Perils of Peeling Out at the Ice House

In the past two years I have witnessed three auto wipe outs by people leaving the West Alabama Ice House. In all cases the drivers have done what we called as teenagers a peel out. Today it is also referred to as a burnout, although in these three cases not much smoke was generated, just a big crash at the end. Also common to all three instances was the consumption of adult beverages prior. However, the blame in all cases clearly falls upon the drivers and their hubris.

A small contributing factor (that all three drivers failed to take into consideration) is that with both a carwash and the Ice House's ice coolers nearby, the gutter of the street, which all crossed, always has some water standing in it. A little extra lubrication on the tires (as well as on the psyche of the driver) goes a long way to helping the situation go bad real quickly. In every case the driver turned from McDuffie Street onto West Alabama and then punched it, eventually losing it somewhere down Alabama Street.

In the first instance involving the Mustang, the obviously intoxicated driver was refused service at the Ice House and became enraged. Peeling out must have been his way to show his displeasure if not his false sense of macho (a common thread). After colliding with a sturdy light pole, he bolted the scene and disappeared into the neighborhood. The cops caught up with him later and he was, as they say, "cuffed and stuffed".

The situation with the Corvette was a bit different. I arrived just after the wreck but here is what I was told had transpired: The Corvette's driver had a very cute and flirtatious girlfriend. One of the Ice House regulars had been reciprocal in the flirtation and this annoyed the boyfriend. Once again, trying to regain the upper hand in the macho game, his peel out was meant to show who was top dog while attempting to impress the tarty girlfriend. This incident was the only one involving another moving vehicle. The Vette slammed head on into a smaller car coming the other direction. Fortunately the air bags in that car and the weight of the Vette kept all involved from serious injury.

In the most recent event involving the 1967 Shelby Cobra, the culprit was a mix of alcohol and inability. Also this was the only female (we think) driver involved. Now I am not saying that women cannot be as able drivers as men (don't want to tick off the NASCAR crowd) but clearly this one did not have the skills of the other two drivers. If you watch the video (see link below) you will see that she has trouble getting the car in the right gear or any gear at all. But eventually she got it going forward and peeled out down West Alabama towards a street named (of all things) Hazard! She lost it just shy of that intersection and slammed into a car parked at an auto repair shop on the corner. Fortunately the shop was closed and nobody was in the car (which will be in the shop just a bit longer than its owner anticipated).

The moral to these three tales: don't peel out at the Ice House. It always ends badly.

To see a video of the Cobra wipe out, click the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNLpZdDz-1k

Unfortunately, no videos of the other two wipe outs. Guess the third time is the charm (oops, sorry about that).