Fact Check

Ferrari, Ford F-150 Accident

Rumor: Photograph shows a pickup truck that a wife crashed into her husband's Ferrari in the family garage.

Published Oct. 10, 2006

Claim:

Claim:   Photograph shows a pickup truck that a wife crashed into her husband's Ferrari in the family garage.


REAL PHOTOGRAPH; FALSE DESCRIPTION


Example:   [Collected via e-mail, 2006]


Just an accident ... Sorry!!

"To my darling husband

Before you return from your overseas trip I just want to let you know about the small accident I had with the pick up truck when I turned into the driveway. Fortunately not to bad and I really didn't get hurt, I am ok. Your Motorcycle is ok too, so please don't worry too much.

I was coming home from Wal-Mart, and when I turned into the driveway I accidentally pushed down on the accelerator instead of the brake. The garage door is slightly bent but the pick up fortunately came to a halt when it bumped into your car.

I am really sorry but I know with your kind hearted personality you will in your heart find room to forgive me. You know how much I love you and care for you my sweetheart.

I cannot wait to hold you in my arms and make mad passionate love to you again and again.

Your loving wife.
XXXOOO

PS — the neighbor took a picture of the crash, and insisted I include it."



Click photo to enlarge

 

Origins:   This item is, like many urban legends, a vehicle for perpetuating stereotypes in the guise of presenting an innocent bit of humor. In this case someone has attached a humorous

but completely fictitious explanation to an unusual photograph, couched as a letter from a woman to her overseas husband informing him of the accident depicted in the picture, and hoping to deflect his anger with promises of a lusty welcome upon his return. Thus this piece manages to incorporate three negative female stereotypes in one small package: women as incompetent drivers capable of committing horrifying automotive feats (particularly when behind the wheel of "masculine" vehicles such as picktup trucks), as sly temptresses who use their sexuality to extricate themselves from difficult situations, and as dunderheads who would cluelessly forward (at the behest of a gloating, trouble-seeking neighbor) a man a photograph of the horrible damage they'd wreaked on one of his prized possessions.

A fourth stereotype — that of vengeance-seeking wronged woman — was worked into a 2007 variation on the original e-mail that included a P.S. of "Your girlfriend called."

The driver involved in the accident behind this image was not in fact a mature married woman who ineptly crashed the family pickup into her own garage, but rather a speeding, distracted male teenager who ran his truck off the road and into someone else's garage. This photograph captures the aftermath of a July 2005 accident in Fort Smith, Arkansas, the result of a teenage driver who diverted his attention to reach for a cell phone and ran his Ford F-150 pickup truck off the road, sending the vehicle airborne and launching it into a garage where it came to rest atop a Ferrari:



A Fort Smith family had their home remodeled, unintentionally, after a pickup truck landed in their garage on top of a 2000 Ferrari.

The accident happened just before four Sunday evening on Jenny Lind Road in Fianna Hills. According to the police report, the teenage driver reached for a cell phone and ran off the road and became airborne. He caused about two hundred thousand dollars worth of damage to the garage, the Ferrari, a PT Cruiser as well as 2 motorcycles.

The speed limit is posted at 30 miles per hour, but the owner of the damaged home as well as neighbors say there have been plenty of problems in the past. It's been nonstop traffic for the neighborhood with a steady stream of cars driving by to get a view of a flattened Ferrari and devastated garage.

Owner Steve Marts wasn't home at the time of the accident, but got the bad news over the phone. "I was just numb, just real numb," Marts said.


Last updated:   1 February 2015


Sources:




    Lasure, Sara.   "Ferrari Flattened by Pickup Truck."

    KFSM-TV [Ft. Smith — Fayetteville].   7 August 2005.


David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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