A carjacker decided, for some odd reason, that now was a good time to die and drove onto a California freeway at triple-digit speeds.
She’s being charged with vehicular manslaughter and rightfully so. According to KTLA news on their exclusive report on this most sobering news piece that dropped earlier yesterday (Jan 23, 2018) carjacker later identified as 28-year-old Nicole Thibault, stole an F-150 crew cab in San Bernadino and proceeded to drive off in an event that CHP Sgt. Saul Gomez said was, “one of the worst accidents” he’s ever seen. I’ve posted a couple of photos floating around social media that shows the extent of the damage she caused below.
This is a horrible tragedy but it could have been much worse. I'll continue working with @CaltransHQ to further develop wrong-way driving deterrents at off-ramps. '100-mph wrong-way driver causes fatal crash on 210 Freeway in Claremont, CHP says' https://t.co/b0FpGbpnGn pic.twitter.com/TzPrxqQLnX
— Freddie Rodriguez (@AsmRodriguez53) January 23, 2018
https://twitter.com/TheRachelLuna/status/955634252724428800
According to reports, Nicole stole the truck in the middle of the afternoon. Unbeknownst to her, there was a four-year-old boy in the back seats. I’m assuming her motherly instincts kicked in as she dropped the boy off at an intersection a mile away from where she stole the truck. The father and his brother found him unharmed.
Nicole then proceeded to enter the 210 Freeway near Santa Clarita at a high-rate of speed. At that time, reports started flooding in of a truck doing donuts, traveling in the opposite flow of traffic, and basically being a danger to everyone around her.
Several minutes later, the unthinkable happened, Nicole’s stolen F-150 slammed into a car head-on killing that driver almost instantly and entangling five other cars in the ensuing crash. Three people were injured not to mention the thousands in monetary damage that she caused.
“I’ve been at many scenes … this is one of the worst ones in my opinion, based on the vehicle intrusion,” CHP Sgt. Saul Gomez said. “Some of the vehicles are literally just torn apart, wheels fell off, parties trapped inside the vehicles. It was pretty gruesome.”
Cars traveling at near triple-digit speed are carrying a lot of potential energy. All that energy either is translated to heat due to friction thanks to the car’s brakes or is transferred to objects in a crash if parts aren’t flung off. Lots of that energy, unfortunately, is absorbed by people.
There are no reports at this time if drugs and alcohol were involved.
Stay safe out there on the roads fellow Californians and stay vigilant when you’re driving at all times.
