What happened is that on the night of may 2nd some buddies of mine and allot of other guys from high school were having a senior party at a local park where a lot of drinking was going on. Several of us also had very high performance cars which were a bit faster and more of a hand full than even today's high performance cars, and add drinking to that you often get tragedy. Anyway when the park closed, some guys went to a local construction site to drink more and race up and down the road in our cars. I eventually went home, but 2 of my best buds from school stayed behind and hung with another kid who was only 16 (we were 18) and from another local high school. I didn't know him that well but he was driving his older brother's 1968 hemi powered plymouth GTX and shouldn't have been. I believe he snuck it out, and the car was a real hand full, very powerful and capable of very high speeds. Apparently they left the site at about 12 midnight to take my other 2 buddies home and I believe this younger guy was probably trying to impress my 2 'older' buddies (i also think they got him the beer). The car was apparently traveling at a bit greater than 100 mph (supposedly anywhere from 125-135 mph which is not hard to believe considering) and struck a huge oak tree in the bend of the road. This was such a shock to all of us, and I must say even though I was a hot rodder and at that time back then, I did drink and drive. Losing my friends in this manner and seeing the total devastation to this car made me sick. Injuries as you can imagine were horrific. The driver was decapitated from mid chest up. My friend in passenger seat was instantly torn out of the car by the second trunk of the tree tearing completely down the side of the car. It was pretty awful. I had what is known as an accident reconstruction specialist whom I know, look at this pic and in his opinion based on crush damage measurements and some other factors he said that the orig. est. of 125-135 mph is probably pretty accurate. The 2 halves of this car were separated apparently by 600-1000 ft. apart. Might be a good pic with short explanation of teen drinking, driving and speeding along to boot, as well as typical guys trying to impress others. I have had these pictures for years. It's a 3 view collage, and it was in front of our local police station for about a month after the wreck then it was hauled around to different schools to 'scare' guys away from drinking, driving and hot rodding.

I guess my real point to people is that you NEED to wear your seat belt, but first and foremost follow the laws of the road because in a certain event such as this one, even a seat belt wont save you. Senior party, drinking acting like idiots like we all were, and typical guys trying to impress truly lead up to this accident and it seems to me there is nothing new under the sun, meaning ya, even 'way' back in 69 us young guys did the same stuff. We were under age drinking like allot of kids do these days. I think the problem in this case with the belts was the loss of structural integrity in an instant within the floorboards and sheet metal in this car. I really don't think that anyone and especially young guys realize the amount of force generated and the damage that can be done in nano seconds in a high speed accident. The real shame of it is that while the extremely violent nature of this wreck, and subsequent loss of friends made a mark on my mind and really made me quite queasy for awhile, but as a young guy I STILL went back to hot rodding, and admittedly drinking and driving at least till I truly grew up. I am 49 now, so those days are long since gone, but human nature is truly a funny and sometimes not so funny thing. If you look at the driver seat you can see that the top of it has an indentation in it. I believe something maybe part of the tree (this tree was huge) entered the car upon impact and that is how the 16 yr. old driver was decapitated from about mid chest up. Also, looking at front tire left on the disconnected front end, it is obvious that the front end on this car was out of alignment, but that's neither here nor there, bottom line is this like any of them, it was a tragedy and could have been avoided.

Without a doubt people should be reminded that crashes like that one happening in today's built cars would actually end up even worse if they can believe that, because I have seen many pics of newer cars, camaros, vettes and the like that have had this kind of devastation at much lower speeds. I have argued that point with people who build these newer cars. I am a body and frame man by trade and I can tell you without hesitation that I don't care HOW many 'safety' improvements they have come up with so far as construction methods go, these new cars will NOT hold up in high speed accidents like older ones such as the GTX. Now the cabins on the newer cars have softer accouterments for sure, unlike the hard dashes and what nots in the older cars which used to Im sure cause deaths in accidents from injuries themselves, but point blank, even that 'old' GTX could withstand a hard hit structurally much more than today's cars can. I know what im talking about on that because I see this all the time at our family body shop and the wrecked dui cars as well as others. Also, a full frame car is not actually always 'stronger' in an accident than a unibody car. Frames are rigid and tend to 'snap' at impact, where as a unibody has a flex to it to dissipate at least some energy of the crash. I have seen newer camaros, vettes and other cars split in 2 from much lower speed accidents say 65-75 mph. A car built like that GTX even though it was a unibody, ain't gonna sever like that in a 65-75 mph crash, even sliding broadside into a tree. I had a 75 mph crash in a similar car(69 roadrunner;also unibody) about 4 yrs after this wreck hitting a telephone pole on the exact same side as the GTX struck that tree, and in a 'yaw' or slid into the pole on an angle, and while I was seriously injured (still have back and leg problems) the car looked nothing like the GTX, nowhere near that kind of damage. Though for all intents and purposes it was totaled. Im not trying to split hairs here, but thought it might be of interest to remind these kids (especially young guys) who drive the newer hotrods like camaros and firebirds that these cars can reach high speeds too, but forget about surviving if you strike a pole or a tree or what not at anything over 65-75 mph belts or not.Period! The picture of that red vette the man posted on your site is a prime example. Id bet that car wasn't even going 'that' fast (relative to) and it detonated completely in two. Just something to think about, and you know how young guys who drink and drive and like to drive fast also tend to forget that their car may be fast, but its also a plastic fantastic death trap in a high speed accident.