Closest you've come to certain death whilst driving?
Discussion
My brush with death was 18 years ago in Bosnia -
Was a passenger in a landrover that hit a truck parked at the side of the road. Put my in a coma, woke up in a german field hospital in Sarajevo where they discovered bleeding in my brain. Medivacced back to the UK where I had surgery to remove blood clots.
Touch and go.
Made me appreciate life
Was a passenger in a landrover that hit a truck parked at the side of the road. Put my in a coma, woke up in a german field hospital in Sarajevo where they discovered bleeding in my brain. Medivacced back to the UK where I had surgery to remove blood clots.
Touch and go.
Made me appreciate life
Edited by ruggedscotty on Friday 2nd September 01:03
I was a passenger on the M1, just before J14 southbound, outside lane, Rover 820.
Driver lost control, we skewed left off the road and through a barrier as there was a road passing underneath at that point. Car flipped over and landed on the roof luckily on a downward slope towards the road below and slid into a tree.
Both of us walked away, me with slight head injuries and driver with fractured sternum. Very lucky.
My life didn't flash before my eyes but I do remember thinking 'so this is it then'.
Driver lost control, we skewed left off the road and through a barrier as there was a road passing underneath at that point. Car flipped over and landed on the roof luckily on a downward slope towards the road below and slid into a tree.
Both of us walked away, me with slight head injuries and driver with fractured sternum. Very lucky.
My life didn't flash before my eyes but I do remember thinking 'so this is it then'.
At 18 I wrote a car off after lift off over-steer sent me straight into a fairly solid stone wall at about 60/70mph.
I was in a mk6 Fiesta at the time which is a fairly solid motor but had I been in my old Saxo that I'd only got rid of a couple of months before it would have been a much different story!
I was in a mk6 Fiesta at the time which is a fairly solid motor but had I been in my old Saxo that I'd only got rid of a couple of months before it would have been a much different story!
Many years ago as back seat passenger in a mates vauxhall shoveit. We met a tanker on a single track road and reversed back to a fairly overgrown passing point. Tanker then drove forward and mounted the bank to get past, forgetting completely it would seem about centre of gravity.
I was treated to the sight of the rear of the tanker tipping towards me as it nearly deposited several tonnes on top of me, scraping the top of the door and the c pillar. Our driver swore it had the nearside wheels off the ground for a second until it swerved back into the centre of the road behind us and buggered off.
I hated being near lorries already due to another accident I witnessed as a teenager.
I was treated to the sight of the rear of the tanker tipping towards me as it nearly deposited several tonnes on top of me, scraping the top of the door and the c pillar. Our driver swore it had the nearside wheels off the ground for a second until it swerved back into the centre of the road behind us and buggered off.
I hated being near lorries already due to another accident I witnessed as a teenager.
I have a couple but I won't bore you too much with the details of first one which involved me in my youth stupidly overtaking a coach in my Morris 1000 and a large Jaguar coming the other way quickly around a bend. That was 40 years ago and it still occasionally haunts me, particularly as I had a friend, or somebody else's son, in the car.
The main one is when I was driving my Caterham along an A road when a car flashed in front of me at about 60mph across a B road cross road having failed to see the give way sign. If I had been two seconds in front of myself they may have been fishing bits of me from his grill.
The main one is when I was driving my Caterham along an A road when a car flashed in front of me at about 60mph across a B road cross road having failed to see the give way sign. If I had been two seconds in front of myself they may have been fishing bits of me from his grill.
Outside lane of the M5, at around 80mph in my old Opel Manta Hatchback, approaching a car in L2 to pass and the car he was passing in L1 pulls out and the two collide.
The car in L2 is pushed with some force into the central barrier around 40 feet in front of me and immediately starts to spin around, I steered slightly left and avoided it by what must have been millimetres,
The car from L1 is now also in the lane I am now in and I steer past him too.
I got through but in my rear mirror I see the car that hit the middle barrier now bounce back into the car in L2 and also collect another car that was following all this.
The motorway was shut after the accident for the rest of the afternoon and there was no one else that got through the pile up until the dust had settled. even then it was people going round it on the hard shoulder.
The car in L2 is pushed with some force into the central barrier around 40 feet in front of me and immediately starts to spin around, I steered slightly left and avoided it by what must have been millimetres,
The car from L1 is now also in the lane I am now in and I steer past him too.
