John Thomas, Shelby, Las Vegas tour coordinator and a member of our local Mustang Club was involved in an accident on Decomber 18. John was driving his extremely rare cobra painted Gulf Blue with white stripes, #13. John was proceeding through a green light when he was hit by a pickup that had run the red light. John has stitches in the top of his head, cuts and bruises along his arm, and a cople of cracked ribs. The Cobra didn't fare so well. The left rear suspension, brake assembly, axle, and a few other parts will have to be replaced along with the right front spindle and a complete new body. Be careful out there!
Ouch! Sorry to hear that. I'm sure we all trust our own driving but unfortunately we've always got to watch out for others. I hope John and the Cobra are able to recover in a hurry. RS
I hope John has a speedy recovery. From Riding a Motorcycle For 22 years now, You develop a realization that no one can see you. with that thought in mind, that is how I drive every vehicle I own. when I got the Cobra and took my first ride down the street, I quickly adopted that thought even more so as the Cobra leaves you quite vulnerable as you are so low to the ground and surrounded by nothing that will prevent injury! You would think the driver would have "Heard" the COBRA!!
I went to Tom's Motorsports today to take a look at John's car. It is worse than I thought. One thing, the Shelby is well built. It took a side swipe with the truck doing well over 45 maybe more mph. John is doing fine, and the insurance is taking car of the #13 car. In the last several years a red light here in vegas means nothing. Several friends of mine have given up riding motorcycles because of accidents.
John Thomas and his Shelby Cobra Involved in Traffic Accident 12/18/2004 John Thomas has been a member of the Mustang Club of Las Vegas for a number of years now and he owns a 1966 Shelby GT350 and a very nice 1965 Shelby Cobra, an extremely rare automatic painted Gulf Blue with white stripes. On December 18th, 2004, John was driving his Cobra over by the Las Vegas airport. He was in a right turn lane at the corner of Russell Rd. and Eastern, with a large 4x4 in the straight lane to his left. Because he couldn't see around that big truck, he waited until the light turned green before proceeding into the intersection to make his right turn. But when the light turned green, the big truck didn't move. Understandably thinking it was safe to go, since the light was green now, John pulled out and was immediately struck by a pickup truck that had run his red light. The impact was on the left rear quarter and the force sent John spinning, witnesses say he was airborne for a moment, then over into a couple of stopped cars in the intersection. The car is equipped with a full racing harness and John was luckily wearing the lap portion of that harness. Had he not been strapped in he would have surely been ejected from the vehicle. John will be okay but he's a little sore right now. He has stitches in the top of his head where he probably hit the sun visor, cuts and bruises along his left arm, and a couple of cracked ribs. Remarkable given the fact that he was hit so hard he actually flew through the air. He's also lucky the impact wasn't about 3 feet further forward because he would have taken the impact directly to his upper body. His car didn't fare so well. The left rear suspension, brake assembly, axle, and a few other parts will have to be replaced along with the right front spindle and a complete new body. The frame doesn't look as though it has been bent, so the 13 car will eventually ride again. It's currently under the care of Tom's Motorsports out at the Speedway industrial park. Both John and his car will need time to recuperate, but we should all be thankful that he's okay. We've all heard about how many people are hurt or killed each year when these idiots run red lights. In other states red means STOP!
