Impossible car accident - HTF could this happen!!!!??

tankman1989

tankman1989

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Car was parked with parking break firmly on & in gear (1st). It was parked perpendicuarly to the incline of the hill. 2-3 mins after parking the car was gone. Here is a diagram of the only possible path.

car.png



When I found it there was very little damage (lost side mirror & dented fender) even though it passed between 4 big trees with about a cars width between them. It coasted backwards & downhill while turning around 180 degrees. I arrived with 3 other people & it was verified that the parking brake was on and it was in gear. WTF!!??

I don't think this is possible for it to have done this by itself. There is no natural contouring for it to direct itself in the path that it did. We could track the path because of the bent over small plants and drag marks of the plants stuck under the bumper.

I know this is a little hard to visualize, but I hope you can get the idea. Does anything think it is plausible that it happened w/o human interference?
 
Yeah, I side with nline on this one. Might wanna get your parking brake adjusted a bit to tighten it maybe? Mind, I didn't know that a vehicle could go backwards whilst in 1st gear, unless you depressed the clutch.
 
The tires were straight (or darn close) and the parking brake was on above the armrest in height. We had 4 people trying to push the car with the brake at the same setting and it was impossible. Also, the car was pointing across the hill (maybe 3" drop from right side to left) but flat front to back. We tried to replicate it from the same position and it wouldn't budge while it was in gear.

With 20 years of putting the emergency brake (is there a diff between parking & E-brake?) on, I always yank it hard, and always had the same brand car - so I'm used to it. It's not something I over look as it is so simple.

Also, the E-brake is only for the rear wheels in my car I believe and it is actually much harder for it to move backwards than forwards when we all pushed it.

Oh, I guess I should have mentioned, this was the first time I ever left the car unlocked with the keys in it.

Does any of that effect the opinions?
 
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It's very possible. I had a car do pretty much the same thing. It was a 1996 Acura Integra 4 door. I just changed the brakes, went out for a test drive and everything was right. Parked the car on a hill that gently sloped to the left, going down. Parking brake up, 1st gear engaged. I got stuff out of the trunk, locked the doors walked up the driveway.. came back to the car for something I forgot.. was still there... locked it back up walked up the driveway again and smoke a cigarette. I can't see the car from the top of the driveway but I notice another driver going really slow down the road and think to myself "What's wrong with him?" then about 5 seconds later I see the most amazing sight. This happened in the fall and all the leaves are orange and just starting to fall... all the sudden I see a perfect circle of leaves falling from the tree.. almost like a firework of leaves.. and almost the entire tree is bare! "Well that was really weird!" - about 30 seconds later the slow driver comes back up the street and asks "Do you have a green car?". "Ya", I replied. "Well, it just hit a tree!" Ahhhh!!! I go running down the hill and sure enough it's my car that coasted down the hill and whacked right into a tree. Messed up the front left fender and assorted goodies. Car still drove and everything worked although the alignment was off. I ended up selling it two weeks later to a kid that knew someone at a body shop. He fixed it up and still drives it today.

Turns out the parking brake cable was breaking, but not broke.. that is to say some of the strands started popping apart but some were still holding... so the brake still worked but tension was lost as the strands broke. Was a bad day for sure. I'm just glad it didn't hit anyone or anyone's house or car - just a tree.
 
Tankman - So when you found your car at the bottom of the hill, was it still in gear with the parking brake applied?

The scenario you've presented, including leaving your keys in the car and 4 people pushing on it as a test of the brakes, really leaves us only one answer: Someone deliberately released the brake, took it out of gear, turned the key far enough to unlock the steering and gave it a shove.

Unless you also failed to mention the 75 mph winds and early ice storm that coated the driveway and hill.
 
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Didn't leave the keys in the car, Still in gear, parking brake was still applied at the bottom of the hill and WORKED afterwards! I just parked it back on the hill with the tires pointed to the curb.

No winds. :D
 
phaZed said:
Didn't leave the keys in the car, Still in gear, parking brake was still applied at the bottom of the hill and WORKED afterwards! I just parked it back on the hill with the tires pointed to the curb.

No winds. :D
Click to expand...

Oops, sorry I was referring to the OP who waited 2 hours before mentioning he left the keys in the car. :)
 
mraikes said:
Tankman - So when you found your car at the bottom of the hill, was it still in gear with the parking brake applied?

The scenario you've presented, including leaving your keys in the car and 4 people pushing on it as a test of the brakes, really leaves us only one answer: Someone deliberately released the brake, took it out of gear, turned the key far enough to unlock the steering and gave it a shove.

Unless you also failed to mention the 75 mph winds and early ice storm that coated the driveway and hill.
Click to expand...

Well I'm glad that I'm not the only one who feels this way. I said that it wasn't possible w/o human assistance and I got a line of BS explaining it. The thing is where it was parked was very far off the road and on personal property with very limited access. I left out the keys issue because the "official explanation" is that it wasn't human assisted. I wanted people to look at this from a purely physics/mechanical issue and see if it was possible instead of "of course someone did it" as was my opinion.

I'm not going to go into further details about the issue (where, who, etc) but I needed some other opinions as those telling me it was possible, though very slim chance of occurrence, were full of it.
 
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I never leave the keys in my car. I always put it in park and lock the doors. If I'm on a hill, I point the tires in the appropriate direction and put on the emergency brake. I guess it's possible that a combination of gravity and tension caused the brake to slip. But it's also possible that if the doors were unlocked and keys in the ignition, that someone tried to mess with it. However, I would think if that was the case, they would have just stolen the car and had been done with it. Unless they moved it, in plans of using it against you (eg. "I'll tell you where your car is if you give me $500). Ever seen Bait Car on TV?
 
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