Monday, October 11, 2010

Bumblebee Involved in Real Car Accident (Updated)

While filming in Washington, DC today for Transformers: The Dark of the Moon, the real Bumblebee car was involved in a car crash with a police vehicle responding to an emergency car. According to TMZ.com, D.C. police said the officer was part of the Explosives Ordinances Division, indicating he was responding to a bomb threat. He was also driven to a nearby hospital, no word on injuries. ABC WJLA reports that the roads were closed, including Maryland Avenue were the accident happened, but police will use the shortest route available to get to an emergency.

Below are several different videos found by Mauricio of the same accident. No details on how this effects production. While often there is multiple copies of a car, one for stunts, one for a camera rig, and so forth, that doesn't necessarily mean they have more than one of the "hero" car which is usually the vehicle that is used for close-ups and whatever scene that is required were the vehicle just has to look good. They might be able to rig another copy or even get the car repaired in record time by swapping parts with other vehicles. The last video is a shot of the aftermath found by TFormers as 'Bee gets prepped for towing. Thanks to Richard, @sdlrob, and the many other site readers for the info.

Update: According to Colin Hinkle, who shot a lot of the cool images and videos from Chicago, he spoke with crew then and learned that Transformers 3 production does have two hero cars, one with tinted windows to help hide the driver and one without.

Update 2:: J1000, who brought us all the images from Detroit, provided this picture to back up Colin's info. Two Bumblebees, the tinting being the only difference. In addition, Todd C. who was onsite at the time of the accident reports:
I had taken my kids to the American Indian Museum and walked out to see them shooting. I was right there when the accident happed. The one thing they are not explaining is that this was the second take. The first take the corvette was behind Bumblebee and lost control and spun around nearly colliding with a trailer. So the next time they put it behind Ironsides so it would not have to make a sharp turn. In between the 1st and second shoots, and ambulance also went through scene. It didn't seem like he knew what was going on. He got half way through then kind of slowed down by Optimus Prime looked at it confused then kept going. believe me it was a big mess!










70 comments:

  1. if I were that cop, I would be MORTIFIED. DX

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  2. as sad as this is, at least we ALL have now confirmed Ironhide and the twins are IN the film at some point lol I was pretty excited to see the twins not gonna lie, ironhide well we knew he was gonna be in it, but to know they actually are in some part that is HOPEFULLY NOT the beginning, i'm for it!

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  3. You know, what's really strange is that Michael Bay is nowhere to be seen in that footage. Usually he's the first person to respond loudly over the radio like "STOP STOP STOP!!!" to these kinds of problems when they occur in his movies, as car accidents happen quite often. Correct me if I'm wrong or short-sighted. Could be this be a second unit staged in DC that didn't know what to do? Am fielding guesses as to how communication got messed up.

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  4. The police wanted to be popular...in an emergency, cops suppose to slow down at intersections..suppose a granny on a scooter was passing?..she dies, now we have 2 emergencies....same with this. now he can;t go to whatever he was going to....Anyway..here is how i see it.,,bumblebee transformers, jump over digitally replaced police car..and continue with chase...then red autobot says "damn humans"

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  5. Lion I was curious as to the same thing, how do they NOT see this coming? especially with all the police around wouldn't someone say it? or hell i dunno SEE A POLICE SUV FLYING PAST THEM i mean the guy driving optimus saw it coming before anyone.

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  6. I bet this movie will cancel its 3D presentation like harry potter is doing

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  7. I think each vehicle has a "twin"...I won't believe they flew optimus and other bots from Florida just for a 2hr shoot

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  8. DC police......"...They are a young species, they have much to learn..."

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  9. Actually, my bad. Michael Bay is in FLORIDA at the Kennedy Space Center. So what we see here is simultaneous filming in the DC area, that's why Bay is not there. Sorry, my bad.

    Bay is probably flipping a shit right now.

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  10. how'd you find out he's in florida still?

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  11. "ITS ONE OF THOSE DECEPTICONS MY SON KEEPS TALKING ABOUT! GET'M BILLY!"
    No seriously, why was bumblebee so late outta all the other bots?

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  12. "The Dark Side Of The Moon".....hmmmm I get it now....we don't see the dark side of the moon from earth---so there is where the autobots colony is...and NASA goes there from time to time to get a little bit of technology updates

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  13. Sideswipe: Sorry, my bad again. Bad choice of words. He is *probably* still in Florida or en route. Or maybe somewhere else?

