The person at wheel is a菜鸟too. On the way back home from Yosemite, the 菜鸟 did not see a turn. When he realized it, it was too late. The van was over speed limit by about 20mph. When 菜鸟 applied the break, the van skied and simply flied of the road.
By luck, the elevation lost was less than 10 feet. The van landed in a grassy land, went in a circle motion, and finally come to a stop. No flip over! We had some bruise and bump but none was seriously hurt.
The van front axis was broken and one of the front tires was broken too. The skiing mark in the road showed that the van just barely missed a light pole and a steel cable fixing the pole!
Where did the accident happen? When we waited for two vans to pick us back home, we found out it was right in Chinese Camp on Hwy 120. What a coincident!
Because of this experience, I learnt the speed limit has a reason to be there. So I never drive over the speed limit by 10 mph on turns. Rural road has a poor condition. In that case, I drive just over limit by 5 mph or on the limit. In one word, control the speed according to the road condition. Pay attention to speed limit.