Motor Home Accident Under Microscope

[Fundytrail]

On a serious note the link below will take you to a slide show of a recent RV accident. :(

What started out as a fun vacation for a Missouri family ended in tragedy. Fifty-one year-old Lonnie Owens, accompanied by his wife, daughter, three sons, and a family friend was driving their 1990 Crown Royale Monarch by Monaco when the motor home lost its brakes on the steep descent from Hurricane Ridge, a scenic attraction in the Olympic National Park near Port Angeles, Washington.

As the motor home careened out of control down the mountain road entering the busy streets of Port Angeles, it hit several vehicles, rolled over a curb and sidewalk, crashed through a handrail, and snapped several small trees before landing in a gully. With the front part of the motor home pushed in and the cabinetry and interior debris crushing him from the rear, Lonnie Owens did not have a chance.

http://www.rv.org/p17809.htm

[bigolepig]

WOW...that is sickening just to look at...thanks for sharing!!

[Buddlite]

How horrible, since I am looking at buying an rv in next year or so this makes me wonder. Are there any standards out there for the manufacture of RV's. If so where would one go to find these things out. Doesn't seem right to me that cabinets and things would be falling down on folks. Just wondering, How would you find one of the "safest Rv's" and who decodes what is safe and what isn't. I know the National Insurance Institute does crash testing of cars, does anyone do RV's??

[Nascarcamping]

Todays coaches have such new braking systems and stuff, that this would be near impossible to happen, I will expand more on this later.

[Nascarcamping]

1st off, I have no idea what or why that coach lost its brakes.

I cant speak to the gasoline engine motorhomes.

On modern Diesel engine rigs, here is what they have.

Pac or Jake Brake, this to me replaces my service brakes almost all the time, I really only use the service brakes around town.

My second generation PRXB pac brake can hold my rig at a 7 degree slope, with a car in tow, it can hold my coach at a 5% grade and not gain any speed.

The coach itself has 2 seperate tanks air that is.

Lets say the entire coach loses air, extremely rare indeed, but if it does, the service brakes in the rear will engage, spring brakes to be exact, and that will stop the coach in no time.

losing your brakes is rare indeed, it would be interesting to learn more about that crash if anyone knows any other info please post it, we might learn something from it.

Prayers for the family.

[Fundytrail]

Not sure what the cause was but is does demonstrate the importance of keep our RV’s in tip-top shape.

[Nascarcamping]

I just discovered something a couple weeks ago, I noticed ghat I was losing a lot of air overnight, it came up right away when started but when we started to wash the coach we heared a hissing noise from the rear end.

We traced it to a line leading to the pac brake, it was routed wrong, so once fixed problem went away.

Pays to always pay attention and listen for strange noises.