Accident Archives - Page 43 of 44 - C6Performance Journal

October 8, 2013

[VIDEO] Missing Manâ€™s Corvette Found in Florida Canal

[VIDEO] Missing Man's Corvette Found in Florida Canal

The mystery of what happened to Terrance Paul Beghin and his 1982 Corvette 27 years ago appears closer to a solution.

Charlotte County workers found a white Corvette in a canal near Rampard Boulevard and Navigator Road in the Deep Creek area of Punta Gorda, Fla., and it was pulled from the water Wednesday morning.

A check of the carâ€™s license plate revealed it was Beghinâ€™s, but detectives said his body was not inside the Corvette.

Beghin, then 26, was reported missing in November 1986.

Authorities notified the family this week about their discovery, and his sister, Deborah Dunbar, who lives in Michigan, told The News-Press that she was grateful for the Charlotte County sheriffâ€™s office and their efforts in the recovery.

“Hopefully, this will bring some closure,” she told the newspaper.

The News-Press reported shortly after he went missing that witnesses said they saw Beghin leave home at midnight on Oct. 30, 1986 in his car. They said he was slightly depressed and uncharacteristically reckless and appeared to be drunk despite his diabetic condition.

One of his roommates, Eric Williams, told the newspaper Beghinâ€™s behavior was unusual as he didnâ€™t usually drink. Another roommate was supposed to get a ride from Beghin that night, but he never showed up. Nor did Beghin ever pick up his paycheck from the restaurant where he worked.

At the time, Detective Lloyd Sisk, who knew Beghin through a church youth program, flew over the area looking for signs of Beghinâ€™s car â€“ in vain – and then feared he had been a victim of foul play.

Friends across the U.S. were asked to be on the lookout for Beghin and his car, and a statewide bulletin was issued.

Source:
News-Press.com
Photo Credit: Charlotte County Sheriffâ€™s Office

October 6, 2013

[PIC] Iowa Twister Tosses a Classic Corvette a Quarter Mile from its Home

Photo Credit: @Jeff_Piotrowski

A string of tornadoes tracked across the states of Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota on Friday. The twister that ripped through Moville, Iowa early Friday evening was reported to be at least a mile wide. This picture from a storm chaser named Jeff Piotrowski shows an early C1 Corvette that was picked up and thrown a quarter mile away from its home.

Here’s the original tweet from Jeff:

Damage survey found a corvette 1/4 mile from farm house in field SE of Moville IA.#iawx http://t.co/KrtWBTOuhN

— Jeff Piotrowski (@Jeff_Piotrowski) October 5, 2013

That’s a blue flame straight 6 under the hood so its most likely a 1954 we are looking at. If you know anything more about this Corvette or its owner, please let us know!

Source:
Jeff Piotrowski on Twitter

October 3, 2013

[PIC] Throwback Thursday: One Manâ€™s Trashed Corvette is Another Manâ€™s Treasure

[PIC] Throwback Thursday: One Man's Trashed Corvette is Another Man's Treasure

It’s time for Throwback Thursday where we feature vintage photos of Corvettes. Today’s selection may be hard to look at for some, so if you have a weak constitution, look away!

In the old days when a Corvette was all used up, they were disposed of by taking that final road trip down the street to the junkyard. We recognize that even new Corvettes today end up in junkyards too when crashed, burned, flooded or totaled. But seeing these classic Corvettes lined up sort of brings a tear to our eyes.

From what we understand, the picture was taken in the Seattle area back when this junkyard was known as “Lincoln’s Salvage”. We have several other photos of junked classic Corvettes from the same location which you can see on our Vintage Corvette board at Pinterest.com.

Click here to see a larger version of this vintage Corvette boneyard.

Do you have any vintage Corvette pictures to share? Let us know!

Source:
CorvetteBlogger @ Pinterest.com

September 27, 2013

1962 Corvette Treasured for Four Decades by Owner Lost in Garage Fire

Fire Claims A 1962 Corvette That Owner Treasured for Four Decades

Photo Credit: Joe Hornaday/Daily Reporter

The good news is that no one was injured.

The bad news is that E.H. Martinâ€™s beautiful 1962 Corvette was destroyed Wednesday night when the garage in which it was parked caught on fire.

Martin had owned the Corvette since 1970 and estimates he spent some $60,000 restoring and repairing the car during that time.

His bright red convertible was a common sight at area car shows around his hometown of Fortville, Ind.. In fact, he had just returned in the car after a cruise-in earlier in the evening, his grandson said.

By Thursday morning, the family was looking through the rubble, checking out the damage to their home in the 300 block of North Madison Street.

While the garage was a total loss, firefighters were able to contain the flames before they spread throughout the attached two-story house. Still, the home suffered heavy damage.

