O/T Basically the reasons you guys were all about tying down gear and keeping

[Ryan.]

Your van safe.

 

This is a tragedy to say the least, but judging by name of the bands and their latest album... if there is a god, he is not without a sense of irony.

 

http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=514007&Gt1=28102

 

 

Van carrying bands crashes in Oregon, vocalist killed Aug. 2, 2010, 6:13 PM EST PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- A van carrying two metal bands crashed Monday on Interstate 5, killing a vocalist and injuring two guitarists, police said. The San Francisco-area bands Early Graves and The Funeral Pyre played a show in Oregon on Sunday and were heading to Nevada when the driver lost control after falling asleep, state police Lt. Gregg Hastings said. The van rolled over and came to a stop in a grassy area off the freeway. Makh Daniels, 28, of Pacifica, Calif., died at the scene north of Medford, Ore., Hastings said. He was the vocalist for Early Graves, which recently released its second album, "Goner." Daniels was ejected from a rear cargo area, where he and two others had been lying down. He was not wearing a seat belt, Hastings said. The driver was identified as Justin Garcia, 24, a guitarist for The Funeral Pyre. He and a passenger, Early Graves guitarist Tyler Jensen, were taken to a hospital for treatment of injuries not considered life-threatening. Six other men escaped injury in the van, which was pulling a utility trailer. Early Graves said on its MySpace page it had been on the road since June 25 in support of its new album, playing gigs from Southern California to New England and then back to the West. The group was scheduled to perform in Reno on Monday. In press materials announcing the album release, Daniels said he had been through some dark times, and writing the lyrics, with themes of loneliness and depression, had been "an exorcism of sorts." "Doing this record has been absolutely necessary for all of us in the band," Daniels said. "And personally, it's the proudest I've ever been of anything I've ever done."

 

[Craig Vecchione]

I know it gets poo-pooed, but I don't harp on safety for no reason.

[congaron]

The more packed with people the world gets, the more we need to harp on safety...the odds are rapidly increasing in the wrong direction for accidents to happen. Prevention is the best medicine....old, wise saying.

[Shaster]

Sad to hear. I've been in two van crashes and one van rollover (none while I was driving). I actually missed a fourth crash because I took the Greyhound.

 

Gear in the trailer and seatbelts always on, that's what I learned the hard way.

 

It's really tough when you're the driver and you crash - happened to a friend of mine with a "B" act, screwed up their tour and the whole bit. He was feeling pretty bad.

[RoadRanger]

Driving on little or no sleep is just stoopid - evolution has ways of dealing with stoopid . Note the 3AM PST dateline on the article and that they had been touring for a month and a half ...

[Unalaska]

The seattle area has lost a great classical conductor and musician on sunday afternoon. While driving back to seattle from winthrop at 1pm he was hit head on by a 16yr kid who crossed the center line. He was a close family friend and I'm still in shock.

[Special J]

Sad to hear, of course. This is why I harped on the kid in the "which vehicle for touring" threads to go with a trailer or install a cage for the cargo area.

[agedhorse]

Touring is very dangerous. I lost a friend with another sound company about 10 years ago due to falling asleep at the wheel coming home from a gig, a gig that I had passed on. The results were gastly to say the least. That's what ended most of our touring work, too many calls that were too close for comfort.

 

Another friend of mine, Michael Hedges, died under similar circumstances a little earlier. He was one of the best acoustic guitarists in the country at that time and I had worked with him on a large number of Windham Hill dates we did in the 80's and 90's. He played guitar like he had 4 hands.

[Craig Vecchione]

It's also why I was giving RR a pile of {censored} for loading a car to the gills with nothing to secure the gear. Stuff flying around inside turns the interior into a human blender. It also causes the car to handle very weird, causing otherwise stable cars to overturn or spin unexpectedly while trying to panic-maneuver.