Rolling a car on the motorway

[Rebew]

How on earth does this happen? On the M5 this morning I got stuck in a jam for about half an hour because a car was on its roof up ahead. No other vehicles involved and all the damage to the road seemed to be in the middle lane, so how on earth did it end up on its roof? I'm not slagging off the driver but I'm genuinely interested in how this could happen?

[cjs racing.]

Blowout at speed, inexperienced driver, quick swerve, and over it goes.

[Skyedriver]

I always used to wonder how a car could be 20 feet up an embankment on a dead straight length of the A1

I think what happens in your case is that someone changes lane without looking and clips another car.
Clip a car on the three quarter rear and it'll spin sideways, then the tyres will trip it up into a barrel roll

[Dabooka]

A few years ago someone rolled a car onto it's roof on our college car park's access road. No idea how they managed that without real effort

[Cupramax]

Rebew said:

How on earth does this happen? On the M5 this morning I got stuck in a jam for about half an hour because a car was on its roof up ahead. No other vehicles involved and all the damage to the road seemed to be in the middle lane, so how on earth did it end up on its roof? I'm not slagging off the driver but I'm genuinely interested in how this could happen?

Just watch a few Russian dash cam videos. You'll be amazed what can happen. Admittedly the levels of driving over there are even worse than those here by some amount.

[SAS Tom]

A guy a used to work with rolled his car on the motorway. He aquaplaned in lane 3, lost control and slid all the way across the motorway rolled up the embankment, back down and ended up in lane 1.

It was literally a case of everything was fine one minute then it all went tits up. All down to going too fast in poor conditions.

[Rubin215]

All it takes is a sudden swerve.

Someone changes lane without looking and the car alongside swerves out of the way; someone isn't paying attention until they suddenly realise the car in front is braking hard so they swerve to avoid it; driver A has pissed driver B off, driver B then pulls in front and brake-checks them, Driver A swerves to miss them.

Seen it lots.

[Joe5y]

Actually seen it happen. 3 cars ahead of me a civic strayed into the lane of another car. Civics rear wheel connected with the front wheel of of another car. Civic rolled onto its roof and slid for a fair distance before hitting the barrier.

[Momentofmadness]

What they said ^

Have a look here... https://youtu.be/yAPa3flxuG8?t=49s

[The Mad Monk]

Dabooka said:

A few years ago someone rolled a car onto it's roof on our college car park's access road. No idea how they managed that without real effort

Can we take it that you aren't studying English at college?

[Newstuart]

At the oposite emd of the scale I Was driving on a windy country road a few years back and a car in front which cant of been doing more than 20-25 mph with two teenage girls chatting away while driving clipped a small embankment that was around a foot high while going sround a corner and rolled over before skidding around 50 foot down the road on its roof.

Couldnt believe it !!

[parabolica]

Momentofmadness said:

What they said ^

Have a look here... https://youtu.be/yAPa3flxuG8?t=49s

Indeed; or they could have clipped a barrier, such as:

youtube

[schmalex]

The Mad Monk said:

Dabooka said:

A few years ago someone rolled a car onto it's roof on our college car park's access road. No idea how they managed that without real effort

Can we take it that you aren't studying English at college?

Grow up

[Dermot O'Logical]

I've noticed that local papers seem to report such incidents in terms of "A car flipped on to its roof", giving the impression that cars have developed some form of sentience and have taken to self-harming.

[QuickQuack]

As the others have said, it's quite easy. I've seen several cars upside down in single vehicle accidents in urban areas with 30mph limits.

[jamiem555]

I've witnessed it, and it usually starts with a small tank slapper followed by massive overcorrection and sheer panic followed by an accident.

[sebhaque]

A simple impact with the crash barrier can do it. Modern crash barriers don't tend to start with a stump (because crashing into a block of steel would hurt), they rise up from the ground. Someone who's on their phone/applying makeup/swerving for something/aquaplaning/etc that catches the barrier with the inside wheels will probably find themselves in ski mode for a few metres before inertia takes over and they're shiny side down.

I'd rather be upside down than have a Mercedes logo tattooed in my back via my stomach.

[ambuletz]

Momentofmadness said:

What they said ^

Have a look here... https://youtu.be/yAPa3flxuG8?t=49s

i remember watching programmes as a kid in the 90s on how many jeeps were horrible in situations like this. esp a land rover/range rover.

[Debaser]

On a modern car it's more likely to be a fault, or hitting something, than merely a big swerve on a flat road.

[dvs_dave]

If circumstances are right, a car will flip over surprisingly easily. This has got to be the most hilariously low speed, almost spontaneous flip out there.
https://youtu.be/L0Ffm1FYoXk