Sadly, in a photo on the Daily Reporter website, the Corvette appears to be a total loss, with most of the fiberglass and tires melted away and charred timbers resting atop it – a far cry from the shiny red car thatâ€™s also pictured before the fire.

Source:
Greenfield Daily Reporter
Photo Credit: Joe Hornaday/Daily Reporter

September 25, 2013

[VIDEO] Driver Flees After Crashing a C5 Corvette into an Apartment Building

[VIDEO] Driver Flees After Crashing Corvette into an Apartment Building

Last week was definitely a bad time to be a building in Buffalo, N.Y.

A customized silver C5 Corvette became the third vehicle in less than a week to crash into a structure in that city.

Hamburg Police say the Corvette driver rammed into the apartment building on Lake Avenue, leaving chunks of concrete and other debris in its wake, about 1:30 a.m. Friday.

Witnesses told Buffaloâ€™s WGRZ Channel 2 that they saw the car leave Kazâ€™s Bar on Lake Avenue just before the accident, then saw the driver quickly get out and take off running.

The Corvette crash came just a day after a station wagon went sailing into the front window of a home in Buffalo when the driver lost control. No one was seriously hurt.

On Tuesday last week, in south Buffalo, an SUV ended up wedged at a 45-degree angle against the eave of a house after the driver suffered a medical emergency.

Source:
WGRZ.com

September 23, 2013

[ACCIDENT] Arizona County Officialâ€™s Red C5 Corvette Damaged in Crash

[ACCIDENT] Arizona County Official's Red C5 Corvette Damaged in Crash

Photo Credit: Lydia Guzman

An accident involving a county government leader made some news earlier this month in Arizona.

Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox’s red C5 Corvette convertible (with light oak top) is smiling a little sideways these days â€“ with the front bumper knocked loose and hanging on by only one side and the passenger’s side of the hood pointing toward the sky now.

Phoenix New Times blog is reporting that a local activist named Lydia Guzman posted the photos of Wilcox’s accident on Facebook. Guzman blamed the wreck on another motorist running a red light but said that Wilcox was not injured in the wreck.

It’s not the first time and probably won’t be the last time Wilcox is in the news. The New Times reports that in 2012 she received a $975,000 settlement after being determined to be a victim of the discredited criminal investigations by Sheriff Joe Arpaio and former County Attorney Andrew Thomas. Some accused her of “doing so well financially courtesy of us taxpayers she recently bought a SECOND late model Corvette.”

These allegations obviously come from someone who doesn’t know the value of a C5 Corvette, which is actually cheaper these days than a lot of ordinary new “economy” cars. We don’t know what kind of second Corvette she has, but unless it’s a real late model, she didn’t necessarily spend big bucks for her toys.

Wilcox also came under attack another time after Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Sean Pearce, son of now-ousted Senate President Russell Pearce, told his superior that he witnessed Wilcox asking a county mechanic to check the air in one of her Corvette’s tires. That became a “review” of an “incident” involving an “alleged improper use of public resources.” She was cleared of the charges, and we wonder just how much taxpayer money was wasted investigating this alleged “crime.”

And people wonder why good folks are reluctant to run for political office!

If owning two Corvettes is a reason to be criticized by voters, then there are a lot of people out there who might not want to toss their hats in the ring next election season.

By the way, if you think Sheriff Arpaio sounds familiar, no wonder. He’s the sheriff who has been featured in the media thousands of times in regard to his treatment of prisoners, including the institution of a Tent City next to the jail to house some inmates, who have complained about the extremely high temperatures inside. “It’s 120 degrees in Iraq and the soldiers are living in tents, have to wear full body armor, and they didn’t commit any crimes, so shut your mouths,” Arpaio told them.

Source:
phoenixnewtimes.com

September 5, 2013

[ACCIDENT] Stolen C4 Corvette Goes Airborne and Hits a House in Miami

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a… Corvette?

Thatâ€™s one way to describe a high-speed chase involving a stolen C4 Corvette that left the ground before slamming into the wall of a house in Miami, Fla., late Tuesday night.

Richard Campbell said his home was already being foreclosed on, and now heâ€™s not sure if itâ€™s worth anything after being hit by the Corvette. He plans to move into an apartment with his dog, just glad to be alive.

“I was very fortunate because I do believe in the supernatural spirit and he allowed me to go back there and watch a movie instead of being in the kitchen,” Campbell said.

At first, after hearing the noise of the impact, Campbell was afraid the house was being swallowed by a sinkhole but soon realized a car had rammed into his house instead. In fact, a reporter for Miamiâ€™s NBC6 South Florida pointed out car parts still littering the ground outside the home, and his camera showed a headlight resting on the floor inside. Campbell said he saw someone in the car after the crash, but miraculously whoever was inside apparently survived and remains on the loose.

