Some claim the Japanese don’t import enough cars. After what happened on Sunday near Shimonoseki, Japan, high value imports should experience a sudden blip.
On a freeway in southern Japan, at least 10 supercars were involved in what The Telegraph calls “likely to be the most expensive car crash outside of a car racing track.” Total damage is estimated at around $4 million.
Eight Ferraris, a Lamborghini Diablo two top-of-the-range Mercedes-Benz, a Nissan GT-R and a lone Toyota Prius hybrid crashed into each other.
The drivers were members of a car collectors club with eclectic tastes. The Ferraris include a F512, F355, F430 and a F360. The Toyota Prius was collateral damage.
A report in Mainichi Press says the accident occurred on 10:15am on Sunday. The club members were en-route to a dinner in Yamaguchi. The lead driver lost control on a wet road and hit the center divider. This caused a very expensive chain reaction.
Ten men and a woman were brought to hospitals, the injuries are described as not serious.
Mitsuyoshi Isejima, the executive officer of the Yamaguchi Prefecture Expressway Traffic Police, described the drivers as “a gathering of narcissists.”
“a gathering of narcissists.”
Including the Prius driver? Ha.
Growing up watching Speed Racer might have mislead me into believing that the Japanese were better drivers than the Chinese. Perhaps I was wrong. Of course this also could easily have happened in Hollywood involving a pop-tarts and starlets supercar outing. Too much money, not enough brains.
One has to wonder why one lone car spinning out of control caused this much carnage…more money than brains, apparently. What a waste. The loss in $$ (or yen, whatever) would be moer than enough to erase all of my debt and most nearly completely fund a retirement fund…
“One has to wonder why one lone car spinning out of control caused this much carnage…”
Speed. You go fast enough, you can break anything. Especially since anecdotal reports indicate that they were going Noah’s Ark style down the road at 80-100mph.
Following to close, not enough time to react.
Oh, the humanity.
Actually, this is the first report of the accident I’ve seen that mentioned humans at all. And it referred to them as “narcissists” rather than “accident victims”.
Of course, the only thing that makes this event newsworthy (globally!) is the cost of the cars, so it’s not too surprising that news reports focus on metal instead of flesh. But isn’t it interesting that there is no mention whatsoever of whether the drivers lived or died, whether any were injured or hospitalized?
Alas, those poor cars. My heart breaks for them.
“Ten men and a woman were brought to hospitals, the injuries are described as not serious.”
Oops, I take full responsibility for my own failure to read. Sorry, Bertel.
Now let me take another look at the car wreck porn. “Ooh! Ahh! That’ll buff right out.”
Actually, the cars were what I was referring to. :-)
It would appear that the drivers were – shall we say – not up to the task of piloting their machines.
Surely this sort of thing should be applauded? People with less sense than money crash their cars and need to replace them thereby keeping Ferrari’s workers employed. If only all people could be so thoughful we might get the economy going again.
Maybe the instructor in the lead car “touched the wheel”…
I wonder if they were trying to get around that Prius when the first car lost control…
……..must have been a pretty sombre dinner when they finally got around to it. Wonder if that lead narcissist picked up the tab. The least they could have done is invited the Prius driver along (but only if he had suitable attire).
I imagine the narcissists all gathered in a circle and the Prius owner standing alone as they waited on help to arrive.
The Prius driver probably went home, wondering how he’s going to get to work tomorrow.
The super car drivers probably called their personal assistants to “take care of things” while they proceeded to have a 5 star dinner.
I am not sure about the personal assistant part… If we were talking 599s and 458s, sure, but there is some pretty old machinery here, and I am not thinking classic stuff. 355, 512 TR, sounds like cars bought second or third or fourth hand with a long and painful loan by real enthusiasts with a dream (narcissist is harsh) but well into the 99% like the rest of us (the F430 Scuderia guy beeing the exception, possibly the dealer/club organizer). That is not uncommon in Japan where some people sink a lot of money into their car at the expense of everything else. Now they are left with a couple of pictures, the bill from the trailer to the crusher and x years of paying back for their now gone precious possession, plus the scorn from the entire internet. Fortunately no blood was spilled on that stretch of road, but I would suspect a lot of tears.
JCraig,
Yeah, like in that Thanksgiving Corvette video.
