Speculating on the why's and why nots is a waste of time. The bottom line is he is alive, 20-30 years ago he would be dead. This vehicle saved his life. There are no skid marks because he was air born most of the way. There was also considerable damage to the undercarriage, which is probably the cause of the leg injuries. Your belted in and airbags deploy and only inflate for a second, so the rest of the time while your vehicle is toppling down the road your legs and arms arm flailing all over the place. In most cases your arms are on the wheel, which helps. The G forces are tremendous. Remember this road I believe was posted at 25-35MPH. I have a lot of experience in accident investigations. I can't say exactly how fast, but judging from the scene, with a debris field over 1 and 1/2 football fields, he was traveling probably 70-80mph, The accident reconstruction team should be able to determine an approx. speed. I do disagree with the Sheriff in that it was just an accident. I doubt all the investigative and reconstruction data is in yet. Clearly, speed was a factor, whether caused by him or equipment failure, will be determined. If it's not equipment failure or a medical episode that caused the accident, then it would be on him. Speeding is a negligent act. Let's just be thankful he is alive and no one else was injured.
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