Ok folks, don't know who else to tel, so I'll share with you: Went to Buena Vista CO June 15-17 the year, and on the way back, got stuck in traffic due to a large 5th wheel getting stuck making a turn too tight on hwy 285. Fast forward to yesterday, and exact same thing happened again!
We've seen a few RVs stuck like that along with a few that have been blown over by high winds and a couple that lost control out on the open highway only to start fishtailing and ending up on their sides or worse, completely flipped over. As an RVer my heart goes out to those folks as the majority of them just either got caught off guard or miscalculated a turn, etc. only to end up in a situation such as the two in your pics. But then there's that 1-2% who, due to just being plain stupid, learn a tough lesson and are lucky to live to tell about it. Those folks shouldn't be allowed to own and operate an RV much less be out on the roads period. IMHO of course and sometimes I know it ain't all that humble........ Regards, BankShot..............(aka Terry) PS: Hey Chris. I would have awarded you a "like" for this thread but in all honesty I really can't say that I like seeing pics like this, so I didn't................
Wow.! Is this the same RV in both pictures? I assumed it was, but the markings on the RV do not look the same. If it is two different RVs then that must be a really dangerous corner to get around.
Definitely two different 5vers. Different body styles and windows if you look closely. I agree, that must be one hellova tight right turn to make with a deep ditch on the passenger side that evidently doesn't give the driver much room to negotiate the turn with a longer RV without going off into that ditch. Not a good situation and one that hopefully the roads dept. will take note of and maybe try to fix at some point............??? BankShot..............(aka Terry)
We have no experience handling a 5th wheel, but we do have to consider our back tires and toad when turning a corner. I'd be lying if I said we had never run over a curb making a tight turn, but luckily we have never gone into a ditch like this photo. However, from where the RV is sitting it appears that the driver was trying not to go into the far lane as he made the turn. We run into this situation frequently where we have to pull into the far lane so that our rear wheels and toad will stay on the road. I know we have angered other drivers behind us who are also waiting to also pull out, but we just wait until BOTH lanes of traffic are clear so that we can make the wide turn. The road in this photo does not look like it has heavy traffic, so it is curious why the driver tried to stay in just one lane. Course I wasn't there; I'm just guessing about what happened from the image in the photos.
To answer your questions about the roads, both drivers were coming off a small local road and turning onto the busy hwy 285. It is extra busy on Sundays when many people are returning to Denver after a weekend in the mountains, so they probably needed to turn directly into the right lane. In 30+ years of driving this stretch of road, I have never seen this happen at this intersection before, so it's unusual to have it happen twice within a month. Maybe a new campground opened up in the area, increasing the fiver traffic? Terry, yeah, maybe saying "stupid" is too strong of a word. Probably should have said "dumb luck", or something similar. --chris.
Hey there HappiestCamper - Sorry but I can't resist this. Are you sure you aren't watching the passenger on the passenger side when turning right and that's why you have the name HappiestCamper................ Happy camping, BankShot............(aka Terry)
