P.J.S.

identified dunn by his tats... that is what I read somewhere...

Carrera GT

Who knows if he was drunk, but 130 mph and darkness on most roads in the USA is suicidal and homicidal. Limited visibility, reaction time and braking distance at 100 mph mean you're going to hit a brick wall before you see it and before you can slow down enough to survive.

As for the estimation of speed, they use the weight of the car and the deformation of a known object for a given vehicle, roadside or person. Vehicle data will report what the car was doing when the airbags deploy, including vehicle speed, throttle, brake, etc.

My neighbor used to work in the upper ranks of the CHP and we'd sometimes talk about how they operate. Sometimes it's just a cop with a distance wheel measuring tire marks (less useful since ABS, but still useful once a car is spinning or sliding on its roof (or airborne after penetrating a guard rail in this case.) They can plug the numbers into a table of estimates and get an idea of how many units of 10mph the car was likely traveling at that given instant of the whole incident.

I've never seen a recent model 911 so completely shredded -- I'd guesstimate 130 mph on the low side of likely speeds. And most of us here have experienced on track how quickly a GT3 can accelerate past 130 and have a couple more cogs in the box and lot of rpm still to come.

Just for the sake of raising other possible scenarios -- while I imagine the car was at warp speed, once a car has rolled down an embankment and burned, it would look perhaps not dissimilar. Some of the most horrific looking damage is can be just the "jaws of life" used in cutting the car open to extract what remains of the occupants.

Any of the following could be combined with as little as say 72 mph (usually not even a ticket for doing 72 in a 65 zone in California) and result in the same disastrous outcome:

* coolant line bursts
* power steering line bursts
* brake "ice pedal"
* LSD implodes and seizes diff
* anti-sway bar drop link breaks
* centerlock failure

These guys could have been cold sober, drug free and on their way to start an early day of work, doing 70 mph in a 65 zone when one of the things that Porsche knows to be failure-prone on a GT3 jumped out of the scenery and killed these two guys.

Yoops Racing

So sad...so unnecessary.

amaist

While I agree that we don't know the facts of this accident I don't think a power steering line failure should cause this (I had it happen to me on the track at pretty high speed. I did go onto the grass but very uneventfully and much slowed down), not at 70 mph. Plenty of time to figure out what to do. Same for the sway bar link. At the speeds where normal state troopers don't bother you there would be very little disturbance to the car and if it happened plenty of time/space to deal with it. Did we even have a complete CL failure, yet? Wheel rolling down the road/track off the car?

Yes, our cars have some foibles but they are not death traps. They seem that way only if you read this forum too much.

We will see if he did indeed go 130 mph or not. I don't deny that its possible that some unfortunate chain of events and conditions could have led to this accident.

blake

Toxicology report released... Blood alcohol level of .196 - twice legal limit in PA....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110622/...v/us_ryan_dunn

NOTE: It seems strange that the results could be posted this fast... I read one report this morning that expects the results from the coroner's office to be released in two weeks.... Perhaps the above link is a hoax?

Alan Smithee

My original sentiment as well.

But with the info above, along with USA Today now reporting 23 citations in 13 years (10 for speeding or careless driving, 3 for driving with suspended license, and a DUI in 2005), the public outcry is justified.

And the passenger does not get much sympathy from me for getting into a car with him, drunk or sober.

Somewhere out there, PI attorneys are salivating...

amaist

They are quoting Chief Deputy Coroner David Garver. Google search checks out.

Not a hoax and if a hoax then Patrick Walters and Joann Loviglio of the Associated Press are in deep doodoo. Test results don't take long to produce. A full report is a different matter.

Looks like he was quite drunk. Different people have different tolerance and maybe that's why he appeared ok (I have some friends like that). But certainly too drunk to drive under anyone's definition.

This is what I don't get. The guy seemed like he knew how to drive. Ok so he had a few drinks. At that point it should have been obvious that he can be in trouble driving in his condition. Why go flying down the road? Most drunk drivers are much smarter than that. The cops find drunks by nabbing cars going under the speed limit. That's because they know they are drunk but still want to live. Seems like he took method acting too seriously.

This case is not even that much about drunk driving. It's about reckless driving while drunk. Thankfully that is not as wide spread as regular drunk driving as it's practitioners don't get to do it for too long due to the harsh and cruel laws of physics combining with decreased hand eye coordination and delayed reaction times.

tetzlafh

That's odd every drunk driver story I have had the experience of being a part of was either caught at a DUI checkpoint even when briefed the cops would be out patrolling or the cars were trashed in an accident and the people try to flee on foot. Never met a drunk driver that was 'smarter than that'. Alcohol does so much so quickly to ones brain no matter how 'tolerable' one may seem to be nothing is obvious.

Thanks to my 8 years at Spangdahlem AB, Germany i've seen it all, at one point the number one base in Europe with DUI's.

http://www.spangdahlem.af.mil/news/s...p?id=123194808

Devils Advocate

Police report is out now, Dunn's BAC was .196, legal limit is .08 in that state. Speed was estimated to be around/up to 140mph. Very unfortunate but hopefully a lesson learned to the typical high school crowd who may tend to idolize these people, in that no one is invincible.

Softarga

Thanks for coming out

Ritesh

Good GOD!! 140 + .196 - Very bad and sad combination!

aussie jimmy

the highest high, results in the lowest low.
that's the way the cookie crumbles.

batty

Crashed within a mile of the bar, so he practically stood on the gas pedal from the second he left the lot.

PAULUNM

His 07 GT3 did not have centerlocks. A power steering line burst or coolant line/fitting failure would have left slick evidence on the roadway...

But I'm no detective.

10 GT3

I saw this on the news last night. I haven't heard anything about the passenger being identified. Keep on mind the show was called Jackass for a reason.