Journalist Michael Hastings dies in L.A. car crash (Single car crash??)

Originally posted by MichaelPMaccabee

Originally posted by Foobler

Originally posted by MichaelPMaccabee

Originally posted by Foobler
Ok Shilly McShillster.

Yeah, you caught me, I'm a shill.

I'm probably one of the few people on this site not hiding under a fake screen name. My opinions are my own, and I state them freely and unafraid. If you want to believe that I am a 'shill' because I have opinions that differ from those of others on this site, please do so, but also understand that I really stopped caring what others think of my opinions in third grade.

I heard you like coke and alcohol too.

Im not really sure what that has to do with this topic, but if you want to u2u me, I will engage with you on what else you might have heard about me.

He probably felt that was a stronger come back than "Oh YEAH?" :-)

I mentioned alcohol is involved in a LOT of these type accidents and got jumped on!!

Someone mentioned erroneously that cars DON'T burst into flames like that, well I was involved in Fire Fighting tactics and was a lieutenant for 15 years and in one of our training videos on vehicle extrication we saw a small car that had hit a tree, unknown to the rescuers or the trapped driver, the gas tank was split and when the Jaws-Of-Life moved the car body it suddenly burst into flames like in the video that was shown on here. Luckily, there was an engine crew with a charged water line standing by and immediately hit the car using a fan-spray (usually used to extinguish room fires as it cools everything and creates a lot of steam) and extinguished the flames and saved the guy. He was a little more than shook up!
I know Obama won't shed a tear for him but I don't see anything here that points to foul play. Especially when eyewitnesses said he was speeding. An autopsy will help.

Originally posted by juleol
reply to post by GrantedBail

 

That picture suggest that someone made this accident happen or that there was some really odd malfunction with his car. The road is even straight but yet he somehow ended up crashing straight into that tree.

I don't know how you could say that it 'suggests' someone made it happen, look at all the trees on that road! It would have been more unusual to NOT hit a tree!
This happens ALL the time on straight roads, even without trees. There is a road here in Mesa, Arizona called Ironwood that leads from the US60 to San Tan Valley, speed limit is 60 MPH, straight as an arrow, double lane, no trees or cactus but there are a LOT of those roadside memorials (with the pictures of the victim, cross and date of their death, etc). so yes it does happen and a LOT, my daughters friend was driving (early in the morning) on one of the side streets near here with her two babies and for some reason her car veered over and hit the ONLY obstruction for a holf mile in either direction (a small electrical transformer in the center). She was killed and her babies survived. Cause of accident: UNKNOWN it was not suicide as she LOVED her kids and was on her way over to her grandmas house and had called before leaving and joked around with her mom.
These things happen!

reply to post by wulff


There's even video of him blowing a red light at 100+ just before the accident. I've seen plenty of cars burn up from accidents. Last week I had a homeowners claim where I guy crashed through their chain link fence which barely damaged his car aside from a dented fender and busted lights. His car came to rest under the roof eve which was like an awning over a concrete patio. His car burst into flames and burned the house down, from hitting a chain link fence at like 35mph.

reply to post by GrantedBail


Dear GrantedBail,

Based on what you wrote and knowing the area, he would have been in a very expensive part of town. Hancock Park is an area that has some of the old money and even the Mayor's residence is there. I think the question is where was he headed at that time of day and where was he coming from. He may have lived there; but, I would be somewhat surprised.

Originally posted by EViLKoNCEPTz
reply to post by wulff

 

There's even video of him blowing a red light at 100+ just before the accident. I've seen plenty of cars burn up from accidents. Last week I had a homeowners claim where I guy crashed through their chain link fence which barely damaged his car aside from a dented fender and busted lights. His car came to rest under the roof eve which was like an awning over a concrete patio. His car burst into flames and burned the house down, from hitting a chain link fence at like 35mph.

