BBC reports.
I wonder what animal? The common land-based mammals in Big Sur are:
Black Bear, Black-tailed Mule Deer, Bobcat, Coyote, Gray Fox, Gray Squirrel... Mountain Lion, Raccoon, Opossum... Skunk, Wild BoarDriving on that highway, with a 200 foot fall to one side of you, wouldn't you grip the steering wheel with steely resolve? What animals could shake your attention suddenly and severely enough to cause you to hurtle over the precipice? I'm certain I would go right through the squirrel, raccoon, opossum, and skunk.
But we do know what kind of car — a Jeep. Hooray for the Jeep!
UPDATE: You don't survive by drinking water from the radiator, as many commenters pointed out. The text, which I cut and pasted from the BBC website, has now been changed.
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86 comments:
My kids loved that drive; the scenery is gorgeous. It terrified me. They've suggested driving it again but I can't bring myself to do it.
Probably acted reflexively. My personal reflex action in these situations is to take my foot off the gas pedal, and roll right over whatever it is that has trotted into my path. Anything larger than a groundhog though and I'm hitting the brake. Fox, coyote, geese, turkey, and deer will do some serious damage to the vehicle. Hitting a moose often kills the human, large bear might too.
-sw
My radiator doesn't have ANY water.....or at least nothing I want to drink.
"She swerved to avoid hitting an animal"
The life principle is strong in most of us. You read of stories where people, so attached to their pets, go back into a burning house/building to get the animal, only to perish. Deut. 30:19.
Yeah, drink anti-freeze/coolant.
Kidney failure is the good part.
She drank ethylene glycol and survived. Awesome metabolism.
We had a girl come in the trauma center who had swerved off the road in Laguna Niguel and gone down a hill. The car ended upside down and she hung in her seatbelt for a day until someone found her. The trees screened that hill.
Se survived but it must have been a bad day.
Good for you, Angela! It took physical and mental strength to survive that experience. I wish her well in her recovery.
I've driven that road, twice, once going and once returning. That was enough.
Cars come with radiators filled with ethylene glycol antifreeze solution which is quite poisonous. Do not drink!
I drove north up Route 1 to Big Sur for the first time at night in a light fog. It wasn't until the next morning when I realized -- mouth agape -- the precipice that was across the road to my left below the complete darkness. I would have expected a guardrail, but I guess the aesthetics ruled that out.
Hernandez wasn't local and swerving off the cliff is easier if you're headed south, especially at night when you can't see over the edge.
She had been driving [south] from her home in Portland to Los Angeles to visit her sister.
I assume she's lucky her anti-freeze level was low.
Drinking water from her radiator? That doesn't sound right. Who puts plain water in their radiator?
Generally, if you drink the contents of your radiator, you are going to die, or at least be blinded.
Even if the coolant in a Jeep is pure propylene glycol (and as far as I can tell, it isn't), it's still going to do more harm than good to drink it.
Radiators should be called convectors because they hardly radiate at all.
Every driver on the road should be prepared to make a controlled skid. Google: "car control clinic" for your state.
>"Angela Hernandez, 23, survived by drinking water from the radiator of her wrecked jeep
No, she didn't. This part of the story must be wrong.
She fought the sloth and the sloth won.
The article says she used the Jeep's radiator hose to siphon water from a creek. Far cry from drinking the radiator water!! Fake headline!
Sorry folks but if it 'me .vs. critter' I'll run over that critter. And 200 ft falls qualify as something I don't want to go over!
But some people, usually liberals, just don't wanna hurt that poor little critter and will take that dive. And they don't carry survival arms (in Canada in the outback you can carry a rifle or shotgun.) See that gun would have been dandy for signalling for help.
The article says she used the Jeep's radiator hose to siphon water from a creek. Far cry from drinking the radiator water!!
What, was the creek only two feet away? That's about the maximum length of a radiator hose. Now the hoses for the heater core. . .that might get you double that, on some cars.
Angela Hernandez, 23, survived by using the hose from her jeep's radiator to siphon water from a creek, Monterey County Sheriff's office told the BBC.
That still does not make any sense.
But anyway, Do not drink antifreeze!
She had been driving [south] from her home in Portland to Los Angeles to visit her sister.
This all could have been avoided if a High Speed Train existed!
The most spectacular (and scariest) drive for me: the Million Dollar Highway through the San Juans in Colorado.
I don't understand the drinking the anti-freeze thing, either.
The article says she used the Jeep's radiator hose to siphon water from a creek. Far cry from drinking the radiator water!! Fake headline!
Pure water will hardly keep a car from catastrophic overheating. Hernadez must have had some kind of glycol coolant in the radiator as well as H2O. Drinking that mixture is a virtual death sentence.
On the road to Big Swerve...
