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@Az_Rael, that NBCBayArea report and video you linked to was very interesting saying the CHP said he was in the left car pool lane before impacting the barrier and going airborn and then being struck. Still doesn't explain if he was seen avoiding a car or making a sudden lane switch or maybe something else. The fact that a number of people heard a loud explosion and thought the car had exploded also had me wondering was the sound from the impact or the batteries catching on fire and exploding. One guy did mention sparks flying up in the air.
I am puzzled what that silver canister looking thing is still. It was there on the roadway before the fire trucks arrived on the scene. Anyone recognize that as part of the X?
It is only after you have missed all the signage that it looks like this:
They could add the white stripes in the non-lane for further visibility, as well as painting the big road numbers on the road surface, which they do down here quite a bit. Either way, I would bet it is still a barrier that gets taken out a lot if the 101 is regularly stopped and this lane is open from folks trying to skim the gap.
I'm curious about the comparison of effectiveness of those metal “smart cushion” crash barriers vs the plastic barrels of sand/water - aside from looking scary to hit, the metal attenuation barrier seems relatively complex to maintain and repair - and thus perhaps more likely to sit there a week or more waiting for reset/repair after an impact? ... agree it would be tragic if that barrier had been sitting there needing a reset before this accident...
Man, that thing looks like it gets hit a LOT. At what point do you redesign the interchange? And, yes Caltrans shouldn’t be leaving it in the collapsed position for any length of time. If it takes a while to reset, they should be supplementing it with the barrels. Like the same day an accident takes it out, just bring the barrels by on a truck after the accident is cleared.
I find my dashcam video clip from 3/15/2018, which is 1 week ago, and made a possible explanation about this crush. I've been driving with both autopilot 1 and autopilot 2.5 on this part of 101 for nearly 2 years, 99% of time it works like charm with low/medium speed, I can only remember once or twice it fooled by tricky light/shadow of the bridge and pingpong around false lane markings.
But considering the crush is happening in the morning and in high speed, I suspect the following clip might provide an possible explanation of this accident, as far as I know Autopilot 1 is very dump against static object on the road.
btw, the bumper is look like this two weeks ago:
View attachment 288753 View attachment 288754
Yes, AZ, but from reports, it looks more like exploding cells after the crash as well as what may have occurred during the crash. Those things can continue like popcorn.Based on personal experience, I would say sound of the impact. When I was hit at highway speeds, a resident in the area said she heard a very loud bang which is why she walked to the road to investigate.
The have some of those on the other side of the freeway to keep people from trying to accidentally merge back onto the freeway onramp that is joined with an offramp.
View attachment 288735.
Yes, AZ, but from reports, it looks more like exploding cells after the crash as well as what may have occurred during the crash. Those things can continue like popcorn.
I used to drive this stretch daily and still do quite often. That barrier gets hit frequently so was likely already compressed. It also seems to be a hotspot for confused and bad behavior. I’ve seen cars come to a complete stop on the Y when they realized they were exiting on the wrong ramp and, especially when traffic is heavy, aggressive drivers speed up the lane they knew was wrong to pass a few more cars before diving back in to the lane they want.
People have also questioned why AEB didn’t kick in. Cars need to be able to drive within 3m/10ft of such barriers at highway speeds and the system has been tuned to allow that so it probably can’t do much about a last second lane change in front of one.
I used to drive this stretch daily and still do quite often. That barrier gets hit frequently so was likely already compressed. It also seems to be a hotspot for confused and bad behavior. I’ve seen cars come to a complete stop on the Y when they realized they were exiting on the wrong ramp and, especially when traffic is heavy, aggressive drivers speed up the lane they knew was wrong to pass a few more cars before diving back in to the lane they want. Sadly with a dead driver we may never know.
People have also questioned why AEB didn’t kick in. Cars need to be able to drive within 3m/10ft of such barriers at highway speeds and the system has been tuned to allow that so it probably can’t do much about a last second lane change in front of one.
Maybe the driver was being aggressive or maybe he he was the victim of someone cutting him off and forcing him into the barrier. It’s all speculation unless we hear from the drivers following or get some dash cam footage.
Like you and many others in this thread, I'm quite familiar with this piece of road, and like you, I've seen many people panic when they realize they're heading to 85 instead of staying on 101, and do all sorts of stupid things to get back to 101 at the last second.
I'm sure there's reasons it's designed like this, but in my opinion it's a bad design, and the fact that the crash barrier is hit so often should be an indicator that caltrans needs to do something about it. Until then, the crash barrier needs to be repaired/reset immediately after it gets hit, which from photos people have posted above, it clearly isn't.
Exactly, although the radar is quite capable of seeing the barrier, AEB systems are designed to filter out stationary objects to prevent false positives.