| I'd take any speculation, including yours, mine, and the LE "source" with a grain of salt at this point. (Side note: What the hell does "with a grain of salt mean anyway?") Based solely on my own experience on California streets (and no, I have never street raced; though I did cruise back in the day), if a street is posted 45, any decent driver doing 55'ish should still feel well under control. In fact, the speed limit is based on the 85th percentile speed observed under actual daily use (traffic engineering survey). Add in a tail happy car and a (possibly) unexpected 15 MPH corner ahead, bad things can happen. It's not unreasonable to think a light pole broadside at 55 would wreak havoc and tear a car in two. Even a slight throttle lift in that corner could be disastrous. This is not to diminish responsibility even if it happened this way, since 55 is not 45, and a Carrera GT is not a play toy. I'm just pointing out that it didn't necessarily have to be a criminally reckless idiot going 100 MPH. Accidents happen and we accept that sometimes they are fatal. Surviving a flying M3 doesn't make you an expert. It just makes you lucky. I'm glad you were lucky that day. Whether these two were unlucky or foolish remains to be seen.
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