We drove that highway in the 1980's on a September morning. It was so foggy we could barely see the road and didn't see the ocean at all.
Trump is absolutely correct about his famous fake news rant. Some fake news is malicious, but most fake news derives from the fake education journalists get these days.
I think they add a taste spoiler to antifreeze now, so that pets don't lap it up and die of kidney failure.
Perhaps like the dog product that you can add to dog food that "gives feces an unpleasant taste."
She's from Portland. She probably swerved to avoid a snail that's currently listed as a 'near-threatened' species.
Normal antifreeze tastes pretty good, was the problem.
IIRC the upper hose on a Jeep Wrangler has a 90 degree bend in it and probably holds about a pint and a half to a quart of liquid. Assuming she could get it off — takes a screwdriver to do it right but a sharp knife or a box cutter will do since you’re not planning to reuse the hose! — then it can be used to hold and carry water a short distance once you’ve rinsed it out. Point is, she had access to fresh water, ingenuity, and a strong will to live. Good things to have in a pinch.
I like the name "Jeep." I can imagine a veep, like Sarah Palin driving a jeep, but not the current stuffed shirt VP, Pence. She fancies bumpy, unruly experiences - a cowgirl at heart. She kills wildlife not to keep from driving into a ravine, but because she likes it. You've got to admire a girl who redefines femininity like that.
Recently, I needed a rental vehicle after a car accident. I wasn't given a choice; they gave me a white Jeep. It was a terrible drive - not my cup of tea at all. After a couple of days, while my car was still in the shop, I changed it for a Toyota Corolla. Much. Better. Car.
Impaired driving (e.g. distractions) and out-of-frame behaviors (e.g. speeding for conditions) affects reaction time.
Big Mike: Point is, she had access to fresh water, ingenuity, and a strong will to live. Good things to have in a pinch.
Putting aside the fishiness of the whole radiator hose thing, there's still the giardiasis to worry about.
You can survive giardia. My wife’s ob-gyn did back in the day. You need to drink fresh water if you want to live.
"She's from Portland. She probably swerved to avoid a snail that's currently listed as a 'near-threatened' species."
Listen, if it's you or me, you're going off the cliff first even if I have to push you. It's time you learned to swim. Safe landing.
What was she doing on that road anyway. I bet she is a drug mule.
Aren't jeeps notorious for flipping?
Blogger Christy said...
Aren't jeeps notorious for flipping?
That's why so many have roll bars.
BTW, I am discounting the business about “siphon.” A wide, inflexible, radiator hose isn’t likely to be effective as a siphon.
[Perhaps like the dog product that you can add to dog food that "gives feces an unpleasant taste."]
Stay out of my backyard looking for poop. My Rottweiler Hulk will tear you to shreds.
I had a jeep in the late 1980's. It was a lot of fun, but was the worst car imaginable for "swerve" maneuvers.
My Driver's Ed teacher (during the transition from riding dinosaurs and driving cars) was asked, "What do we do if a dog runs in front of us?"
His response was, "How big is the dog?"
Normally, I don't swerve for animals on the road because that is dangerous and can cause you to have a wreck. Sorry critters. It was you or me. I did't want to kill you. (except for the ground squirrels...die!)
However, when it comes to a bear or deer, if the animal suddenly burst out of the trees on the side of the road,....yes. Swerve, IF you can. Dodge the collision which is likely to total your truck or car.
Living in the area where it is likely to have this happen, you learn to very diligently scan the road far ahead, and watch for the bear, deer, coyote, mountain lion, fox, bobcat and be able to stand on the brakes and avoid having to swerve.
The road to Big Sur, Highway 1 on the coast is frightening on a good day. The idea of a large animal collision......I would take the hit to the animal over going down the cliff. People drive too fast on those roads....DRIVE SLOW! What's the rush?
Angel-dyne @ 9:42
The Million Dollar Highway is nothing compared to Highway 1 in Big Sur. It had been hyped to me so much, I considered going around the long way, especially because it was raining. It turns out, as long as you don't drive off the road, it's actually quite easy. Highway 1, on the other hand not only has those 500' drops, it has some of the tightest turns I've ever seen. When the sign tells you to slow to 5 mph for the next turn, you'd better slow to 5 mph.
She had been driving [south] from her home in Portland to Los Angeles to visit her sister.
While Highway 1 is very scenic, in some areas it is horrible, winding, narrow, dangerous and since the major landslides almost impassible.
Why didn't she just take I-5 like a normal person? None of this would have happened.
Dodge the collision which is likely to total your truck or car.
Or kill you. I knew someone who died when the deer crashed through her windshield.
Hey, guess what. Highway 1 in Big Sur is still closed north of San Simeon for a significant stretch. Even if she'd made it, she would have had to turn around and go back to Monterey. This adds another layer of fishiness to her story, if you ask me.