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  14. New rumor

    http://www.countingdown.com/movies/4093528/board?viewpost=4114607

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  15. @anonymous 10/11/2010 6:48 PM

    As far as I know, Harry Potter wasn't shot in 3D using 3D cameras, so it was being post production converted (which usually sucks) and that's what got cancelled. We have already seen evidence that many scenes in TF3 are being shot with 3D cameras, so it would waste money not to be in 3D rather than save it in HP's case.

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  16. ah gotcha, although i heard they all left friday? they probably came in and left on planes that are parked at the SLF (shuttle landing facility) okay sorry guys can someone give me a crash course on Unicron? I didn't get into transformers until the movies, so i'm lost as to who this guy is and i'm way to lazy to look it up, so i figured someone would enjoy explaining it to me, and while you're at it how abotu omega supreme?

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  17. Sideswipe: Unicron is a planet. He is about the size of 1/4 of Cybertron. He was one of the first Transformers and also one of the deadliest. He can eat whole planets or moons for energy. He can transform into a huge planet-sized robot as well.

    Unicron was defeated in Transformers the Movie 1985 by Rodimus Prime and the power of the Matrix of Leadership.

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  18. ohh i see, so is he a decepticon? Or is he on his own? and what level does that put him on with the fallen? since he was the "original" decepticon

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  19. Unicron was also a character in the Transformers Unicron trilogy (Armada, Energon, and Cybertron). He was a planet in this as well.

    A toy of Unicron as a tank was released at one point (I think Transformers Cybertron) but the tank version hasn't appeared in any cartoons.

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  20. Sideswipe: Unicron has no affiliation. He'll eat anything and anyone that gets in his way. The toys would allow you to believe he is a Decepticon but in reality he is on his own and you best better not be in the same universe. haha

    If you ever catch the opening of Transformers the Movie, you'll be very pleased at the highly-detailed animation and budget put into the movie. A LOT of work went into it; 2 years worth! That's why G1 fans love it so much.

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  21. i'll definitely check it out thanks Lion.

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  22. Sorry to break in to your 'Unicron Reunion' but the poor stut driver must be shaken up... And the police man (my parents were cops in NYC) the only think the police man said was (possibly) "I dont't give a S*** if your filming a movie! Peoples lives are a stake!" (my Dad said that)

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  23. while that's a good point Spark he coulda risked more lives by doing that.wasnt bright on the DCPD

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  24. Its a closed movie set! The fricken chances of there being people on the street or crossing the street is high!

    that STUPID ass cop fucked up! I hope he gets stuck with the repair bill!

    There's other ways to where he was going, but oh hes a cop everyone believes a cop right?

    Poor bumblebee and the driver, fuck the cop stupid pig

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  25. Spark500: Valid viewpoint. Not speaking for all cops, but it is possible this one got really Gung-Ho and has his version of an action movie in real life literally crashing into this one.

    Police protocol is to slow down and be vigilant of all vehicles before an intersection so I'm not sure why he didn't see the motion going on despite the fact that he knew he was driving through a live set. He was probably too shortsighted to care.

    Also, Bumblebee's tinted windows are EXTREMELY dark, so you have NO PERIPHERAL vision. This is for those naysayers who think the Bumblebee stunt driver could've stopped in time. He probably couldn't because he was making a left turn and only able to see out the front window. Try that on your own at high speed.

    Additionally, since the BB car is a concept makeover, it's most likely fabricated from lightweight molded fiberglass body panels, hence why it literally shattered like glass upon impact. A normal steel shell like our own cars don't do that and would simply crumple by design.

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  26. well at least theres ironhide :D

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  27. If anything good can be said out of all this, at least its just a Camaro that got whacked. Not a one off custom vehicle. They can go to the nearest Chevy dealer and pick a yellow one up and have a copy made pretty quick. Anyone can buy that body kit and the TF emblems are part of the Transformers package.

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  28. Martinus Prime10/11/2010 8:55 PM

    @Sideswipe:
    Holy hell Sideswipe, not to attack you, but you do not know who Unicron is, nor Omega Supreme???
    I'm guessing you're not that "old" then? Your next homework wil be, to watch the G1 cartoons!!! ;-) LOL

    OT: Did you guys see the personal assist just stands there drinking his bottle of water?

    My guess is, that they were not filming there, cause there are people all over, left and right of the strets, they would all be in shots.
    And there are no camera's or camera rigged cars around.

    And what's up with the 6 police cars for one little car accident in that last video???
    Holy fuck, the accident the police suv was headed to, probably wasn't that important!!!

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  29. An interesting noteworthy reply on one of the videos, a user comments... get this...

