Pa. man killed shortly after buying GTO

http://www.oldcarsweekly.com/article...er_buying_GTO/

 

Sad

I bet the lawyers are swarming

`

 

Well that's just a terrible thing. That article doesn't give a whole lot of info... wonder if he had it in park and the tranny slipped, or no brakes or both? Odd...

My mom had a 1968 Rambler and I remember it was idling in the driveway, and all of a sudden it was backing out the driveway and in to the ditch it went! No one in it! Damnest thing I ever saw!

 

Sad especially this time of year. But I can only hope his 65 Goat was a dream come true.

 

At least he had a ride in the car, sad but life can be that way

 

This may sound harsh. I'm sorry the guy lost his car and his life, but.

I suspect this was yet another guy trying to live out a youthful fantasy who never stopped to think that a 44 year old car does not drive, handle or act like the modern drivers he's used to.

Brake failure? 1965 GTO's had parking/emergency brakes.

Automatic trans park pawl failure? See above.

Stick shift slip out of gear? With the ignition switch off, putting it in reverse or low and popping the clutch would have stopped the car or at least slowed it.

Even with engine off, power steering can be manhandled to steer the car.

With someone behind the wheel and <keyword> thinking, this could have all been prevented.

 

When panic sets in people don't think straight. It probably had a single resevior and he may have not had time to think. The northern cars emergency brakes have a 50/50 chance that they work.

 

What a bummer post on Christmas Eve Day.

 

PA hills don't mess around. He was probably rolling pretty quickly.
61 years old. Hmm...

My old man is in his mid 60's and can't really drive my manual steering car anymore.
He also had a hard time with my reverse lockout shifter

 

Reminds me of what happened here in San Diego recently...Highway Patrolman with lots of years of service driving a loaner Lexus while his was being repaired, driving down the highway and the throttle somehow got stuck, they called 911 on a cell phone while doing 120 or so, ran out of road and hit a T in the road, all 4 in the car were killed! Question is why didn't he 1. Try turning the key off? 2. Throw the car in nuetral and let the engine blow? 3. Put the car in park and destroy the transmission? They had time to call 911 but not do any of the things that make sense, a 911 operator is not going to stop the car! They said the floor mat got stuck on the accelerator and now there is a big recall that you guys may have heard about on the cars.

 

OMG how bad does this suck. You buy a car you really wanted and die because of it and your family has to deal with it right before the holidays.

 

He owned an auto repair shop. You'd think he would know how to handle that situation. But as was said, panic sets in....

Very sad.