This headline encapsulates a lot that is wrong with journalism today.
Q's:
Swerve: left or right?
She made a choice -
which was it?
Rule following or reality adapter?
Pill colour: blue or red?
I have nodded off and swerved near drops ... Luckily there was guard rail.
Left the dents be as souvenir reminder.
Tyrone Slothrop said...
The Million Dollar Highway is nothing compared to Highway 1 in Big Sur.
Hwy 550 is a lot windier, er, has more and tighter curves, then Hwy 1.
Highway 550
Highway 1 thru Big Sur
As for animals and cars- anything bigger than a large dog, I brake as quickly as is safely possible, and then try swerve if I have gotten the speed down low enough to not lose control of the car- I absolutely won't swerve if it means hitting something even more massive or fixed to the ground. I have faced this situation a few of times in my life, and it helped to be mentally prepared. Twice it was a large dog and twice it was deer. I hit one of the dogs- I braked, but had seen the dog too late to stop the car completely and an oncoming car and no shoulder prevented swerving in either direction anyway. The other three times I managed to slow enough that the animals had time to get out of the way. Anything smaller than that, all they will ever get is an attempt to gently brake. The key thing though, is you have to have thought about this scenario a lot- if you haven't, your reflexes will just take over and probably eventually lead to a serious accident.
"than"
Highway 1 has been closed half way down at Gorda since May 20 with a huge landslide at Mud Creek. It will not be open until September. See https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/article210168459.html
I've driven Portland to LA several times since my daughter went to college in Salem Oregon. You take the boring 5 down the middle or slip over to the 101 and add a day to your travel time. Something is not kosher with this story.
Fernandistein
The scale on your maps is not identical therefore we really can't make a comparison :-)
Propylene glycol and water, 50/50 mix (antifreeze/coolant) is pretty toxic shit. It kills animals that drink the spills on pavement. Radiator residues i.e., zinc, copper, iron and water pump lube... shaken not stirred? Tag = B.S.
If hose thing is true, probably overflow hose from radiator to reservoir. Maybe three feet long, 3/8 diameter and removable without tools.
Pretty hard to siphon water with engine/radiator hoses unless you have a real big mouth.
Dust Bunny Queen said...
The scale on your maps is not identical therefore we really can't make a comparison :-)
Those two pixels of difference would look funny on the end of your nose.
Propylene glycol and water, 50/50 mix
Actually it is ethylene glycol (which is what most anti-freeze is made of) that is toxic. Propylene Glycol is much less toxic (perhaps even non toxic) but drinking it is going to do you no good.
But some people, usually liberals, just don't wanna hurt that poor little critter and will take that dive.
Don't be so fucking ridiculous and partisan!
I don't care if you are Saul Alinsky or Antonin Scalia, your natural inclination is to swerve to avoid an obstacle in the road. And so it if it is a spotted owl, a Northern White Rhino (and I would really like to see what happens when you say "fuck you white rhino, this is my road, get the fuck out of my way" as you press the accelerator) or a paper bag carried by the wind, nine times out of ten, one is going to swerve.
Most people are worse drivers than they think.
Now I can't remember the name of the movie. It was about a famous romance author who runs off the road in the mountains. A psychotic fan, played by Kathy Bates finds him, drags him home and hold him hostage to write a novel for her. The car is covered by snow and not found.
It was a pretty good movie even if he didn't have to drink radiator fluid.
John HEnry
Pretty hard to siphon water with engine/radiator hoses unless you have a real big mouth.
And even then you would, by definition of a siphon, have to be lower than the surface of the creek.
More likely she just used it as a makeshift cup.
There is a lot of lost in translation here. Or something.
1. Radiator "water" is death. Unless it really is just water which means your vehicle will not function for long.
2. You can only siphon from water at a higher elevation. You can suck water up but you don't siphon it up.
3. That sure looks like the ocean in that picture. Not thinking you will live much longer drinking ocean water.
I think the reporter was lazy and made a bunch of this up.
It takes discipline to "drive through" an animal in the road, but insurance companies will tell you that it's the textbook move. Rarely is hitting any animal at any speed worse than hitting a tree, a rollover, a head on collision with another vehicle, or driving off of a cliff.
The movie is Misery.
My barber when I was young was a WWII era GI. One of his monologues was being in the Italian campaign and making coffee with water from a jeep radiator. He said they would fill it with clean
water and then run the jeep up and down the hill until it was hot enough..
I said something to the effect that didn't sound too healthy, and he said they figured that was the least of their health problems at the time.
Great guy!
It takes discipline to "drive through" an animal in the road.
This. I've driven well more than a million miles on Western highways, and it's still difficult to resist the urge to swerve when a creature appears in my path.