    "BARRICADE'S REVENGE!!!"

    hahaha

    That was actually pretty funny.

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  30. Actually Martinus Prime! In one of the videos you can clearly see the camera car following behind the Ferarri, twins and bee. Other reports are saying they were filming a scene!


    Cops fault 100%

    and dont try that "oh the cop had the right of way" crap

    what if it was Kindergarten cop 2 filming and there were 23 kids in the street crossing and that cop couldnt' stop fast enough? or any people for that matter!

    I feel bad for the drive of bumblebee! On a closed set you don't need to make sure of your surroundings such as looking both ways because he knows where every car, every person is going to be at that time

    for a stupid lame ass pig to speed thru and disrupt a closed movie set is messed up!

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  31. Martinus, I was born in 87, transformers was never really my thing, i was more of a TMNT guy. I got into it when live action came out and as of this second am on part 8 of 9 of hte 1986 movie so far not too thrilled with all the killing off of the characters i know lol

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  32. oh and martinus in the 3rd movie you see the movie car following bee, the ferrari the twins and the mercedes.

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  33. Sideswipe: Oh wow, you are young but you are tres cool. haha

    I was born in 1973... which I suppose makes me an old fogey. However that doesn't make me a G1 whiner. haha

    Additionally, I always loved all of Michael Bay's movies previous to Transformers in 2007 (Bad Boys, The Rock, Armageddon, etc.).

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  34. haha yeah i guess i'm a youngin then, i know transformers was big in the 80s but like i said when i became aware it was all TMNT that was around.

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  35. okay friends i need your help why is the 1986 movie so good? I just watched it and honestly was a little disappointed, killing off prime, sucked, megatron, sucked, (yes i realize galvatron is megatron), starscream, sucked,ironhide sucked, jazz and bumblebee aren't in half of it and sideswipe isn't even in it!! Although after watching it i'm quite hopeful Hot Rod is the ferrari cuz he was kick ass. but i dunno i was disappointed, although if Unicron is in this movie it makes sense to kill ironhide. or maybe i'm just a fan of killing him off. also where were the twins in the 86 movie? Or are Bee, Jazz, Sideswipe, Twins not big players in the old cartoons?

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  36. the news just reported that all car scenes on closed streets have been suspended pending the investigation....

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  37. INVESTIGATION!?! WHAT INVESTIGATION!? cop drove onto closed set...CASE CLOSED!

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  38. sam nickelson10/11/2010 10:21 PM

    the funny thing to me is how in the first vid the driver of bee gets out and has this "oh shit!!!!" reaction

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  39. Sideswipe: It was good because for its time that it was made, there was nothing else like it as far as animation and story. It was ahead of its time when compared to most crappy American cartoons back in 1986.

    Unfortunately it didn't do too well in the theaters because it was too depressing. But it lived on through the diehard G1 TF fans because of the sheer amount of design work that was put into it.

    I know a lot of young people would look at it now and not think twice because of the advancements in animation along with CG, but again, for its time, Transformers the Movie was one of the best.

    And thanks to Todd C. info! I think we have a better idea now of what was going on and why the officer did not slow down. He probably wasn't paying attention to the goddam road ahead! Not to mention the fact that it was butt-stupid to ignore the barriers for a live-drive action piece going on! Stupid stupid stupid.

    I feel really bad for the Bumblebee stunt driver. He had probably rehearsed that scene many times as usual and THIS happens and it's like WHOA! THAT wasn't in the script! What the F!

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  40. im a really big G1 fan, i know all of the characters names, thier personalities and what vehicles they change into but honestly the g1 film is kind of crappy, 2.5/5

    The Transformer scenes in the 2007 movie are amazing, the thing that i dont like about the 2007 are the hacker scenes and sector 7 scenes, the army and shia and megan scenes are good too
    4/5
    Revenge of the Fallen is a bad joke, really lazy film, the forest scene is good but thats about it, 2/5

    i think dark of the moon will be 4/5 , the action i think is going to be much better then the other two, but with leo and agent simmons (worst human character in both films) returning as well as the twins i think its going to really annoy me

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  41. did bumblebee die

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  42. First and foremost, DCPD should have known there was a massive movie set going on, alerted all officers in that area of street closures and planned for an alternative in case of emergency. Seems like DC is really snakebiting the production. They probably have knowledge of the other set accident and will stupidly drag out an investigation and cause tons of problems just to get their jollies off.

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  43. I blame the cop for bad judgement for driving in closed streets were he knew something was going on. I hope the guys ok but very poor judgement on his part. Cops in New Orleans often over react and cause more harm sometimes then they should. I have seen them push cars out of the way with their own units.

