Man killed, wife near death after car leaves trail of horror downtown

[quadracer111]

See, before the whole toyota thing, the majority of us has never ever even heard of having your throttle stick wide open... It happened, but hardly ever ever.

I doubt it, he was drunk, young, high powered car. Crash.

[Shadao]

Car failure..... throttle stuck wide open maybe???

Situation is pretty bad but dont be too quick to judge the driver until situation has been proven. Would explain the part in the report that says car continues on after hitting the people until it hit the concrete and came to rest and no skid marks. Throttle stuck open... inexperienced driver loses control hits people, hits stoppage then car stalls because car cant move and engine is still turning over.

just saying its a possibility.

IF the throttle had stuck open there would have been tire marks from the tires spinning, AND the car would have suffered far more severe damage... kid was drunk drove like a moronr and this is what happened

[Browny_R31]

I though the same at first, he's not guilty yet.

But then I rechecked the pictures, and man there is no way that guy wasn't doing something stupid to have the car damaged that way in downtown Ottawa. Speed limit is 50, average speed is more like 30 with all the construction on bus terminals going on at this time.

Car failure..... throttle stuck wide open maybe???

Situation is pretty bad but dont be too quick to judge the driver until situation has been proven. Would explain the part in the report that says car continues on after hitting the people until it hit the concrete and came to rest and no skid marks. Throttle stuck open... inexperienced driver loses control hits people, hits stoppage then car stalls because car cant move and engine is still turning over.

just saying its a possibility.

[Snake556]

CDGuy, that was a very well written letter!

[CelicaKidd_205]

@ CDGuy,

Damn, you hit the nail directly on the head! Well written mate!

[M13]

just look at where the accident was. He was clearly fuckingg around. PPL are so stupid (in the article)


Yeah RHD is to blame. *rolleyes*

[CDGuy]

I've sent the author of the Ottawa Sun article an email, and this is it. If anyone feels they don't agree with anything in it, feel free to let me know.

Dear Justin.

I'd like to start this off by saying my deeprest condolences go to the family of the man and woman lost in the crash last week. I lost my best friend to murder last year, and it was incredibly hard - of course I couldn't even imagine losing someone I truly love.

That being said, I drive a right hand drive car.

A black.

Nissan.

300ZX.

Fairlady Z.

The EXACT same type of car that was involved in the incident. I am 21 years old as well.

I'd like to say a few things here, if you don't mind, as I take quite a pique at your article.

1. I love my car. However, I made the mistake of buying it 2 days before said incident occured. Since I have owned this car I have been pulled over 3 times, all whilst going the speed limit (which I always follow - within a 2 to 3km/h difference) to be asked "what my intentions were with this vehicle." Do you have any idea what this is like? I lived in Japan for a year, and learned how to drive there. Yes, the roads are very different there then here, but drivers are no less co-ordinated, it's just done on the opposite side of the road. To make matters worse I am left handed which in turn makes it much more comfortable for me to drive such a type of car.

I am now a heatscore everywhere I go, and the other day I caught a man trying to key my car, and when I questioned him about it, he said "it was because I thought it was the same car in the accident".

Degradation is not a word I use lightly, yet I feel degraded by owning this car. It's my winter beater too, of all things. It's a fun project. I drive it safely. And as for blind spots, we have mirrors for a reason, correct? There is no bigger of a blind spot on a RHD automobile turning left then there is on a LHD drive automobile turning right. I do not find my car to be difficult to drive in any way.

2. Mr Banke has made the lives of RHD drivers everywhere a living nightmare since his accident. Little did he know that by getting in this accident, he not only singled out three quite likely amazing children, but he most certainly turned an entire community of car enthusiasts into what can best be described as a "gang". I'd be willing to estimate I have over 70 or so friends who drive RHD cars. Every single one is feeling the backlash of Mr Banke's actions.

We are not street racers. We are not a gang. We are not stupid teenagers, or living in a "Fast and the Furious" world. I'd say over 30 percent of the people I know who own these cars are over the age of 40.