Everytime I find myself driving down a rainy highway (which is often thanks to my dreary Midwestern suburban existence) and I see a long line of speeding cars flying down the road at about a car length seperation each I envision an accident like this occuring.
If you combined those visions with the many supercar daydreams I had as an eight year old, this story would be the result.
Ther must have been a lot of bowing afterwards.
More likely some serious, serious drinking.
Would have been happy if some Rauh Welt Porsches were put out of their misery.
What’s the odds that it started with the Prius driver camped out in the high speed (passing) lane trying to save the world by helping everyone get better fuel economy…
Prius owner was probably happy those gas guzzlers would be off the road if only temporarily…
From our local TV news, a Ferrari tried to pass the Prius and that got them into the big mess. I take they were in close formation, when one spun out it became a domino effect!
In the US I’d guess “quite likely”, but I don’t know what lane discipline is like in Japan. Given how many cars were taken out in succession, it’s also easy to believe that the Prius was just caught up in it.
NO THE PRIUS OWNER CLEARLY INTENDED TO CAUSE THIS ACCIDENT!
Kidding aside I do wonder if he/she had anything to do with it.
It’s obvious – the Prius’ drive train sent out an electromagnetic pulse causing the electronic throttles on the Ferraris to jam wide open causing the accident! :^)
Prius deserves many credit here for not engulf in flames upon impact.
Am I the only one who feels honestly bad for these guys? I can see an accident like this happening any day on Detroit area freeways were 55 or 70 mph is a mere suggestion, especially during the rain.
Just a few days ago a coworker and I were discussing the increasing speeds of vehicles on the left lane during rainy weather.
We came to the conclusion that aside from your big’merican trucks and SUV’s there has been an increase of Cadillac’s, Lexus, BMW’s and Mercedes going over the speed limit on water filled left lanes. This has got a lot to do with the Barcalounger driver’s seat of today’s high end vehicles, where steering, suspension and lack of road noise give you a false sense of security until you lose control of your vehicle.
No…you aren’t. I feel bad whenever I here of an accident that caused this much damage, which also could have – but fortunately didn’t – lead to death. We can make fun of people all we want for having an accident, but they can and will happen to anyone, no matter how prepared. It just takes one wrong move and bang all is lost. I fully admit that I don’t have all of the same skills as some drivers, and that my main source of defense is to slow ‘er down and don’t overestimate the state of the road or my car’s ability to intervene.
I do agree, though, that these guys were probably traveling too fast for the conditions, but wouldn’t wish a deadly – or near deadly – accident on anyone. However, we cannot say because we weren’t there.
I guess that makes two of you.
It takes more than one wrong move to drive extremely fast in very close proximity to a bunch of other speeding cars. It’s cute how you refer to the results of negligent driving as “accidents”!
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……I wonder how many narcissist Veyrons, Aventadors, and Koenigseggs made it thru that narcissist melee unscathed……probably still at their exclusive narcissist hideaway right now……….laughing their heads off at the expense of their hapless narcissist absentees……….and laying low during that Prefecture commandant’s ruthless crackdown on conspicuous narcissists.
Local enthusiasts get together all the time for “Cars and Coffee” and scheduled trips to the Tail of the Dragon in Western North Carolina. The trouble with theses types of events is one person thinks that a high speed romp through the countryside is appropriate and all the other cars follow the leader. This happened to me once in an Evo owners meet-and-greet. We all decided to go to lunnch at a distant pizza place in a caravan and next thing you know everyone is driving along at 120 MPH. It was foolish and dangerous (fortunately, no one got hurt). I don’t go to these events anymore because of this group-think lack of judgement.
+1
BTDT with Saab events too.
Are there any Prius carnage photos as well as the ones reposted in so many cropped versions?
彼らは、バフ研磨でこれを修正することができます
Good one Ronnie. Although I gotta say Google’s wording is a little stiff.
Which kind of makes it funnier now that I think about it.
A group of some of the most nimble vehicles on the road driven by enthusiasts can’t get out of each others’ way. Hubris caused this mess.
…….cause of crash….they’re on the WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD!….a dozen narcissists tailgating each other on the left side of the road in left hand drive cars was a recipe for disaster in the first place…..toss 100mph into the scenario and bingo…..worldwide notoriety. Look for an inquiry into the importation of wrong-handed vehicles soon……..and not only in Japan.