Absolutely, I have wondered for years why automakers are so supposedly working on safer cars but still allow 10 to 20 gallons of gasoline to be hung on a car with two straps and a tank thickness like a coffee can!
As you apparently know as well, cars bursting into flames are a real threat and does indeed happen a LOT!
-Thanks

reply to post by GrantedBail


I want to know what he was currently working on. Did he get to close to a truth that somebody was willing to kill him for?

If there's video of him doing over 100mph, then this may indeed have been an accident.....While engines being lobbed down the road is uncommon, 100mph+ head on crashes into a tree are just the sort of scenario that will cause it.

More facts are needed.

reply to post by wulff


Yup. I've worked in insurance for 10 years, auto, homeowners and commercial property. My dad has done it for 40, his dad longer. Just in my 10 year's I've seen thousands of accident scenes, and if I want to go back through my childhood when I rode along with my dad all summer break 10's of thousands. Out of all of them I'd say between 15 and 30% were burned out from impact damage, another 10% burned out from mechanical failure with no collision and the rest a mix of smashed to hell and back, fender benders and some of the most awe inspiring storm damage you've ever seen. My first ever storm damaged car was hit by a tornado while the driver was hiding in it under a bridge. The tornado put a 4x4x12 fence post through the grill, engine, firewall, driver, drivers seat, backseat and out the trunk. The car looked like a shish kabob. I couldn't figure out how that 4x4 made it through all that and stayed intact, I think I still have some film photo's of it in one of my old file boxes somewhere. It was truly amazing to see the power of a tornado. Same storm stuck pine needles into houses like darts.

Back to burned out car's. I always thought the old saying about the Fiero being a fireball death trap was kind of a joke. I had a claim come in for one that was burned completely to the point metal had melted and fused together all over it. The cause? Now this is going to sound like an exaggeration but 23 independent witness confirmed it because I didn't believe it myself so I interviewed everyone on scene. A full shopping cart rolled across the parking lot and bumped the driver quarter panel, the Fiero went up like a roman candle instantaneously. Tap, boom! After that you couldn't pay me to sit in one let alone drive one.

My question is what is the top speed of that road?? Reason I ask is because the first photo posted you can see over the top of the officers there is a green stop light then further down a red light. The damage done does look extreme for such a low mph impact. However, looks can be deceiving.

You have to understand that small sports cars like this are a coffin on wheels. I am speculating that a fire broke out with the ignition system/battery & a compromised fuel line. The fuel pump see's pressure has dropped and continued to pump fuel. All vehicles need a impact sensor to cut off the fuel not just a high performance racing car. If anyone has ever worked on vehicles and knows mechanics knows that a fuel pump will run and run and run if it senses fuel pressure is low. Disconnecting a battery before working on a vehicle is crucial. If you ever notice how when you get in a vehicle you turn on the acc power just before starting the car, you can hear the fuel pump activate and run till it pumps up pressure.

reply to post by sean


40mph. He was speeding at 100mph+ caught on camera blowing at least one redlight. He was doing anywhere between 70 and 100 or more at time of impact. It depends on how much momentum he lost as he spun out of control and exactly how fast he was going, definitely triple digits when he blew the light.

reply to post by wulff


www.findlatitudeandlongitude.com...

Zoom in and go south, down where Gantzel Rd. Turns into Ironsprings. See that little "bend and yaw" in the road? Travel south on Ironsprings from U.S. 60 when you're tired or buzzed, and after 5 miles of a straight line, that sudden curve can do dangerous things. It's very easy that what happened was an accident. It doesn't help that the guy was an outspoken journalist who liked to dig up dirt on powerful people. "Accidents" like that have been happening to people like him for a long time.

www.azcentral.com...

reply to post by EViLKoNCEPTz


Thanks for the reply. I figured just looking how close the lights are to each other I guessed 35-40. Then he pretty much killed himself. Probably thinking fast and furious before he smashed into oblivion.

reply to post by sean


From the video of the scene while he was still on fire and based on my experience investigating auto accidents for insurance, I'm going with he nodded out and mashed the gas when his foot got heavy as he fell asleep. After that he either woke up and panicked causing himself to lose control, or the car drifted while he was asleep and clipped the curb throwing it out of control. He blew the front passenger side tire bad enough to drop to the rim lip and gouge the pavement prior to impact. Looked about 75 or 100' from blown tire to impact from what I could estimate based on the video. He hit the tree hard enough to rip the motor mounts from the frame and throw the engine clear across 2 lanes and about 40 or 50 feet from the vehicle to the right of it probably a total of about 70'. Which explains where the fuel came from as well as the cause of ignition, all the exposed wires after the engine flew out and the remaining fuel line exposed.

