@Solo_Racer: here is a shot of the car against the toll-booth (no shot of the girl though... too gross)

Here's the scoop from scopes...

pics after the jump:
[www.snopes.com]

I just saw the Porsche photos, God damn, Id say her lights were put out pretty fast. No wonder her parents have sued the Highway Patrol.

After seeing those Porsche photos I'm a little surprised they arent more photos of the BMW crash

@fatbraff: DAMN YOU SNOPES!!

@htrodblder: The Porsche photos were leaked... the M5 shots were probably released.

@Adplusone:

I just got a lone tree in the dark to the left of the post.

creepy

Sadly as much as I hate looking at a train wreck, something inside "makes" me look.

For those that dare, Here are some before and after shots of Nikki C.

[www.welcometowallyworld.com]

CAUTION!!!!!!!!Just as bad if not worse than a Faces of Death clip.

@frank_rizzo:
yes
that is nasty!!

@SLRSpeedshop: we calls them morgans.