These are pictures of Rainer Mueller's rollover at the May 2001 Fast Lane driving school at the Streets of Willow Springs.

Fortunately, this happened at a driving school setting in which everyone in a car are required to wear helmets. And although not mandatory for this particular school, it's a very strong reminder that a good rollbar can save your life. In addition, Rainer also was wearing a safety harness.

To those familiar with the course, the accident occurred just before the start of the the double-apex turn:

The green lines above are from a track log of the Streets Of Willow Springs from my GPS receiver. It's overlaid on top of a an old satellite image of the area which didn't have the complete course built at the time it was taken. The red arrow indicates the approximate location and direction that Rainer was traveling.

Skid marks on the track and tire marks on the dirt (see picture #03) indicated that Rainer was probably carrying too much speed coming out of the prior turn and ended up skidding straight off the track. Normally on a track that's in the middle of a desert with plenty of runoff, this off-track excursion wouln't have been so bad. But Rainer literally ran into some very bad luck when his car skidded towards a 1 or 2 foot deep ravine. In picture #02, you can see the middle person stepping into the ravine.

It appears the car's front wheels hooked into the ravine and caused the car to flip end-over-end, landing upside down, well past the ravine. I was told that several people who were in Rainer's run group stopped and helped Rainer out of his car. Through the combination of his rollbar, safety harness and helmet, he came out ok. Although his ego and his body was bruised a little, he was still in good enough condition to be walking, talking and even laughing. A little over an hour after the incident, Rainer was taking some ribbing and joking from the other students during lunch (see pictures #21, #22, #23) I can only wish that I'd have such a good spirit in a similar situation.

The next day, on Sunday, Rainer showed up at the track around lunch time with a brand new BRG 2001 Limited Edition Miata that he had just bought from Lancaster Mazda. No - he didn't take it on the track that day :-)

Click on any of the thumbnail images below to view a larger 640x480 image.

Ralph Alder emailed me his observations of the damage seen in the pictures above and suggested that Rainer's car didn't flip end over end, but rather rolled. In retrospect, I think Ralph's explanation is spot on:

Subject: Re: Streets of Willow
From: "Ralph Alder"
Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 20:47:00 -0700

In one of my previous lives I must have been an accident investigator. After looking at Rainer's car on the flat bed and your photos Rainer couldn't have just pitchpoled the car end over end. The left side of the car showed definite indications of impact and sliding. The scrape marks were from the front/upper to the rear/lower which can only happen with a roll-over. Also, if he had endo'd it the front facia...especially the lower "lip" would have been completely gone and it was one of the only straight parts on the front of the car. I couldn't see the hood very well but I'd bet that it has signs of sliding and even rotating on it. I think he went off straight or maybe sliding to the left a little. If straight he wound up yawing to the left and caught the left front wheel in the ditch which rolled the car gently over on the top with the roll bar acting as a drogue or anchor to stop the sliding. Of course, I didn't see the roll bar up close so that's just what I surmise.

I also don't think he would have had virtually no wounds or complaints had he gone end over. Think of the impact of going past vertical and landing on the roll bar. First, I think the roll bar would have imbedded a ways into the dirt and Rainers head would have been in direct contact with it. I don't think he would be complaint-free the next day.