I got through but in my rear mirror I see the car that hit the middle barrier now bounce back into the car in L2 and also collect another car that was following all this.
The motorway was shut after the accident for the rest of the afternoon and there was no one else that got through the pile up until the dust had settled. even then it was people going round it on the hard shoulder.
Yesterday.
I was at 60mph on an NSL B road, nice and wide with good visibility. As I approach a side turning that enters the road I am on there was a chap in a black car (turns out to be a Vauxhall Insignificant) just sat there and I couldn't work out why as he still had decent room to pull out and if he got a move on, wouldn't impede me.
Anyway, I closed the distance quickly, he's still sat there but I see he's stopped because he's arguing with two cyclists. "Whatever" I thought, let them have their 6am rage and carry on but, as I get close enough for there to be serious accident if he pulled out, he does so but not only that, sits in my lane stationary and continues to argue.
My a-hole is puckered at maximum force at this point, my brakes have locked and I'm sliding. The car stayed stable thankfully and I drifted into the oncoming lane a couple of feet from hitting him, where luckily no one else was. I rolled and pulled in further up but I didn't realise that a girl in a Mini who was following me had to do the same, albeit nearly collected me up the backside.
There were then four of us shouting at the Insignificant driver, who had now buttoned his window up and is staring straight ahead, refusing to acknowledge anyone; absolutely bricking it. I drove off, but the cyclists were still having some, and I imagine it'll all be on Youtube soon via a helmet-cam channel
.
I was at 60mph on an NSL B road, nice and wide with good visibility. As I approach a side turning that enters the road I am on there was a chap in a black car (turns out to be a Vauxhall Insignificant) just sat there and I couldn't work out why as he still had decent room to pull out and if he got a move on, wouldn't impede me.
Anyway, I closed the distance quickly, he's still sat there but I see he's stopped because he's arguing with two cyclists. "Whatever" I thought, let them have their 6am rage and carry on but, as I get close enough for there to be serious accident if he pulled out, he does so but not only that, sits in my lane stationary and continues to argue.
My a-hole is puckered at maximum force at this point, my brakes have locked and I'm sliding. The car stayed stable thankfully and I drifted into the oncoming lane a couple of feet from hitting him, where luckily no one else was. I rolled and pulled in further up but I didn't realise that a girl in a Mini who was following me had to do the same, albeit nearly collected me up the backside.
There were then four of us shouting at the Insignificant driver, who had now buttoned his window up and is staring straight ahead, refusing to acknowledge anyone; absolutely bricking it. I drove off, but the cyclists were still having some, and I imagine it'll all be on Youtube soon via a helmet-cam channel
.A few months back I was leaving the M5 at junction 19 southbound. I was stopped at the traffic lights at the end of the slip road, they turned green so I pulled off. Just then a huge truck came straight through the red lights doing a pretty decent speed and missed the front of my car by inches. I didn't even have time to brake. By the time I had gathered my thoughts, the truck had shot off down the m/way, so I just drove home very carefully !
1. 25 years ago aged 18, driving my mk1 Fiesta in L3 of the M6 at 90mph.
Turned away from the road briefly to adjust the stereo IIRC, looked up and there was a short piece of 1m dia. concrete pipe in the road in front of me.
Had no time to do anything but just swerve into L2, which was thankfully not full of car.
2. Just before that, passenger in a Land Rover going over one of the passes over the Atlas Mountains in Morocco.
One one of those roads with a cliff up on one side and a sheer drop on the other. It had rained heavily and there was a mound of gravel that had been washed down the cliff blocking the road. Various locals standing round looking at it. My mate decides he can drive over it, but as we start we realise the rain is actually washing it over the cliff, so it's actually gently moving towards the sheer drop. Driver was a cool customer, so he just angles the nose upwards a bit and we kind of 'crab' across. The sheer drop was on my side, and because we were on the tilt I could look more or less vertically down over the cliff edge.
Turned away from the road briefly to adjust the stereo IIRC, looked up and there was a short piece of 1m dia. concrete pipe in the road in front of me.
Had no time to do anything but just swerve into L2, which was thankfully not full of car.
