UK band Viola Beach killed in Swedish car crash

[Donjeta]

Local authorities yesterday dismissed reports that the bridge warning lights were not working at the time of the accident.

The Swedish Transport Administration said it has computerised logs that show there were no faults.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/viola-beach-were-water-hour-7393722

 

[JanetElaine]

Warning lights or not, that whole bridge set-up seems a bit nuts to me. I can't believe more accidents don't happen with it. You're just removing part of the road with nothing but warning lights (hopefully) and a couple of beams between life and an 80 foot death plunge. I'm all for paying attention on the road and not babying people, but that just seems a bit.... sparse, to say the least.

 

[FrostOwl]

Warning lights or not, that whole bridge set-up seems a bit nuts to me. I can't believe more accidents don't happen with it. You're just removing part of the road with nothing but warning lights (hopefully) and a couple of beams between life and an 80 foot death plunge. I'm all for paying attention on the road and not babying people, but that just seems a bit.... sparse, to say the least.

The bridge has been in place since the 1960ies with the same set-up and this is the first accident of this kind that has happened, and it's a very busy bridge (with a minimun of 3,6 million cars passing the bridge), so I don't think it's the construction of the bridge and the warning systems that are faulty. The road to the bridge has two lanes and there were idling cars in both and the driver of the band's car tried to pass those cars on the road shoulder. If the driver had followed the traffic rules the accident would never have happened. It's very possible that the driver hadn't been sleeping for about 20 hours, as the band had arrived to Sweden on Saturday morning and had gone to the venue where they were to play, and had left directly after the end of the performance in the middle of the night. Perhaps the autopsy and toxicology reports will give a clue to the driver's behaviour that night.

 

[JanetElaine]

March 3rd 2016:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ies-car-hit-raising-bridge-plunged-canal.html

British band Viola Beach suffered 'severe injuries' when their car hit a raising bridge moments before it plunged 80ft into a Swedish canal, an inquest heard today.

Since their deaths, preliminary post mortems have been carried out on the five Britons, with preliminary results showing that the driver of the car had no trace of alcohol or drugs in his blood.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/viola-beach-crash-evidence-reveals-7488685

The unidentified driver of the car was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs and not asleep at the wheel, according to autopsy results.

 

[JanetElaine]

Three members of Ohio band CounterFlux died in an auto accident today also their families must be devastated too. May they also rest in peace.

http://abc22now.com/news/local/three-people-killed-in-i-75-crash-were-members-of-local-band

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/crime-law/suspected-drunk-driver-threatened-to-kill-himself-/nqQQ8/

The suspected drunk wrong way driver on I-75 that killed four people and himself over the weekend, threatened to kill himself before, according to Dayton police records.

Pohlabeln threatened 'suicide by cop' as well as suicide before. He was arrested and let go for DUI about 48 hours before he caused the deadly crash that killed 4 in the car he hit, and himself.

 

[Donjeta]

How do they tell from the autopsy results whether the driver was asleep or not?

 

[CoverMeCagney]

How do they tell from the autopsy results whether the driver was asleep or not?

I just came here to ask the same thing!!

I'm glad the driver wasn't under the influence, that would have been harder for his family to cope with.

 

[JanetElaine]

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/crime-law/suspected-drunk-driver-threatened-to-kill-himself-/nqQQ8/



Pohlabeln threatened 'suicide by cop' as well as suicide before. He was arrested and let go for DUI about 48 hours before he caused the deadly crash that killed 4 in the car he hit, and himself.

I did not see that the link was broken. Since I can't edit the post anymore, here's the link again, working this time:

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news...unk-driver-threatened-to-kill-himself-/nqQQ8/

 

[AlwaysShocked]

How do they tell from the autopsy results whether the driver was asleep or not?

They don't.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Woah..... The Swedish police think the driver might have deliberately driven off the bridge. Apparently he was stationary in trafiic before putting his foot down and flooring it through the barriers.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...onally-crashed-band-s-car-Swedish-bridge.html

 

[YidArmyRach]

Woah..... The Swedish police think the driver might have deliberately driven off the bridge. Apparently he was stationary in trafiic before putting his foot down and flooring it through the barriers.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...onally-crashed-band-s-car-Swedish-bridge.html

I've just been reading that too. Must admit, I did always wonder if the driver had deliberately ignored all the signs and stationary traffic - but I was thinking along the lines of him trying to get ahead of the traffic and/or misunderstanding the bridge system and thinking he could still get over.

However, it appears that crashing through the first safety barrier should have alerted him that something wasn't right, let alone the second, but apparently he didn't even brake. Makes me wonder if there was an argument going on and the driver just lost it at that moment, due to lack of sleep, adreneline from the show and so on.

Its a terrible way to go, but thankfully it sounds like they died pretty much instantly and didn't suffer. At least, I hope that is how it happened. I guess it will be something that can only be speculated upon, unless any phone calls, texts and so on from the journey can spread more light on what was going on in the car at the time.

 

[JanetElaine]

Woah..... The Swedish police think the driver might have deliberately driven off the bridge. Apparently he was stationary in trafiic before putting his foot down and flooring it through the barriers.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...onally-crashed-band-s-car-Swedish-bridge.html

I was waiting for that. Not that I have inside info, but everything added up - including the statements from eye witnesses who never saw brake lights - it seemed to be the only explanation.

Horrific.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

I was waiting for that. Not that I have inside info, but everything added up - including the statements from eye witnesses who never saw brake lights - it seemed to be the only explanation.

Horrific.

An argument in the car, maybe? Could the lads have told him he was sacked as their manager? We'll never know unless another party knew there were issues that night. Tragic.

 

[JanetElaine]

An argument in the car, maybe? Could the lads have told him he was sacked as their manager? We'll never know unless another party knew there were issues that night. Tragic.

Is it for sure that the manager was the one driving? I've read articles in both Dutch news and the British link posted earlier and one of them mentioned it wasn't confirmed who the driver was.

Regardless of who was driving, an argument is definitely possible. Or maybe the driver had some sort of mental breakdown, like the guy who crashed the Germanwings airplane into the Alps last year.

Have they ruled out technical problems with the car? Stuck accelerator? I'll have to go back and read. But if that was the case I can see why the driver would not just crash into the waiting cars but try to get around them hoping for some way to stop.

ETA well duh on me. It's right in the Daily Mail article. So I guess that also rules out that he could have had a medical episode. You don't first stop behind waiting cars, then pull around them and floor it.

 

[Donjeta]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...onally-crashed-band-s-car-Swedish-bridge.html

The identity of the driver has not been revealed, but Swedish police indicated yesterday that the person behind the wheel was Mr Tarry and a spokesman said it 'looked like he acted deliberately'.

Craig Tarry's heartbroken father Colin, speaking ahead of his son's funeral today, said his son was 'on a roll' and that there was nothing to indicate it was anything other than a tragic accident.

He told The Sun: 'It's disgusting what the Swedish police chief has been reported as saying. It's a crazy thing to say.
'This is heart-breaking for the family. Craig was on a roll. There was no reason for him to be depressed.'

​

 

[CoverMeCagney]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...onally-crashed-band-s-car-Swedish-bridge.html

The identity of the driver has not been revealed, but Swedish police indicated yesterday that the person behind the wheel was Mr Tarry and a spokesman said it 'looked like he acted deliberately'.

Craig Tarry's heartbroken father Colin, speaking ahead of his son's funeral today, said his son was 'on a roll' and that there was nothing to indicate it was anything other than a tragic accident.

He told The Sun: 'It's disgusting what the Swedish police chief has been reported as saying. It's a crazy thing to say.
'This is heart-breaking for the family. Craig was on a roll. There was no reason for him to be depressed.'

​

Ouch. I feel for the family. But having ruled out car mechanical failure, bridge warning failure, medical problems, alcohol and drugs there is not much left. It could have been simply they were running late or just buzzing / mucking about and he decided to floor it not knowing what was ahead. We've all seen that knob who boots it past a queue of traffic. But then two crash barriers....?

 

[YidArmyRach]

Ouch. I feel for the family. But having ruled out car mechanical failure, bridge warning failure, medical problems, alcohol and drugs there is not much left. It could have been simply they were running late or just buzzing / mucking about and he decided to floor it not knowing what was ahead. We've all seen that knob who boots it past a queue of traffic. But then two crash barriers....?

I wonder if he thought he could jump the queue, then thought the bridge was still intact ..... then when he saw the barrier, got confused with the hire car and hit the accelerator instead of the break by mistake?

Having seen the layout of the bridge, I can see that a tourist might not realise it would lift up the way it did and he may have thought the traffic had stopped too early, as the bridge looked like it hadn't changed and was still crossable.

Unless he deliberately went through the barriers still thinking the bridge was fine to cross over, especially if he was expecting the sides to open and rise as per Tower Bridge for example. Maybe he thought that nobody would be able to catch them, and they'd be on a plane home before anyone could stop them for damaging the barriers. Were they running late for their flight?

But no theory makes any sense does it, but having seen on the reconstruction that the bridge had only raised about 1.5 metres by the time they hit it (at windscreen level) then it certainly could have been completely intact when they started driving.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

I wonder if he thought he could jump the queue, then thought the bridge was still intact ..... then when he saw the barrier, got confused with the hire car and hit the accelerator instead of the break by mistake? Hard to believe but having seen the layout of the bridge, I can see that a tourist might not realise it would lift up the way it did.

Unless he deliberately went through the barriers still thinking the bridge was fine to cross over, especially if he was expecting the sides to open and rise as per Tower Bridge for example.

But no theory makes any sense does it.

He had probably never driven over that bridge before, might not even have seen one like it (I hadn't). But still - he's a grown man with family and responsibilities, why would he drive a hire car though barriers in the hope of getting ahead? Were they late for their flight? Even so, hurry or not, you'd hit the brakes after the first barrier wouldn't you? But it seems he didn't.

Either he had an unexplained black out or fell asleep (unlikely as moments earlier he'd been in queuing traffic), or something got said in that car and he thought "screw you all" and put his foot down. Sadly, because of the nature of the accident and injuries, and the fact a ship might have hit the car leaving more destruction, we will never know whether someone tried to take evasive action. Basically, we'll never truly know how this happened but I can see how the Swedish police have come to the conclusion it may have been deliberate.

One thing that's bugging me - why did it take 15 minutes for anyone to call the police? Several drivers must have seen them go over the edge, why did nobody call immediately?!

 

[wfgodot]

Anorak:

Daily Star turns Viola Beach ‘accident’ into something sinister

Investigators say the deaths of all four members of British band Viola Beach was an “accident”. The driver “did not intend to kill himself or the group” from Warrington. As the Times reports:
-
Kris Leonard, River Reeves, Tomas Lowe, Jack Dakin and Craig Tarry, the manager who is thought to have been driving, died when the vehicle plunged off a bridge, 18 miles from Sweden’s capital Stockholm early on February 13. A preliminary post-mortem examination found that the driver did not have drugs or alcohol in his body. Detectives believe the driver did not intend to kill himself or the band. The crash was due to unfortunate circumstances, they said.
-
Lars Berglund, of the Swedish police, says: “It looks like the driver acted deliberately… There is no suggestion that it was intended to kill himself or the band.”

And how does the Star report on the tragedy? It yells: “Brit Band Bridge Plunge: It Was Deliberate.”

Hideous.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Yes, it is hideous.