ICAN'T STOP!!! IT'S THAT THING ON THE WHEEL!!

The author recounts his experience with reconstruction of a puzzling accident which occurred in 1986 in Charles County, Maryland. Three vehicles had been involved, and two were sitting in the intersection. A 1972 Ford F600 dump truck had been sitting with its front end on top of a black 1986 Pontiac Trans Am. (The truck had been picked up by a crane and moved off the car just prior to the author's arrival.) West of the intersection sat what was left of a black 1981 Ford Thunderbird. The back half of this vehicles was spread over a wide area. Moreover, a large portion of the eastbound lane of Route 228 was covered with tire marks, gouge marks and fluid spills, bewildering in their number and variety. The title of this article is the clue to the reconstruction. The driver of the Trans Am had driven with an anti-theft bar still on the steering wheel, and had been unable to stop in time.