2. Just before that, passenger in a Land Rover going over one of the passes over the Atlas Mountains in Morocco.
One one of those roads with a cliff up on one side and a sheer drop on the other. It had rained heavily and there was a mound of gravel that had been washed down the cliff blocking the road. Various locals standing round looking at it. My mate decides he can drive over it, but as we start we realise the rain is actually washing it over the cliff, so it's actually gently moving towards the sheer drop. Driver was a cool customer, so he just angles the nose upwards a bit and we kind of 'crab' across. The sheer drop was on my side, and because we were on the tilt I could look more or less vertically down over the cliff edge.
Tango13 said:
EazyDuz said:
Tango13 said:
About 10mm
Multiple compound fracture of the femur after a bike smash. The bone missed the femoral artery by about 10mm on its way out.
Did you ride again after that?Multiple compound fracture of the femur after a bike smash. The bone missed the femoral artery by about 10mm on its way out.
You can't let such a minor thing as death stop you enjoying yourself
Still got a bike...
A couple of months ago.
Was taking the Westfield to MOT, not driven it for a while, wanted to give it a bit of stick. Backed off from the car in front of me (no one else behind me) to give some space and let rip, drop cog, 3,4,5, foot flat around a long easy left-hander. Was haring down the road at #quitefast with rapidly approaching roundabout and the aforesaid car, waited until last moment and braked hard, forgetting about lack of driving aids. Speed dropped off rapidly initially, then all 4 wheels locked up and I felt the car twitch. Car started to slide left, turned wheel right, car flipped right and carried on into a 180 into oncoming traffic. Wheels locked, mind frozen.
I can still see it now in slow motion.
I missed one oncoming car, as he'd seen the cloud of tyresmoke and the skid start and had appeared to pull as close to the kerb as possible, this was when I was at 90 degrees to the white line, half in the other lane. Next vehicle was a wagon, I was frozen in position, wheel still hard right, now looking over my left shoulder at the truck's bumper. The wagon driver was also on it and stopped, just as enough of my speed had been scrubbed off by brakes and sideways motion. The car halted about a foot from the wagon's bumper, and I looked up at the driver, he was frowning. There was enough momentum in the Westfield with the wheel still hard right for it to roll back into my lane (still nothing coming) with the engine still running. I guess I must have automatically pressed the clutch at some point. Waved my thanks at the truck driver as I rolled past him. Slapped it in 1st when the car was straight and stamped on the throttle - just to get away from the scene as fast as possible, as I felt embarrassed more than anything. The car then started to snake under hard acceleration and backed off a bit, got on the roundabout and got the chuff out of there.
Similarly to Laurasotherhalf, there wasn't time to be scared. I was wired on adrenaline when I got to MOT though and had to go and have a sit down and take stock.
Was taking the Westfield to MOT, not driven it for a while, wanted to give it a bit of stick. Backed off from the car in front of me (no one else behind me) to give some space and let rip, drop cog, 3,4,5, foot flat around a long easy left-hander. Was haring down the road at #quitefast with rapidly approaching roundabout and the aforesaid car, waited until last moment and braked hard, forgetting about lack of driving aids. Speed dropped off rapidly initially, then all 4 wheels locked up and I felt the car twitch. Car started to slide left, turned wheel right, car flipped right and carried on into a 180 into oncoming traffic. Wheels locked, mind frozen.
I can still see it now in slow motion.
I missed one oncoming car, as he'd seen the cloud of tyresmoke and the skid start and had appeared to pull as close to the kerb as possible, this was when I was at 90 degrees to the white line, half in the other lane. Next vehicle was a wagon, I was frozen in position, wheel still hard right, now looking over my left shoulder at the truck's bumper. The wagon driver was also on it and stopped, just as enough of my speed had been scrubbed off by brakes and sideways motion. The car halted about a foot from the wagon's bumper, and I looked up at the driver, he was frowning. There was enough momentum in the Westfield with the wheel still hard right for it to roll back into my lane (still nothing coming) with the engine still running. I guess I must have automatically pressed the clutch at some point. Waved my thanks at the truck driver as I rolled past him. Slapped it in 1st when the car was straight and stamped on the throttle - just to get away from the scene as fast as possible, as I felt embarrassed more than anything. The car then started to snake under hard acceleration and backed off a bit, got on the roundabout and got the chuff out of there.
Similarly to Laurasotherhalf, there wasn't time to be scared. I was wired on adrenaline when I got to MOT though and had to go and have a sit down and take stock.
