9 (Possible) Traffic Accidents
Tuesday, 25th July 2006 by Alex Turnbull
This feels a little like ambulance chasing, so in no particular order, here are 9 (possible) traffic accidents.
1. Highway A13 just north of Rotterdam (there's a couple of vehicles on the hard shoulder, and traffic is backed up for a long way):
2. Belfast Spillage (first pointed out in a different thread, there seems to be some sort of spillage and water vehicles cleaning it up):
3. Traffic backed up in Moscow (definitely something holding up traffic, but it's unclear that this is an accident):
4. Blue vs. red car in the UK (my vote is for parked cars in this case actually):
5. Central reservation crossed in Australia (there seems to be a lorry in between the carriages and a couple of emergency vehicles to one side):
6. Road rage in Las Vegas (impossible to say how these cars came to rest like this, but there's definitely people having words in the street!):
7. Dallas Motorway accident (there's a car on the hard shoulder, traffic creeping past, a truck on the hard shoulder facing the wrong direction, and a couple of unidentified black marks on the road):
8. Burning car, Germany (Car is still on fire and is surrounded by firemen, there's water staining the motorway, a fire engine and hundreds of backed up vehicles to the north):
9. Jackknifed lorry, Dallas (Dallas again? Lorry appears to have jackknifed across the highway, but it seems traffic is getting past):
We sincerely hope that nobody was seriously injured in any of these incidents.
Thanks to Dirk Thiel, WRA, Wilfred van Breda, gIMpSTa, Matthew Flynn, Ant, Stephan Segraves and Dan.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
Regarding #3 – there’s an accident on southward lane – one can see medical helicopter and black burn spot. But obviously some wreckage hit cars and/or objected movement on the northward lane – two trucks are definetely not moving
I love you english people! I love the words you use like “lorry” and “carriage”! yay!
Whatever’s holding up the traffic in Moscow, there’s a big white arrow to point it out!
The two accidents in Dallas (7&9) actually took place on the same road not too far from each other. If you go east/west from each accident you’ll see that both are on the same road.
In #9 I believe the accident involved the vehicles in-front of the 18-wheeler.
Jonathan, that’s a mysterious flying arrow I think you’ll find… 😉
Cool power pylons in #8, huh?
What about the Baghdad one?
Agreed, Tim, awesome PowerLines. Now in Britain, Im pretty sure that you would close the other side, at least a lane, as the fire is in the central reservation. And in the UK I’m quite sure that the whole side of the road would be closed, not just 2 lanes of it- may seem stupid but its how its done.
rob the Baghdad one would have made 10 – and then the title would have been wrong 😀
5 is on the Bruce Hwy north of Brisbane, a notorious stretch of road, but what interests me is the wierd squareish shape just 50m north of the truck in the middle – is it the blurred rotors of a helicopter?
Your webpage is really great, fantastic job. And I agree with Anne, certain words used by englishmen are really curious, like LORRY. It took me a while to know what my teacher was talking about…
Lorry is a great word, especially when they are “articulated”.
Yes although the word “truck” was used at one point, much to my dismay.
What about ‘hard shoulder’? Are we (British i mean) the only people to use this expression? It must translate very strangely to some languages.
The long shadows inspired me to look about a bit to see if anything interesting was nearby. I found a tree farm which in and of itself was pretty cool, but flying overhead is what appears to be some kind of small plane that looks a bit loke a WWII fighter.
https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=k&hl=en&ll=51.144819,6.970882&z=19
English, like spanish has a lot of variations from Europe to America. I’m from spain and sometimes it’s not easy to understand some latin americans. They use the word “carro” for car while we say “coche”, and we use “carro” for a carriage with mules or horses. Anyway, as I see it, the most curious picture is the number 6, how those cars ended like that?
Ron Vogel, I dont think that plane is in flight
If it were on the ground, there would be a strong shadow above and to the right of the plane. I haven’t been able to spot the shadow, but given the length of the shadows for the trees and houses, and the shift to a different photo not too far to the north, it may simply not be viewable.
cookie monster, you might be. Does it mean a sharp turn?
I agree with all y’all about British English, it’s awesome. You might hear me say “bloody hell” or “blimey” because I like it.
Google updated the Netherlands just now: #1 is not visible on the map anymore.
Rob, if that were in Britain, the other carriageway would be closed by people rubber-necking, Then you would only have to wait about an half-an-hour before some prick in a BMW (probably on his mobile phone) stuffs into the back of the traffic jam.
As a former resident of N. Texas, I would like to point out that both accidents identified as “Dallas” are actually in Ft. Worth and Arlington.