A very costly lesson

[CraigMorrison]

Recently Art bumped into a high-school friend who had just purchased a 55. Good car, and Ron was having a ball with it. It had a BBC and a few other modern touches, but it was just a fun driver.

Last weekend Ron and some friends installed a new steering column and steering wheel into the car to further update it. On Sunday, Ron was out for a cruise, enjoying the car and decided to pass a slower vehicle in front of him.

As he was passing, the steering wheel came off in his hands.
the car drifted into the ditch and crashed. While Ron was wearing a lap belt, the resulting crash impailed him onto the steeing column and killed him.

This is the performance vehicle forum. All of us on here have done something to our cars, from suspension, steering, wheels to brakes. If anything can be learned from Ron's death its the importance of double-checking. Are those nuts and bolts tight? Are they loc-tighted or safety wired where they should be? Are those lug nuts properly torqued down? Are your suspension bushings & rod ends in good order? Have any welds cracked? It doesn't hurt to spend an hour or two to put your car up on jacks once or twice a year and go from bumper to bumper checking for loose nuts & bolts, worn hoses & frayed wires.

Hopefully we can all learn from such a terrible accident like this.

[ProdigyCustoms]

WOW, Art must be devastated, our condolences to the family and friends. A horrible story, but great advice Craig. A check, re check policy is always time well spent.

[Travis B]

Wow I am sorry to hear that, my condolences as well. Safety is something that is taken for granted in a lot of situations....once again I am sorry to hear this!

[Steve Chryssos]

That's just terrible. Lap belts are useless.

[69rs]

I've been considering putting 3 point belts in my car but thought they were a little too costly. I guess they're not.

My condolances on your loss.

[CAMAROBOY69]

That is a terrible tradegy. I am very sorry to hear that! :crying:

I had something very similar happen in high school in my 67 Chevy truck. The shaft that goes from the steering wheel to the gear box snapped in half and the steering wheel was literally doing nothing. I was holding it an yelling "watch out!!!" Luckily I was in the school parking lot when it happened and I didnt hurt anyone.
The learning lesson for me was that I heard a weird noise coming from the steering wheel for about a month before this happened. The noise was the dry bearings in the column literally eating at the shaft. Eventualy it snapped. I should have greased them when I heard the noise.
So yes always double check everything in your vehicles and especialy if you hear weird noises. If I had been on the highway the same thing woudl have happened to me since I also only had lap seat belts back in high school.

[Steve1968LS2]

That's just terrible. Lap belts are useless.

damn.. very sad and more so because it could have been prevented pretty easily..

I am so anal about rechecking bolts and using locktight whenever I can..

an inexpensive shoulder belt would have saved him.. im sure he didn't expect the wheel to come off but that is the hobby for you.. expect the unexpected..

Sad story to hear.. damn, I need to do a safety story... I think it just moved up my list..

Sorry to hear Craig and my prayers go to the family.. :(

[ertoys]

I am very sorry to hear about this.

[Craigon69]

Condolences to anyone who knew him. I recall a past American Hotrod, I think the one were Boyd and Mike raced rat rods cross country (after Bluebear was fired), a friend of Boyd's had a steering rag-joint come off, as he forgot the locktite. Lucky he was not hurt.

[trapin]

I will be revisiting my front suspension next year to do some upgrades that I didn't get to when it was first completed. This was a great reminder, thanks for posting it Craig. I'm going to be sure and loc-tite everything that I can and to check, recheck and recheck, and recheck once more all my bolts to see that they are properly torqued down.

Please give my condolences as well as everyone elses from this site to Ron's family.

What a terrible tragedy.

[zbugger]

That's the main reason I check my work at least three or four times before saying it's done. I'm extremely afraid of something falling off my car like that. Then again, I beat the hell out of my car anyway, so it may as well just break off.

My condolences to the family. That's a terrible thing to have happen.

[vanzuuk1]

Very sorry , I think my heart skipped a beat or two when I read that.

I just came upstairs from installing summit seats so I can get harnesses and rollbar.

I plan on replacing anything questionable when I do my dse box,it just moved up a few spots on the list.

sorry...

[vanzuuk1]

I assume they forgot a bolt?

[David Pozzi]

wow! a terrible story!
As I read along, I was not expecting such a terrible outcome.

There are so many parts in a car and some of them our very lives depend on. We are usually focused on more power and better handling, but safety needs to be our number 1 priority.

Moderator,
Please move this to the Safety forum section after all have seen it here, this needs to be in our archives.
David

[beyonda68]

Was not ready for the ending. It has been a hard year for me. My best to all who knew him. I think about safety all the time, had too many friends go, knowing that it could all have been prevented.

[LowBuckX]

Sorry about your lost and my thoughts are with your freinds family.

I made a post awhile ago about not running parts if you dont feel safe about it. (I switched from a cheap Aluminum set of adjustable tierod sleeves to the steel units from Hotchkis) I never ran the AL ones because it just didnt sit well in my gut. I lost money but feel 100% safe in that area of the car.
Me and my freinds have a ritual we call "Nut and bolting" after we do something we go over every nut and bolt and we get another to look over it after that.



Safty is a big issue with me.

[David Sloan]

Craig
Very sorry for your loss!! Our thoughts an prayers are with you an his family!!

[CraigMorrison]

Condolences to anyone who knew him. I recall a past American Hotrod, I think the one were Boyd and Mike raced rat rods cross country (after Bluebear was fired), a friend of Boyd's had a steering rag-joint come off, as he forgot the locktite. Lucky he was not hurt.

That was Jim Rizzo, then the editor of Rod&Custom Magazine. I was at the NSRA Nats in Louisville and Jim was talking about to me about this. He was pretty shaken up. It was luck/grace of God/good Karma that he coasted into the median and came to a safe stop.

I posted this same story on the H.A.M.B. and Chevytalk.com, because I wanted as many people to read this as possible since it is such an important reminder. Reading these and the other responses, it is scary how many of us have had near misses with fate with loose fasteners.

[deadcarny]

my condolences. I hope you do not mind but I am going to copy/paste this to a forum at which I am an admin (www.SCFYB.com). I think that the message is very good and that we all need to remember to look things over and over again to make sure they are safe.

[vanzuuk1]

Craig

Because of this story I jump started my efforts to improve safety on my car.I did the seats this weekend so I could use my shoulder belts. Steering box and new hardware is next.

Thank you for the reminder, its easy to forget that most of us are in 30 year old cars with no airbags.

[TA219]

This story was a good wake up call for me also, I had not put much thought in to the Lap belts that are in the 67, now i will make sure to upgrade them even if it isnt the way the car came.