The BBC now reports (without correction) that she survived by using the hose from her jeep's radiator to siphon water from a creek -- shame on y'all for believing their fake news of drinking water from the radiator.
Pretty hard to siphon water with engine/radiator hoses unless you have a real big mouth.
Yeah, why didn't she just suck start the Jeep and drive away? At least she could have made a signal mirror with the chrome off the trailer hitch.
"Million Dollar Highway is nothing compared to Highway 1 in Big Sur."
I've driven the MDH. I guess I'll stay well away from Big Sur then.
polyethylene glycol is the motivation behind colonoscopy prep
Never been on 550, but I'm sure it's badass. Highway 1 between Monterey and San Simeon is mostly a piece of cake because there is little hope of driving too fast. Highway 17 between Scotts Valley and Los Gatos is a better road (4-lanes with K-Rail), but because it is like a Formula One course, people drive too fast, break on off-camber curves and spin out.
You can siphon by filling the hose and plugging the end. Maybe it was a heater hose, not a radiator hose.
The cliffs are typically full of springs, don't see evidence of a creek in the photos.
Likely she just used whatever hose as a gravity drain diversion.
My barber when I was young was a WWII era GI. One of his monologues was being in the Italian campaign and making coffee with water from a jeep radiator. He said they would fill it with clean
water and then run the jeep up and down the hill until it was hot enough..
Sorry, this was an old Bill Mauldin "Up Front with Willie and Joe" cartoon - See here https://www.pinterest.com/pin/274438171020110455/
Up Front was funny because most of the Willie and Joe stories are true.
Sorry, this was an old Bill Mauldin "Up Front with Willie and Joe" cartoon
For some reason I am never able to open pinterest links, but knowing Mauldin, I can just about imagine it anyway. I'd like to think this was fairly common, and Mauldin got the idea from life, but regardless, I miss that guy even if he was bs-ing us.
Freder Frederson said...
"But some people, usually liberals, just don't wanna hurt that poor little critter and will take that dive."
Don't be so fucking ridiculous and partisan!
I don't care if you are Saul Alinsky or Antonin Scalia, your natural inclination is to swerve to avoid an obstacle in the road. And so it if it is a spotted owl, a Northern White Rhino (and I would really like to see what happens when you say "fuck you white rhino, this is my road, get the fuck out of my way" as you press the accelerator) or a paper bag carried by the wind, nine times out of ten, one is going to swerve.
Most people are worse drivers than they think.
Speak for yourself
I drive over things on the road, with at most a slight twitch so it doesn't hit my tires, all the time.
If you're driving with a cliff on your right, you damn well should have thought before-hand about "what will I do if there's something in the road?"
And slow down so you're driving at a speed where YOU can react
Greg P: Your comment reminded me of George Costanza on the best Seinfeld episode ever
Squirrel? We Have no Deal with Them!!
my $0.02 worth
She took the hose that runs from the radiator overflow spigot to the overflow jug.
These hoses are about a 1/3 inch in diameter, and a few feet long.
I wouldn't call it a radiator Hose, but it IS a hose that connects to the radiator;
so, if you're going to write about a girl staying alive by drinking out of her radiator, i'm fine with you calling it a radiator Hose; just please stop writing: at All!
The real question is:
How did she drive off a 200 ft Cliff and survive?
BTW, I avoid driving Highway 1 or the "Road to Hana". These roads are too narrow, and there are too many assholes who drive too fast.
If you want to go off the cliff dummy, don't take me with you.
Everyone's radiator is full antifreeze.
Which you can't drink - and live.
Highway 1 is not a scary drive. Comparable to many roads in the western mountains. Now Moki Dugway in Utah - that is scary.
I have killed two deer and come close to several others. (Welcome to MN/WI) I never thought to do anything but brake hard - much to the surprise of drivers following too closely. At least one swerved wildly around me and would have gone off the road at Big Sur.
Best version of the story comes from sfgate and quotes a CHP press release for "drinking water from her radiator." Can't blame the reporters for taking the government experts as gospel.
Everyone's radiator is full antifreeze.
Which you can't drink - and live.
True, and I think it's irresponsible for media to propagate this falsehood. In the future, someone in a dire situation may dimly fremember those words "drank water from the radiator" and harm themselves or others.
Frankly, I'm skeptical that a woman would think to mess with the hoses or open the hood at all, unless she had been incarnated like Kelly LeBrock from a rhhardin wet dream. It seems to me about a thousand percent more likely that she'd have had a water bottle in the car and would have just filled that and drunk from it.
Can't blame the reporters for taking the government experts as gospel.
No, because they're 27 year olds who have zero knowledge of anything, and rely upon authority to tell them what to think.
Do you people even read???
She didn't drink antifreeze. Idiots!
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