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From wreckedexotics.com:
This Mercedes SLR was purchased only a day before this accident. The 23 year old son of the owner borrowed the car and managed to crash it into 3 other cars.
Details are a bit sketchy, but reports say he had a young child in the passenger seat who was slightly injured. The driver left the scene of the accident and reported back 17 hours later. He said he had to leave the scene to take the child to the hospital.
The SLR was allegedly racing a Ferrari 599 GTB at the time of the accident. The car cost about $700,000.
Location:
Warsaw, Poland
43 Comments on “What’s Wrong With This Picture: Truer Words May Never Be Spoken Edition...”
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More money than sense comes to mind for some reason.
Whatever was the owner thinking letting anyone else drive it?
Ultra high performance cars should require a special driver’s license which is as difficult to get as a private pilot’s license.
When the irresponsible Hollywood community promotes cigarette smoking, and road racing in movies like the Fast and the Furious,outcomes like these are predictable. Who should pay?
Yeah, more responsible movies would for sure prevent 23 year-olds from driving like asshats. Let’s start with something like, oh, say “Witness,” and go from there. Unless there’s a website dedicated to buggy wrecks that I’m not familiar with.
Come on.
Was it insured? if yes, I am sure some moron in Congress will now propose a bill to bail out the Insurance Industry, after this heavy hit…
haha, big trouble for that kid. I’d agree with MMH that this says nothing about society in general. How many low 20’s drivers wouldn’t put their foot down in that circumstance? This is as much the father’s mistake as anyone else’s.
This one is just as good as the Swedish guy who crashed his Ferrari Enzo racing another car in California. Accident photos show his car split in two in front of the engine. Amazing that he and the SLR driver above lived though these accidents. Even super cars are safer these days (but idiot drivers are not).
Twotone
@ Horner
Why? You can drive an exotic on the street in the same manner you can drive a Camry. Little hard to do with a plane that requires stuff like taking off and landing.
I’ll play devil’s advocate a little here (ok, a lot): Ignoring the fact that this took place in Poland, why should exotics be allowed on public streets at all? Hell, why should any vehicle that is designed to egregiously break the law be legal anywhere other than a track or other private facility? Why the hell not make cars that just go the damn speed limit and stop there? Selling a 100+ mph car to anyone who has the cash is akin to selling a full-automatic rifle to John Q with the understanding (wink wink) that you’ll never use that feature.
The truly brilliant part was bringing a child along in the front seat with him.
How late were they running to get little Sage Kipper to daycare anyhow?
If more twenty-something Pols of the late 1930’s would have been this successful at destroying heavy German equipment, WWII might have been averted.
“MMH :
September 21st, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Yeah, more responsible movies would for sure prevent 23 year-olds from driving like asshats..”
I myself was almost as irresponsible as this clown or the average 23 year old, even when I was 26, but I remember that I would CONSIDER wise advice, such as when I drove down from the Boston area to southern MA at 90+ MPH in the late 70s, and my girlfriend I was visiting at Wheaton College told me “and what if you had a flat tire at 95 MPH?”. I sure considered it.
I would consider it even more if I was shown videos of these idiot teens and 20 yr olds and bad drivers in general, in their hospital beds, with 100 broken bones and in a coma.
Similarly, these idiots who still smoke, many of whom are Teens and yougn people, would think again if they were shown how they will end if they inevitably develop emphysema and lung cancer. They will not look like the Marlboro Cowboy, but THIS was the image we associated with smoking back then (BTW, I hate the smell of smoke and never, ever smoked one cigarette in my entire life)
He didn’t die and his baby didn’t die. And that’s wrong.
Stupid genes should have been eliminated. This is one time Darwinism didn’t work fully well.
First time I ever saw a Pole hit a pole.
wsn :
September 21st, 2009 at 1:16 pm
He didn’t die and his baby didn’t die. And that’s wrong.
Stupid genes should have been eliminated. This is one time Darwinism didn’t work fully well.
