Sad News to Report

[Randy M.]

Just heard that a fellow Cobra owner was killed this morning in Henderson. All I know is that he was driving on Eastern and lost control. It was a black car. I don't know who it was. He may have been returning home from Cars and Coffee. My most heartfelt condolences to his family and children. Please lets all drive carefully.

[csx4910]

My prayers are with his family. A sober reminder to stay under control.
Ron

[kris-kincaid]

Do you know who it was? What kind of Cobra was it? Color?

Thanks

[Randy M.]

Don't know the make or anything. I never saw it except from a distance. Had multiple people call me to make sure it wasn't me. Looked all black with no stripes. Single roll bar. Looks like he jumped the median and ran head-on into another car. Other car looked like a large Mercedes sedan with extensive damage. Possibly an S class but at least an E class sedan. They were more than likely also injured. Heard they had broken bones but were alive, but no other info. Good thing they were in a large heavy car. Sorry I couldn't respond sooner but I had to go to work and had to drive by the accident on way to work. My wife gave me the info from the hospital as she heard it after making sure it wasn't me.
Lets all pledge to drive safely on city streets. Things can go bad really quickly and impact many other people too. Hope the others are not too seriously injured.

[Excaliber]

You would think there would be something about in the Vegas or Henderson news if it involved a death. I've been unable to find any report on it though...

[vegasmike]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010...ash-henderson/

[ERA Chas]

That is a terrible report. Doubt if it would have made a difference with a combined impact speed of 100 or more but it appears he did not wear a harness. Very sad for the family and other victims.

[twobjshelbys]

Our friends from Vegas emailed this clip from the Las Vegas paper:

HENDERSON COLLISON
44-year-old drives into oncoming traffic, dies in crash
A 44-year-old man was killed when he drove into oncoming traffic in Henderson on Saturday.
Henderson police said the man, identified as James Desjardins of Henderson, was driving a 1982 Cobra Roadster north on Eastern Avenue, north of the intersection with Coronado Center Drive.
At 9:15 a.m., Desjardins crossed over the center median for unknown reasons, police said. His car struck a 2006 Audi A6 driven by 32-year-old Jamie Bringhurst of Henderson.
A 2000 Ford Contour was unable to avoid the accident and rear-ended the Audi before striking the Cobra Roadster head-on, police said.
Desjardins was thrown from the vehicle. He was taken to St. Rose Dominican Hospital, Siena campus, where he was pronounced dead.
The driver of the Audi was also taken to the hospital and was released. The driver and passenger of the Contour did not claim any injuries.
Police are continuing to investigate the accident and are awaiting results of blood-alcohol and drug testing on the driver of the roadster, they said.

[OZCOBRA]

Mmmm....crossed centre median,doin something silly???
.........thrown from the vehicle!!!!!!...
a big restraint failure or poor judgement in not wearing a seatbelt!!!!..... sad to hear the loss of another!!!

[DougR]

It's never good news when one of our own hads an accident but it's really bad when someone looses their life. Both my son and daughter drive my roadster and they get tired of hearing me say "be careful", but I don't think I can ever emphasize enough how easy it is to let one of these cars get away from you. It can happen in a blink of an eye. My condolences to the family.

[jmacanderson]

I was just told of this by someone I work with. Two of the people involved in the crash were her family. (They are ok) I don't know if these are the actual facts but what she told me was that the cobra was turning left and turned into the oncoming traffic. The vehicle infront of her family stopped abruptly. They couldn't stop in time and swerved into another lane to avoid rear ending them and went head on into the cobra. Evidently the driver went flying out.

I heard this at least fourth person but there is probably some fact in it. My thoughts are with the drivers family.

[Doc_Naughty]

We were at the Cars & Coffee meeting further north on Eastern Av when one of the Corvette guys came up to us and said: "Do you guys know anyone with a black Cobra?". We immediately thought of a few guys we know with black Cobras and went to see if it was one of our friends (what a scary thought that is . . . )

We arrived at the scene of the incident to see a black Cobra smashed completely flat in the front with no windshield and the steering wheel fully collapsd. We were trying to figure out who it belonged to by trying to identify the manufacture make. It had extended doors, a 1½" rollbar, bolt on wheels and a rounded trunk . . . thought it might be an early Classic Roadster or a Street Beast. It was so messed up that it was hard to tell. Someone posted in the Las Vegas SUN article that it was an original . . . it wasn't.

Best thing (as bad as that might sound) was it wasn't someone we knew.
The police report hasn't clarified whether or not what the cause of the accident was, we just know he crossed the median between north and south bound traffic and hit an Audi and was then struck by a Ford Contour that couldn't stop . . . hit him head-on, ejecting him from the Cobra.

We are always horrified to hear of another Cobra owner crashing their dream, sometimes getting hurt in the process, but when one of our fellow Cobra owners gets killed, well, that just hits too close to home.

I hope that the police investigation finds that there was a mechanical failure and that this wasn't caused by some type of impairment or recklessness. Some have mentioned that it was a combined speed of 100MPH . . . no so, he had just left the traffic light to the south, from what we overheard at the scene, and he was not trying to turn left, there was no place to make a left turn on that section of the road. Near as the police can tell at this point, he just veered to the left aburptly.

Our prayers go out to his family in this time of loss . . .

Please be careful out there, guys . . . we all know how fast these cars can get away from us . . . . . in a heartbeat.

Doc