The pursuit started in Opa-locka when undercover officers spotted the stolen car near Northwest 15th Avenue and 62nd Street. Eventually, the Corvette bounced its way over railroad tracks and went airborne before striking the house near Northwest 17th Avenue and 74th Street.

“This vehicle became airborne as it went over a little hill, the railroad tracks, and once it became airborne, coming back on to the ground, it lost total control and started spinning out of control,” Miami Police spokesman Det. Willie Moreno said.

“This is amazing that the occupants inside this vehicle were able to flee on foot, and apparently didn’t receive any serious injuries,” Moreno said.

Police are looking for the occupant or occupants of the car and are asking anyone with information to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.

Click here to watch the video from NBC Miami of cops on the scene following the crash as well as an interview with the homeowner.

Source:
NBC Miami

August 30, 2013

[VIDEO] C5 Corvette Pulled From a New Orleans Bayou

Photo Credit: Chris Granger, NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune

Down in the Bayou definitely takes on a new meaning for this Corvette.

New Orleans Police pulled the black C5 hardtop (possibly a 1999 or 2000 model) out of Bayou St. John early Wednesday morning.

WVUE Channel 8 in New Orleans showed live video of the Corvette â€“ minus at least its left front fender and rear bumper, with the left rear tire dangling â€“ being pulled out of the water about 7:45 a.m. today.

Police found no one in the car, but in a noon statement said they have made contact with the driver, though they did not release his name. They did say he was alone in the Corvette.

Witnesses reported seeing a man climb out of the water shortly after the accident, which happened around 4 a.m. Recovery efforts began at 5:30 a.m., and the northbound lanes of Wisner Boulevard between Esplanade and Desaix were closed until 8:55 a.m.

NOPD is continuing its investigation and wonâ€™t say how or why the car made its way into the water.

FOX 8 WVUE New Orleans News, Weather, Sports

Source:
fox8live.com and NOLA.com

August 7, 2013

GM Engineers Will Study the 2014 Corvette Stingray Involved in Crash

No one ever likes to be in a crash, but the accident involving a 2014 Corvette Stingray and another car last week could turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

There’s nothing like a real world test to find out how safe a car is going to be, and the Stingray’s T-bone hit in the passenger door by a Lincoln Town Car is offering GM’s safety engineers a good look at how their latest creation held up.

GM spokesman Monte Doran called the crash last week “the most serious crash to date” involving a seventh-generation Corvette.

“We can’t take it to the local Chevy dealer,” Doran said. “It has been trucked back to Milford (home of GM’s vehicle proving grounds). The safety team will look at it and decide whether it’s repairable. They will also study the (car’s) real-world performance.”

An unidentified GM employee was driving the Stingray as part of a test fleet when the accident happened.

The test fleet evaluation “is our last step in the production launch,” Doran said. “We take cars and put them in the hands of employees to make sure there are no issues.”

Doran did not know if anyone was injured in the crash but said it represented “an opportunity” to evaluate the car’s safety.

Based on photos of the accident, the Corvette appears to have held up exceptionally well compared to the Lincoln, which looks to have suffered major front-end damage.

We already reported a single-vehicle accident involving a Stingray in Arizona back in February, but Doran confirmed a second previously unreported crash involving a C7 and another vehicle in Michigan two months ago.

Source:
Edmunds.com
Photo Credit: Zero2Turbo.com

August 1, 2013

[ACCIDENT] 2014 Corvette Stingray Hit By A Lincoln Town Car

A picture of a Cyber Gray 2014 Corvette Stingray involved in an accident has turned up on the Corvette Forum, but details of the crash are sketchy. From the pictures, it appears that a Lincoln Town Car t-boned the Corvette Stingray on the passenger side, causing damage to both cars.

The accident may have been weather related based on the wet conditions of the road at the time the photo was taken.

The good news is how well the Corvette seems to have protected its occupants in this real-world crash test. It certainly looks like the Lincoln took it hard on the chin while the Corvette’s 60% stiffer frame held true.

Here’s the full size image of the Lincoln vs Corvette, although it doesn’t really show any more details of the accident.

The last time we saw a Corvette Stingray involved in an accident, it was in early February 2013 that a Laguna Blue Corvette Stingray ended up in an Arizona ditch. The cause of that accident was ruled as driver error.

With the number of C7 Corvettes now on the roads for the expressed purpose of generating thousands of miles – if not hundreds of thousands of miles – of cumulative real world driving, these kinds of incidents are bound to happen. If anyone has more details on the latest crash involving a C7 Corvette Stingray, please let us know.

Update
We heard from CorvetteBlogger’s Detroit Bureau that the accident occurred in the Detroit suburbs around Royal Oak based on the photo evidence. This is the corner of 13 Mile Rd and Campbell. Autoweek posted several photos from a different view and we got this one from Zero2Turbo.com.

Click to enlarge the photo

Source:
Corvette Forum