We are simply automotive enthusiasts. Plain and straight. We discuss the things we found in the car when it was shipped here from Japan - whether it was a ten yen coin, or a bottle of perfume with Kanji/Katakana written on it. We work together as a team to try and figure out the little gremlins that can, and usually do, plague our cars. We go out for coffee, and dream of neat things to do to our cars to make them stand out from each other. We go to a racetrack... that is where we take our racing.

I'd like to end this with an apology. It's not an apology from me, it's an apology from over 10,000 RHD owners and drivers from British Columbia to the edges of Newfoundland. We are all, deeply sorry for the loss that Regnier family has gone through. We can assure you, as drivers on the road, that we take all, or more precautions to avoid accidents like this happening. We take left hand turns with caution, and we feel for the family of the Regnier's... much more then the words in this long, and somewhat overwraught email could describe. I believe I speak for all of us when we say that if it was up to us, no one who would go out and drink and drive, and show off, would be allowed behind the wheel of one of our cars. Mr Banke could very well have been driving a left hand drive 300ZX, which was sold here in America, when he crashed. It was simply his demeanor, his arrogance, and his stupidity that led to the crash, not the car.

I'm so sorry again for the loss of life in this tragedy, and I hope you can see where I, and the other owners of these cars, are coming from.

With great regard,

Steve Neill.

[hozer]

I have a bad feeling that you Ontario'ans are gonna face a ban over this. 3 children without parents and a RHD to blame, your ban looms. best of luck to you guys

The problem is, back before RHD were widely available sub 10G vehicles got you no where near the performance RHD's give you for anything less than 20+. People used to crash preludes and 240's now they crash RHD's.
(most)RHD's are cheap and (majority)RHD's are way to performance oriented for 90% of the people that buy them. Over powered vehicles and without an elevated price range to keep them out of the hands of new drivers. This is a problem.

I guarantee you if you couldn't pick up a sil, skyline, RX-7 for anything less than 20G we wouldn't have a problem, because "kids" wouldn't be able to afford them

[quadracer111]

This makes me want to rage... Yes, its clearly because the car was an import that this happened. FFS, those guys should give their heads a shake. Blindspots and passing in a rhd vehicle had NOTHING to do with this. I feel sorry for the brother, but why the hell blame the car?!? It could of easily been a lhd TT 300, its not like its a car you cant buy usdm or cndm.

[DreadedFist]

More backlash:

http://www.ottawasun.com/news/ottawa.../15429371.html

All we can do is hope that emotions don't determine the law. A twin turbo, rear wheel drive sports car being driven dangerously by its driver kills two people: It's clearly the cars fault.

No, wait...

[JZ]

More backlash:

http://www.ottawasun.com/news/ottawa/2010/09/21/15429371.html

[Snake556]

Cause EVERYONE with an RHD car is a mad dorifto king. Clearly. Ugh... People fear what they don't understand, I suppose. They see that RHD is different and it's instantly "bad" and "shouldn't be allowed." I think we should charge the gov't. with racial profiling on RHD vehicles

[DarkCaporaL]

Yup.

RHD = unsafe because you are more prone to drive like an idiot and drift downtown where there's pedestrians all over the place.

Makes perfect sense.

[quadracer111]

^^ RIP..


FFS.... More bad press.

[DarkCaporaL]

The sad part is that they are leaving 3 orphaned kids behind them... (ages 10, 14 and 15)

She passed away on Monday morning.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Woman+dies+injuries+from+Albert+stop+crash/3549965/story.html?cid=megadrop_story

Also note the last 2 paragraphs of this article:

The rear-wheel-drive 1992 Nissan 300ZX coupe is a right-hand-drive vehicle. Transport Canada began a review of such vehicles in 2006, prompted by growing safety concerns about right-hand-drive cars.

Last year, Quebec became the first province to temporarily ban further imports of the vehicles due to safety fears.

............................