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  44. I smell bacon! anybody else smell bacon?

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  45. Bay was in DC Monday. A guy on twitter stumbled upon filming and snapped his pic.
    http://twitpic.com/2wvwtq

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  46. Ah, thanks DollarShort. Thanks for correcting my guess. Well who knows then where he was during the crash and afterwards. It's not like him to be not there, you know? Probably busy ripping his hair by now.

    Although we know accidents have happened on his sets many times for other films. This one just happens to be a bit out of the ordinary.

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  47. Wonder how much this will cost the film crew. Bumblebee`s vehicle mode was brand new and a promo (Thats why they covered it with the sheet after)

    Hopefully they change the script and that police car is CGI replaced with Barricade ;)

    Anyway, i was really hopeing it would mean Bumblebee would be killed off, but i doubt that seeing as the film company have atleast 3 of each vehicle.

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  48. About the only fail I see, is failure to communicate. Not on the film production as those dates have been posted, that we have seen. It may be a dispatcher error I think.

    If the department got the memo, it probably seen the paper shreader a little too soon.

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  49. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkq6fi2U2zE a better view from FOX reporter

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  50. Just one word: Bummer!

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  51. Kids these days don't like movies from the 20th century because of 'lame grphics'... I'm a 13 year old (girl) and I find movies like Abba & Castelo funny!!! I'm probably one in a million kids who like old time movies. :)

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  52. Martinus Prime10/12/2010 8:45 AM

    Sorry guys, my bad, there is indeed a camera rigged car.

    @Sideswipe:
    Then you're indeed a youngster, I was born in 1977 and obviously grew up with TF G1, also doesn't mean I'm a G1 whiner, like Lion said some folks are, but only a huge G1 fan.

    I also have the Takara dvd box, wich is
    officially G2, but I hate it, I just can't watch it with all the stupid voices, even in Japanese, I can't set myself to watch it.
    I'm guessing it's because Optimus isn't part of it anymore.
    That's also the one thing that sucked major balls in the 86 movie!!! That Optimus died, every child cried that day. For the rest, the 86 movie is the best, especially for those days.
    Oh, and the Twins weren't in G1.

    Now back on the accident, it's a K-9 unit, what emergency could that be, when dogs have to be there??

    I loveBtw LionBoogy, tinted windows don't mean you can't look outside, a friend of mine has a car that has blacked out windows all around, and it's legal(In The Netherlands), you can see outside very clearly.
    Officially the windows have to have 70% of clearence, my friends car is almost blacked out, he had a ticket once, but he could post the ticket to the company who brought it on, and they won the lawsuit!

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  53. oh you guys calling someone who was born in 87 a youngster. I was born in 1993 and am a hardcore TF fan, both G1 and every other incarnation pretty much. Take that lol |D

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  54. same anon as above:

    and on top of that, I'm a girl as well. I think I got you all beat :'D

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  55. @Sideswipe:

    Like LionBoogy, I too, was born back in '73 and I remember when TFTM came out in 86' - it was the $HIT, due to all the advances in animation at the time, as well as the music and sound design, and was one of the biggest movies that year, but unfortunately, it didn't do too well. Alot of characters (including Sideswipe) were killed off by the writers (as revealed in interviews) to make room for new/G2 characters. Also, there was a HUGE protest against killing off Prime - so much so, that some kid locked himself in his closet crying for quite some time, that Prime was dead. Also, one cool thing about G1 was that Peter Cullen did BOTH Prime and Ironhide's voices.

    As far as the Twins, the ORIGINAL twins were Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, called so because their vehicle alt-modes were both Lamborghini Countachs: Sideswipe was red, and Sunstreaker was yellow. The original Skids was a Blue SUV, and I think the original Mudflap was a G2 or much later character, and they were NOTHING like Michael Bay's creation.

    Omega Supreme - he was a BIG-A$$ Autobot who turned into a rocket and a tank. There were some episodes of G1 cartoons where Omega Supreme flew the Autobots to Cybertron, as an alternative to the Space Bridge which was built and used primarily by, the Decepticons. Omega was also in TFA, but was a different vehicle mode. Here's a link for the Original Omega Supreme where he faces off against the Original Constructicons and a huge robotic creature that threatens the Earth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2DEk09ZoF4

    Enjoy!

    Sincerely,

    aka Sablebot@tfw2005.com

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  56. Poor Bumblebee! Are going get a new car?

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  57. Sideswipe I agree with you I was born in 74, so I know what you mean. The stories of The killing of prime are real. People were just down right nuts when they did that. If you watch the movie and the extras they tell you about it all.