I agree, except it is not stupidity but recklessness. And even the brightest smartest people make very stupid mistakes.
After all, Napoleon did invade Russia.
Dad lets son take supercar for a spin.
Son takes even younger person (his child?) along with him.
Whatever it is, it runs in that family…
Tiger Commanche :
September 21st, 2009 at 1:10 pm
If more twenty-something Pols of the late 1930’s would have been this successful at destroying heavy German equipment, WWII might have been averted.”
You sir… Win.
@ WSN
Congrats on making the driver the second-biggest asshat in this story.
I didn’t know Ferris Bueller was Polish.
Fear not, the Merc can be returned to Stuttgardt and rebuilt as good as new. I’ve seen them fix worse.
Tiger Commanche – Win. 2nd’d.
Merc could use this in an ad campaign: “If you’re planning on driving like a lunatic, then you’re safe in a Mercedes”.
Maybe they can return it to the dealership to complain that the new car smell seems off.
23 is more than old enough to drive a supercar. I bought my C6 when I was 23. It’s not an SLR, but a RWD, 400hp, 186mph, 3200lb car is more than enough to get you in trouble if you’re stupid. Just don’t be stupid. It’s really not that complicated.
@ CyCarConsulting.
If the Fast & Furious movies lead to road racing, what would WW2 movies lead to? WW3 with antiquated tactics and weapons? (In keeping with the witty WW2 comment by Tiger Commanche.)
Interesting comment about driver’s license vs a private pilot license.
Reminds me of a safety lecture we fighter types got before vacation: “Remember, if you go and fly a civilian plane, that a Cessna is slow. It can only barely kill you.”
Point? Bad drivers will manage to get into trouble in a Ferarri or a Prius. (But I know which one I’d rather……)
Yuppie :
September 21st, 2009 at 2:43 pm
If the Fast & Furious movies lead to road racing, what would WW2 movies lead to? WW3 with antiquated tactics and weapons? (In keeping with the witty WW2 comment by Tiger Commanche.)
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Fast & Furious depicts street racing as being cool and attractive. And thus it does lead to road racing.
On the other hand, WW2 movies are heavily censored. How many WW2 movies depict killing Jews as being cool? Not a single one.
The predominate political forces made sure WW2 movies show killings as a sad and bad thing. And that the allied forces are the “good people.” In that sense, these movies do have an effect: encourage young men to join the army.
wsn:
“He didn’t die and his baby didn’t die. And that’s wrong.
Stupid genes should have been eliminated. This is one time Darwinism didn’t work fully well.”
I cringed when I saw that someone had the balls to put into print something I only dare think.
And you know something? The parent of the kid will sue the driver. The driver will sue the owner. The owner will sue….
Now, that’s Darwinism…
Hollywood isn’t to blame for rash decision making. Yes, the kid made a mistake and shouldn’t have been driving like that, but in the end no one was seriously hurt and it is ridiculous to say someone should lose their life over poor youthful judgement.
WW2 movies may not in general encourage rampant murder, but their are plenty of movies that do glorify all sorts of very socially irresponsible behavior – they are also usually very entertaining.
The last thing we need is more regulation of any kind. In a free society you assume certain risks in hand with freedom. Also, anyone who still smokes, drinks heavily, makes recreational use of drugs, eats a lot of red meat and saturated fat, etc, knows the risks of it all by now. We are constantly inundated by the message that we shouldn’t do those things because they aren’t good for us. Thank God we still have the freedom to choose to do most of them if we accept the risks. Hell, not everybody wants to live till 100. I’ll take 60 years of indulgence over a century as a Mormon in a heartbeat.
On the other hand, WW2 movies are heavily censored. How many WW2 movies depict killing Jews as being cool? Not a single one.
Censorship generally involves some kind of power telling you what you can or cannot say. If an artists and filmmakers chooses a particular point of view that’s not censorship.