While I agree that it is a coincidence I will not accept that it had anything to do with his work. The universe is unforgiving and the factor of chance gives allowance to this incident. While it is unfortunate I do not believe any proof has been presented.

Originally posted by 001ggg100
...Why can this not be just an accident? I confess, I don't know much about this... But isn't it conceivable that he lost control, and hit a tree... This kind of thing happens A LOT.

It can, but that doesn't mean it is or isn't. If I crash a hit car into a tree and turn it into a smoldering heap of twisted metal, carbon fiber, plastic and fiberglass, the only questions raised would likely be:

"He never drinks and drives, so what was he doing out so late driving like a moron?"
And
"Did I ever get my angle grinder back from him?"

This is a guy who rubbed some very powerful people the wrong way. When you're an ultra-powerful politician, war profiteer, oil executive, financier, etc., and a top ranking general whose strategy you like for your own ends, or even dictate, is essentially sacked from his position, you get a bit angry. Over the years, the "favors", bribes, and sacrifices made to ensure that "your guy" ends up in a position to further your cause, can amount to far more than even the sum total of an extremmely wealthy individual's holdings. Further, in such a scenario, it might not be "an individual", but rather a group of a dozen people, 200, or thousands, with a common cause, whose long-range plans take a massive hit from their guy being eliminated from the game.

As others have mentioned in one way or another, he also had a knack, and the contacts for digging up information those powerful folks don't want dug up. It could have been something new. Or, it coukd be that he was drunk, high, stupid, or just a plain bad driver, and couldn't handle the power, speed, and acceleration of what looks to be (to have been, I guess) a high-end sports car. He might have been drugged by a foreign spy hoping to shake loose some juicy information for their own ends, but instead had left before the hook.

There's lots of possibilities, but in a situation where there are plenty of people with the means, will, and in their minds, reason to kill him, it would be foolish to assume it was an accident outright.

reply to post by giugliot


I often wonder what the mortality rate of Mr. Obama's critics are, when compared with previous presidents.....

Frankly, there have been a lot of rude posts in this thread. Whatever, that is the way it gets around here.

Having said that, I don't let people deter me from thinking for myself. I hope others don't either. I have found it best to just ignore people that are disrespectful. It is one thing to disagree, it is another to be ill-mannered about it.

Now, I think there are questions to be answered. It is not beyond the realm of possibility his car was tampered with. Why would he be going 100 miles an hour, that is just crazy. It is one thing to speed, it is quite another to be going that fast. I was under the impression that he made a turn off of Santa Monica onto Highland and lost control of the vehicle according to the eye witness, after which he jumped the median and "jack-knifed" into a tree.

Isn't it possible that his accelerator stuck and his brakes malfunctioned?? Who goes a hundred miles and hour, I mean really. Maybe out on the road going to Vegas from Southern California but in a residential neighborhood, that is just nuts.

With the revelation that he contacted a Wikileaks attorney just a few hours before his accident, and Glenn Greenwald's cryptic tweet regarding Michaels last article after the Wikileaks tweet, I would venture a guess that foul play is on several people's minds.

Originally posted by korathin
reply to post by giugliot

 

I often wonder what the mortality rate of Mr. Obama's critics are, when compared with previous presidents.....

edit on 20-6-2013 by korathin because: (no reason given)

Go look it up and let us know what you find.

Oddly, one of the few undamaged components seems to be the gas tank, as seen here:

[ editby]edit on 20-6-2013 by starviego because: (no reason given)