Your worst incident on the road

angel_of_dartford

A few years ago, was stationary tail end Charlie in a queue of traffic waiting to leave the m25 a/clock at J2, was driving my wife's zafira with my little people sitting in the back (not the very back suicide seats though - way too close to the rear windscreen in an impact), handbrake on and foot on the brake. I saw an arctic bearing down, thought he was a bit fast, kept watching although the cab was dipping under heavy braking, could now see the trailer side on too !
I couldn't get out of the way into lane 2, which only left the hard shoulder as an option.

For some reason, with complete calm, I turned to my wife and just gently said "brace yourself"

I accelerated onto the hard shoulder, to a question of "what the f*ck are you doing ?" Then stopped, only to see the front of the attic stop roughly level to where the rear doors had been moments before.

The traffic moved off, as did we, another day where angels were looking over me and mine

jk0

Wow. I guess that proves the wisdom of 'Tyres & Tarmac'. (You stay sufficiently far from the car in front in a queue, that you can see their rear tyres and some tarmac.)

keith969

In January 2001 I was returning from the local dump, the roads were icy and the car in front and myself were doing about 25mph. Behind me was a guy who was obviously in a hurry driving very close, too close for the conditions. We got onto a short bit of dual carriageway a few hundred yards before a roundabout, both the woman in the car in front and I moved into the right hand lane and signalled right.

At this point the guy behind puts his foot down and undertakes on the inside before moving back into the outside lane, and as he passed lost control and span on the road. Woman in front brakes hard to avoid hitting him, I brake to avoid her, but with the icy road and despite 4 wheel drive, skidded on the ice and ended up in a hedge with the front hitting a lamp post and the windscreen smashed.

Woman comes back to check if I'm OK, I was although a bit shocked, and manage to get out through the window. Go to guy who caused the accident to get his insurance details. His wife is glaring at him (he has two kids in child seats in the back) but he's not the slightest bit apologetic.

Ended up with car in the garage for 3 weeks and had to fight the insurance co. not to lose my no claims despite a witness...

bigjl

angel_of_dartford wrote: »

A few years ago, was stationary tail end Charlie in a queue of traffic waiting to leave the m25 a/clock at J2, was driving my wife's zafira with my little people sitting in the back (not the very back suicide seats though - way too close to the rear windscreen in an impact), handbrake on and foot on the brake. I saw an arctic bearing down, thought he was a bit fast, kept watching although the cab was dipping under heavy braking, could now see the trailer side on too !
I couldn't get out of the way into lane 2, which only left the hard shoulder as an option.

For some reason, with complete calm, I turned to my wife and just gently said "brace yourself"

I accelerated onto the hard shoulder, to a question of "what the f*ck are you doing ?" Then stopped, only to see the front of the attic stop roughly level to where the rear doors had been moments before.

The traffic moved off, as did we, another day where angels were looking over me and mine

You have described one example of why you should always keep an eye on your mirrors when stationary.

You can say the Angels where looking down on you. But IMHO that was all on you.

Strider590

keith969 wrote: »

In January 2001 but with the icy road and despite 4 wheel drive, skidded on the ice

What has 4wd got to do with anything in that situation? 4wd gives you more grip pulling away, nothing else. Once your moving you still have 4 tyres on the road and 4 brakes stopping them, just like everyone else, except that your actually at a disadvantage due to your high centre of gravity.

This is the problem with 4x4s, every time we get ice/snow you see them driving about as though they're immortal and then when they end up in a ditch they bang on about how much worse it would have been in a "normal car", when in fact a "normal car" probably wouldn't have ended up in the ditch at all.

benjus

OneLeggedPig wrote: »

Bit unwise- what if you had actually sustained more serious injuries, the extent of which were only discovered later? Better to go through the correct procedure, and claim from his insurance. It should also have been reported to the police.

Yeah, you're probably right. But it's hard to think straight when you've just been in an accident and all I wanted to do at the time was to go home.

maisie06

Winter 2010 I think when we had alot of snow, I was just popping to the stables to feed the horses and on the way there was a very sharp right hand bend on a narrow country lane, I was driving my trusty Fourtrack and I had slowed right down due to compacted snow and ice on that bend when, due to the hight driving position I noticed Land Rover knob (the name we gave to this idiot who drove his Defender everywhere as though he was in the Dakar rally) heading towards the bend at speed......I stopped and waited...and sure enough LR knob slams on his brakes, all his wheels lock up and he's sliding like a bobsleigh heading down it's run - he went straight through the hedge that was in front of him and landed up in the field, wish I had it on dashcam!!! He was VERY shamefaced. 4X4 only gives extra grip moving off, as he found out!!!