Nobody is preventing anyone from making a movie that says that killing Jews is cool. Actually, you can find videos on YouTube from Hamas and Hezb’allah that explicitly call for killing Jews, but nobody’s stopping a studio from making a film sympathetic to genocide.
I suppose someone could have made a film that took the opposite view of Hotel Rwanda, showing the saving of people from genocide as a bad thing.
Perhaps this is news to you but the reason why most WW2 movies don’t depict the killing of Jews as cool is that killing Jews isn’t cool.
Thankfully no one was killed. This is why we pay such horrendous insurance premiums and why they keep going up. Why would anybody hand over the keys to a fast car like this to someone this young and reckless is anyones guess.
Who are we all kidding! If I had access to an SLR when I was twenty, I probably would have bent it too! In fact, its a miracle that any of us made it through our 20’s with our minds and bodies intact!
Round Two:
Pole in Benz bends pole.
Did The Italian Job make Minis cool?
Either way, I’m going home to watch Gone in 60 Seconds. The Nick Cage version. And then steal me a Mercedes.
That ad placement at the bottom is what kills me. Unforgettable day, indeed.
I’m curious. What is the average age of a TTAC reader? Fairly young, perhaps?
Jeff Waingrow :
September 21st, 2009 at 5:06 pm
I’m curious. What is the average age of a TTAC reader? Fairly young, perhaps?
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Probably, if you look at all the Camry bashing.
NulloModo :
September 21st, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Yes, the kid made a mistake and shouldn’t have been driving like that, but in the end no one was seriously hurt and it is ridiculous to say someone should lose their life over poor youthful judgement.
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I would not have said such cruel things, if the man (not a kid by any legal definition, sorry) endangered himself in his own backyard.
But, instead, he did this on public roads. He could have killed an innocent bystander such as me. So, it’s not him vs. his safety. It’s him vs. my safety. I do wish he gets eliminated before I meet him.
How come no one is blaming Polyphony and/or Sony for encouraging speeding with the Gran Turismo series?
My whole point is censorship (in most instances) is bad, and that people need to take personal responsibilty for their actions, and not blame, of all things, Hollywood.
Watching Fast and Furious to pick up driving tips is like watching The Wedding Crashers to pick up pick up tips. You just should know better.
(I bow down to the written witticisms of Tiger Commanche and The Comedian.)
MMH: “Selling a 100+ mph car to anyone who has the cash is akin to selling a full-automatic rifle to John Q”
Forget the car, as an ordinary John Q, I want to know where I can buy a full-automatic rifle. Wal-Mart says they don’t sell machine guns.
@ ambulancechaser: You are so right!
This reminds me of when I was a teenager and a friend of mine got his dad’s German car and decided to open it up full throttle on I-75. Actually, we had to open it up full throttle – it was a Beetle. We barely managed 60 MPH and I thought we were going to be squashed by a truck. We really couldn’t get in much trouble in that car. A slow as it was, we still had a great time in it.
A friend of mine bought for his son (for his first car) a lowly, extremely used, M-B 190 diesel. I said: “WTF would make you buy a car like that?”
He said: “Think about it…”
These sorts of Baruth behaviours have the community asking “what should we do”?
Consequently, someone decides that more restrictions should be placed on the MANY because of the actions of the irresponsible FEW.
Think about it. Every time one of these clowns takes a risk on the very much SHARED road space, there is further incentive to ruin it for those of us just minding our own business.
FFS, keep it on the track!
“Think about it. Every time one of these clowns takes a risk on the very much SHARED road space, there is further incentive to ruin it for those of us just minding our own business.”
Shared space is the crux of the issue. I don’t care if someone hurts themselves by being irresponsible. I care a lot when they hurt someone who just had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Rules are needed not so much to protect us from ourselves as they are to protect us from the other guy.
wsn :
I’m curious. What is the average age of a TTAC reader? Fairly young, perhaps?
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Probably, if you look at all the Camry bashing.
I am over 60 and will happily bash your Camry.
Don’t you know Camry lovers have defective genes and should be isolated from the rest of society?