Edited by Tonsko on Thursday 1st September 08:57
Welshbeef said:
LaurasOtherHalf said:
St Bernards Pass between Switzerland and Italy, we'd been racing all day from the nürburgring to our ski resort. On one section we came over a crest and from what looked like an easy right left chicane it quickly became apparent it was a right hairpin doubling back on left with a cliff between us and at least a 500m drop.
Things slowed down to the point where I could start to pick which part of the barrier to go through as we reached the limit of what the tyres/abs could slow us down to, which wasn't enough by the way.
Then, just as the crest had been risen to provide a view of the impending cliff and sure death it suddenly exposed a gravel layby/vantage point that sat at the edge of the first hairpin that gave me the extra 20 yards or so to get the car to slow down to a halt.
We managed to scrabble to a halt in the black gravel before going over the edge.
Daft thing being as we were all racing I didn't even have the chance to take stock and s
t myself as we would rapidly be left behind by the group, we nervously laughed, put the car in first and chased after the other two cars. I didn't sleep much that night however for thinking "what might have been".
I was quite sympathetic when those lads went over the edge in Austria a couple of years back mind....
I can imagine that your pants needed changing after that. Things slowed down to the point where I could start to pick which part of the barrier to go through as we reached the limit of what the tyres/abs could slow us down to, which wasn't enough by the way.
Then, just as the crest had been risen to provide a view of the impending cliff and sure death it suddenly exposed a gravel layby/vantage point that sat at the edge of the first hairpin that gave me the extra 20 yards or so to get the car to slow down to a halt.
We managed to scrabble to a halt in the black gravel before going over the edge.
Daft thing being as we were all racing I didn't even have the chance to take stock and s
t myself as we would rapidly be left behind by the group, we nervously laughed, put the car in first and chased after the other two cars. I didn't sleep much that night however for thinking "what might have been".I was quite sympathetic when those lads went over the edge in Austria a couple of years back mind....
There's been a few over the years but, the one that sticks in the mind was driving south on the A1 M. Coming round a RH bend (carrying a fair amount of speed) in the outside lane (two lanes) was faced with Terrence and Betty in their Morris 1000 coming towards me. Thankfully, managed to squeeze between the car on the inside lane and the Morris - a very close call indeed!
I was being driven home by a work colleague in a Vauxhall Victor, remember them.
We came off a roundabout on a fairly narrow road outside the Colmans Mustard factory in Norwich, and just as we straightened up heading up Bracondale, the hook and chain of a crane working at the roadside swung through the windscreen into the car between our heads, put a massive dent in the inside of the roof, and swung out again, missing us both by mere millimetres, showering us both in glass.
We didn't have time to react, didn't see anything, just heard an almighty bang when the windscreen went, and didn't realise what had happened until after we had stopped.
The car was a write off along with both our underwear
That's the cut of my jib.
We came off a roundabout on a fairly narrow road outside the Colmans Mustard factory in Norwich, and just as we straightened up heading up Bracondale, the hook and chain of a crane working at the roadside swung through the windscreen into the car between our heads, put a massive dent in the inside of the roof, and swung out again, missing us both by mere millimetres, showering us both in glass.
We didn't have time to react, didn't see anything, just heard an almighty bang when the windscreen went, and didn't realise what had happened until after we had stopped.
The car was a write off along with both our underwear
That's the cut of my jib.
This happened 26 years ago!
Somehow on a wide right hand bend I ended up sideways on the wrong side of the road and was hit by a Cortina. Steel framed passenger bucket seat ripped from mountings and hit my left hand side.
Injuries:
Fractured skull
Broken collar bone
Six broken ribs
Punctured lung
Split diaphragm
Shattered femur
Somebody was looking out for me as two miles from the accident was a brand new St. Johns Ambulance complete with paramedic who heard the call and came to my rescue. Apparently I stopped breathing twice in the ambulance!
Police could not work out how I got to that position but they found a boulder on my side of the road which must have fallen off a truck or something and they put that down as the probable cause!
Somehow on a wide right hand bend I ended up sideways on the wrong side of the road and was hit by a Cortina. Steel framed passenger bucket seat ripped from mountings and hit my left hand side.
Injuries:
Fractured skull
Broken collar bone
Six broken ribs
Punctured lung
Split diaphragm
Shattered femur
Somebody was looking out for me as two miles from the accident was a brand new St. Johns Ambulance complete with paramedic who heard the call and came to my rescue. Apparently I stopped breathing twice in the ambulance!
Police could not work out how I got to that position but they found a boulder on my side of the road which must have fallen off a truck or something and they put that down as the probable cause!