    Ranger565 I did not feel like jumping through hoops to get my post up.

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  58. Martinus Prime10/12/2010 11:41 AM

    @anon 10/12/2010 9:53 AM:
    We mean a youngster in the meaning of the existing of TF, we grew up with the TF G1 cartoons, someone born in 87 grew up on the reruns. You, on the other hand, are still a youngster at age 17, not that anything is wrong with that, that's the beauty of TF, it's still the most popular trough all generations!! My nephew who is 6 years watches TF Animated and I gave him a TF t-shirt for his birthday last year. I watched TFA, but it's not for me.
    I'm only G1, Beast Wars and Bay's TF movies.

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  59. Hmm.. I think that if we're all in the same boat and we all love G1 + new movies just the same, I think we're gonna be okay, regardless of age or gender. haha

    It's those *other people* that get their jollies up by bashing on Michael Bay or whatever that irks me and causes ripples of discontent. I think maybe their parents didn't treat them right or something. :P

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  60. I think the last video link posted here in the comments (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkq6fi2U2zE)explains it all extremely well. Very well put together segement that brought all the known facts to the forefront.

    You know... at the end of the day it simply comes down to everyone was doing what they were suppose to be doing. TF Production doing what they were doing and the cop doing what he needed to do. Both worlds collided (no pun intended) in a horrible way, but it happens.

    Was it the cops fault for not slowing down? Yeah... kind of. I mean you can see that he clearly almost hit someone that was standing out on the road... The cop clearly had to swerve to avoid that individual, then I believe again to miss Optimus. The fact is... it was an emergency.

    You could see the Bumblebee car was trying to get stopped. The driver just didn't have enough time to do so. And going at the rate of speed that he was going, and the type of tires on the car, there was no way he could get stopped in mid turn. The real miracle is that it was only two cars involved. The Ferrari could have easily rear-ended the Bumblebee car... and also it's hard to see where Sideswipe was in relation to it all as well when Bee made contact with the cop car.

    I'm a pizza delivery driver. I've seen cops do some really stupid shit. And on the flip side of that... I've seen emergency vehicles not get the respect that they require when responding to emergencies. I've seen Fire Trucks have to literally SIT at an intersection, sirens blazing, while morons heading in the same direction I'm heading refuse to stop as I sit there helplessly witnessing them do so.

    Sirens on set might have been something that wasn't out of the ordinary. So you can't blame them for not stopping, but can you really blame a guy for trying to do his job? I can't. Chalk it up as just "one of those things" and move on from it.

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  61. OMG BEAST WARS WAS AMAZING! that was my favorite TF (also the first one i saw) I was curious as to who was who though i never quite figured that out, minus the fact that dinobot seemed very much like starscream.

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  62. I was born in 1997 of October and i love transformers even G1 that was on a few times up north in New York... but sadly it doesnt seem to be a big hit down here in Florida it was on demand for like a week then...POOF gone! :(
    P.S. I love Beast Wars too! I watched it on G4 on Wednesday mornings! I can help you witht who was who... well some...

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  63. NOOOO NOT BUMBLEBEE!!!!! >:o( Why was that cop on a different radio? Of course the area is blocked off, they don't want some joe-shmoe walzing on into the set. Cop decided he was going to bypass all that, or he wasn't paying attention (hello, expensive and awesome cars everywhere, Optimus Prime-lookout!.) Yeah, I'm glad they're okay, which is why I can focus on the accident, but that kills me to see that beautiful camaro eat it. Damn. I mean damn. I'm glad they have back up Bumbleebee's, but still. They planning a funeral for it? (lolz) At least he avoided Optimus. I'd have gone off the deep end then.

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  64. Poor Bumblebee. He'll never get his voice fixed.

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  65. born in 1998 hardcore tf fan all around killing prime-the biggest mistake of their lives...oh right STUPID FUCKIN COP!!

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  66. i think the police department needs to pay for the repairs to Bumblebee. he is one of my 2 fav transformers next to Optimus

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  67. That was a bad crash.

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  68. I saw this from the news at that time. I'm just glad that nobody was seriously hurt from the incident.

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  69. Was that really him? I bumped into this blog and found out about this! At first, I thought that it was just taken from a movie scene, but it was kinda a metaphor, though. On the other hand, those involved here should actually plan already on what are the best things to do. Well, of course people would be hiring lawyers to clean things up. Then, what should be the next, maybe?

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  70. why bumbleebee didnt transform and avoid the accident... hehe

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