Viper ends up in creek, man swims to safety!

[RainMaker]

This just in from the Sunday Feb 19 of the Contra Costa Times:

Danville

MAN CRASHES CAR, EMERGES FROM CREEK: A man in his 60s amazingly survived unscathed from a spin out Saturday that sent his red Dodge Viper into a gushing Sycamore Creek in Danville, police said.

The unidentified Danville resident was driving along Camino Tassajara during a Saturday afternoon hailstorm when he lost control of his car, which ended up completely submerged in the creek, said Danville police Sgt. Tom LaRocque.

With the help of a passerby, the man swam to safety. The spin-out happened around 4:15 p.m. just north of Sycamore Valley Park.

That accident was one of five that happened around the same time along icy Camino Tassajara, LaRocque said. No one was hurt in the other four accidents.

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Anybody know who this might be?

 

[Warfang]

Sounds like this story:
http://vca2.viperclub.org/forums/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=UBB14&Number=651001&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

 

[RainMaker]

Yeah, same story.

 

[Fishtail]

Glad to read he's ok sorry to hear about the car

-lou

 

[V10SpeedLuvr]

I'm still wondering why he's was worried about getting the door open if he didnt have the top on and why he was wearing his wife's mink coat (but i'm not sure I wanna know about that)

 

[starcity]

This is the guy's story I had posted. Where did you find this article? I was looking for this news segment to put along with his letter which was quite horrific. He is in good spirits and also somewhat of a comedian. Good to hear that someone can go through the horrible experience like he did and still have th balls to call me 3 days later and tell me he wants another Viper. Can't blame him I guess.

 

[wormdoggy]

Interesting........I was talking to a friend about a similar situation that happened on our local roads. Mother and daughter, tragically died in a river, cause they could not get the power windows opened and the doors were jammed.

If there is an electrical short and power loss your pretty much stuck in the car unless you have the strength to break the window? Is that right?

Patrick

 

[SRTRICKY]

Wow thats a pretty crazy story

 

[Viper Specialty]

Interesting........I was talking to a friend about a similar situation that happened on our local roads. Mother and daughter, tragically died in a river, cause they could not get the power windows opened and the doors were jammed.

If there is an electrical short and power loss your pretty much stuck in the car unless you have the strength to break the window? Is that right?

Patrick

Nope, the Viper has an auxilary way of opening the door, you just pull the handle further and it opens manually. Gen-2's have an "emergency release" on the pillar behind the window.

 

[Neil - UK]

on Top Gear they did several car sinking tests with a presenter on board, driving into in a Navy test tank with divers to hand, the best thing to do is get out as soon as the car hits the water opening the doors and scrambling out, forget the windows.

They tried waiting for the cockpit to fill to equalise the pressure then open the doors.. that didnt work.. by the time pressure had equalised the car had sunk some 30 feet to the bottom, the presenter couldnt hold his breath long enough and had to resort to air tank/mouthpeice. Recall the cars also nose dived with the weight of the engines

 

[viperrwk]

on Top Gear they did several car sinking tests with a presenter on board, driving into in a Navy test tank with divers to hand, the best thing to do is get out as soon as the car hits the water opening the doors and scrambling out, forget the windows.

They tried waiting for the cockpit to fill to equalise the pressure then open the doors.. that didnt work.. by the time pressure had equalised the car had sunk some 30 feet to the bottom, the presenter couldnt hold his breath long enough and had to resort to air tank/mouthpeice. Recall the cars also nose dived with the weight of the engines

I saw that episode and was amazed at the results and would have never guessed the right way to do it.

I didn't believe this story when I first read it in the other thread because the description was so unbelieveable, but here's the link to it on the Contra Costa Times website.

viperrwk