Driving on the M6 at about 3 in the morning on the way back from a drop in Birmingham - working as a self employed courier and overdid the hours
It was November and had been snowing all week - was about -5c at the time. The heater on full blast, the excessive hours and the steady humdrum of the motorway took their toll.
The next thing that I knew was an airbag in the face and looking up to see the rear lights of a trailer. I had stayed in lane 1 but with the speed differential had caught up with a lorry and drove straight under the back of it. The van (astra) was still driveable so I pulled it over onto the hard shoulder and stopped.
The van was a write off - surprisingly straight below the windscreen, but the bonnet was over the screen and the floor of the trailer had bent the pillars and the roof was buckled.
I walked away with a cut on my finger and a feeling that somebody was looking over me that night. Stood at the side of the motorway in the freezing cold waiting for recovery the shock was palpable.
It also signalled the beginning of the end for my first marriage. When I went into the office to see her (she was a controller for the courier company) when I got back that morning her first words were "You need some insurance, I would have been left with nothing". She left 3 weeks later with one of the other drivers!
It was November and had been snowing all week - was about -5c at the time. The heater on full blast, the excessive hours and the steady humdrum of the motorway took their toll.
The next thing that I knew was an airbag in the face and looking up to see the rear lights of a trailer. I had stayed in lane 1 but with the speed differential had caught up with a lorry and drove straight under the back of it. The van (astra) was still driveable so I pulled it over onto the hard shoulder and stopped.
The van was a write off - surprisingly straight below the windscreen, but the bonnet was over the screen and the floor of the trailer had bent the pillars and the roof was buckled.
I walked away with a cut on my finger and a feeling that somebody was looking over me that night. Stood at the side of the motorway in the freezing cold waiting for recovery the shock was palpable.
It also signalled the beginning of the end for my first marriage. When I went into the office to see her (she was a controller for the courier company) when I got back that morning her first words were "You need some insurance, I would have been left with nothing". She left 3 weeks later with one of the other drivers!
Two years ago I was passing a lorry on the A120 near Stansted, just going past the cab, when a pallet load of 4x4's toppled of the trailer, exploded as it hit the road where I had been about a second earlier, and sent bits of wood spearing back down the carriageway.
Luckily there was nobody else directly behind, but several cars had to do an emergency stop and take evasive action to avoid being hit.
Luckily there was nobody else directly behind, but several cars had to do an emergency stop and take evasive action to avoid being hit.
A few springs to mind. 15 years ago perhaps. Passenger in my mates E39 coming up to a city street junction with limited visibility but we had right of passage, from the right comes a Volvo 940 at easily 60 km/h (40 mph kinda) shooting out into the junction inches infront of the BMW. Had we been 1,5 meter more forward that Volvo, and they are hard mind you would have hit the passenger side of the BMW head on where I was sitting. Would have been very un-comfortable I reckon..at best.
Cue 1997, took my Alfa GTV out of winter storage due to the unusually warm february weather and the fact that I met a girl who lived in the sticks, so I had to be able to visit. Of course, being Sweden in February the temperatures didn't really stay warm and instead dove rather swiftly to around -25. Had no intention of not visiting, so took the Alfa anyway, on summer tyres, roads were dry, no snow but cold as hell. Over a right hand brow at 100 mph, driven the road alot before so I figured it will be fine this time too. Massive massive slide as all 4 tyres let go of the freeing tarmac. Saved by a wide gravel run-off inches before going sideways into a field. A 1984 GTV would not have taken that impact well...
16 years old, 125 cc bike, 80 mph in the rain and an old man decides to pull out infront....
Cue 1997, took my Alfa GTV out of winter storage due to the unusually warm february weather and the fact that I met a girl who lived in the sticks, so I had to be able to visit. Of course, being Sweden in February the temperatures didn't really stay warm and instead dove rather swiftly to around -25. Had no intention of not visiting, so took the Alfa anyway, on summer tyres, roads were dry, no snow but cold as hell. Over a right hand brow at 100 mph, driven the road alot before so I figured it will be fine this time too. Massive massive slide as all 4 tyres let go of the freeing tarmac. Saved by a wide gravel run-off inches before going sideways into a field. A 1984 GTV would not have taken that impact well...
16 years old, 125 cc bike, 80 mph in the rain and an old man decides to pull out infront....
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff