Discussion
mrtwisty said:
PopsandBangs said:
The one that still makes me cringe and shudder thinking about... 7 or so years ago changing the oil and filter on my car, on the driveway of my girlfriends parents house.
Screwed the filter on hand tight, changed the oil, took out the axle stand and let the jack down and tidied away.
Had blocked gf's dad in, and he wanted to go out. Went to move car 10 mins after finishing just as he got in his car to leave and running late, and saw a dribble of oil coming form under my car, where I clearly hadn't tightened the filter properly.
In a rush to move my car, and in the pissing rain, I whipped the cheapo trolley jack out and raised the car up enough to get under, and tighten the filter with the filter pliers quickly. Didn't bother with the axel stands....
Slid out, using the front bumper slightly as leverage (!!!) and crawled round to release the jack. I applied almost no pressure whatsoever to the release valve, which I also hadn't tightened properly in my haste, and the jack collapsed immediately.
My head was THAT close to being smashed like an egg between the sump and the driveway paving.
Silly silly idiot. Lesson learnt
As someone who regularly works on his own cars, that story has made me feel quite sick.Screwed the filter on hand tight, changed the oil, took out the axle stand and let the jack down and tidied away.
Had blocked gf's dad in, and he wanted to go out. Went to move car 10 mins after finishing just as he got in his car to leave and running late, and saw a dribble of oil coming form under my car, where I clearly hadn't tightened the filter properly.
In a rush to move my car, and in the pissing rain, I whipped the cheapo trolley jack out and raised the car up enough to get under, and tighten the filter with the filter pliers quickly. Didn't bother with the axel stands....
Slid out, using the front bumper slightly as leverage (!!!) and crawled round to release the jack. I applied almost no pressure whatsoever to the release valve, which I also hadn't tightened properly in my haste, and the jack collapsed immediately.
My head was THAT close to being smashed like an egg between the sump and the driveway paving.
Silly silly idiot. Lesson learnt
spikeyhead said:
mrtwisty said:
PopsandBangs said:
The one that still makes me cringe and shudder thinking about... 7 or so years ago changing the oil and filter on my car, on the driveway of my girlfriends parents house.
Screwed the filter on hand tight, changed the oil, took out the axle stand and let the jack down and tidied away.
Had blocked gf's dad in, and he wanted to go out. Went to move car 10 mins after finishing just as he got in his car to leave and running late, and saw a dribble of oil coming form under my car, where I clearly hadn't tightened the filter properly.
In a rush to move my car, and in the pissing rain, I whipped the cheapo trolley jack out and raised the car up enough to get under, and tighten the filter with the filter pliers quickly. Didn't bother with the axel stands....
Slid out, using the front bumper slightly as leverage (!!!) and crawled round to release the jack. I applied almost no pressure whatsoever to the release valve, which I also hadn't tightened properly in my haste, and the jack collapsed immediately.
My head was THAT close to being smashed like an egg between the sump and the driveway paving.
Silly silly idiot. Lesson learnt
As someone who regularly works on his own cars, that story has made me feel quite sick.Screwed the filter on hand tight, changed the oil, took out the axle stand and let the jack down and tidied away.
Had blocked gf's dad in, and he wanted to go out. Went to move car 10 mins after finishing just as he got in his car to leave and running late, and saw a dribble of oil coming form under my car, where I clearly hadn't tightened the filter properly.
In a rush to move my car, and in the pissing rain, I whipped the cheapo trolley jack out and raised the car up enough to get under, and tighten the filter with the filter pliers quickly. Didn't bother with the axel stands....
Slid out, using the front bumper slightly as leverage (!!!) and crawled round to release the jack. I applied almost no pressure whatsoever to the release valve, which I also hadn't tightened properly in my haste, and the jack collapsed immediately.
My head was THAT close to being smashed like an egg between the sump and the driveway paving.
Silly silly idiot. Lesson learnt
Riley Blue said:
Back in the '70s I went to the Ideal Home Exhibition at Olympia, going a day earlier than planned as someone at work wanted to swap their day off. Around lunchtime I had a pint on the Guinness stand, tossing my plastic glass into a waste bin at the top of an escalator.
24 hours later an IRA bomb exploded in that same waste bin.
Not me, but my mum and grandparents were there the day of the explosion, and I believe had been sitting on a bench near it a couple of hours before24 hours later an IRA bomb exploded in that same waste bin.
Edit: Just asked her about it, and they were at the top of the escalator not more than 20ft away from the bomb. The saving grace was that the bin was on the other side of a concrete support beam so took most of the brunt of the shrapnel going their way, but my mum was still hit with something that left a decent sized bruise.
Edited by DaveRed08 on Friday 3rd July 00:24
Driving to Screwfix from home in my wife’s old NB mx5 with the roof down I notice a “tick tick” from the rear wheel. Thinking it’s a stone in the tyre I carry on and ignore it, I get to Screwies and have a look at the offending car corner and see this:
4 of the 5 spokes had either cracked or had cracks in them.
I'd just had a bit of a play, and been in a very remote NSL road.
4 of the 5 spokes had either cracked or had cracks in them.
I'd just had a bit of a play, and been in a very remote NSL road.
Edited by ADogg on Wednesday 29th July 10:29
RSTurboPaul said:
And if there isn't a spare axle stand, a spare wheel will be better than nothing!
Eugh always makes me shiver working under cars, I was doing the subframe bushes on my M3 and on putting it back together about 2 days in I just had to have a break, something just snapped in me and I got really claustrophobic under there. No incident though, the incident was trying to use the central jacking point with a s
t trolley jack on soft tarmac, got the car maybe 250mm wheels off the ground and the whole thing just keeled over to the left, luckily nothing/no one was down that side and it was fking close to going into next doors living room.After that I just put up with the PITA way of jacking either side up slowly and putting a stand in, never used the central jacking points ever again.
Remember once in my first job leaving Uni as a young lad with company car, used to drive it (I thought) well, but got in the car with one of the engineers to go to dinner one night when we were training at HQ, we all thought he was a bit of a prick, and he drove like one too - understeered entering a village about double the speed limit (despite two of us telling him to slow down he was trying to prove something) and hit the kerb front left where I was sat, I watched a lamp post with a "please drive slowly through our village" sail straight past my head before we landed half up the kerb and limped back. He didn't last long especially after taking the car back the next day.
Forgot another one, driving one night to meet some mates in town, no drink or anything, sailing along a very well sighted A road that I knew particularly well (so I thought) - overtook a car on a straight bit of road, that quickly turned out to be the 90 left/right (the only corners of note in about 7 miles on this road) - Luck and being in an Impreza kept me on the road as I was going far too quickly and I was so lucky nothing was coming the other way. No idea what happened as I drove that road in all conditions most days, momentary lapse of concentration but I was shaking after that
Edited by Mr.Jimbo on Thursday 2nd July 23:52
I was standing in my local bar, in the Shankill Road Belfast, with my two mates when one of the ''other crowd'' came charging in wearing a balaclava and holding a machine gun, he shouted something in irish then opened up, the whole bar started screaming and shouting, my two mates fell to the ground with the blood pishing out of their bodies. Eight people died forty eight injured and I got away with a bit of guinness spilt over me.
Davyf said:
I was standing in my local bar, in the Shankill Road Belfast, with my two mates when one of the ''other crowd'' came charging in wearing a balaclava and holding a machine gun, he shouted something in irish then opened up, the whole bar started screaming and shouting, my two mates fell to the ground with the blood pishing out of their bodies. Eight people died forty eight injured and I got away with a bit of guinness spilt over me.
How much Guinness?Krupp88 said:
My own stupidly and complacency almost killed me and certainly damaged my reputation within the circle of people I dived with.
Due to oxygen toxicity all gas mixes have a maximum operating depth (MOD), the reason being that over a certain O2 concentration (the % of O2 in the mix X the pressure at depth) the human body reacts badly causing convulsions.
On the surface (ie in a dry decompression chamber) these are manageable, however underwater the fit would cause you to spit out the regulator although not fatal in itself the post fit incapacitation is as you would be unable to recover your reg and drown, conscious, but unable to react.
All you could hope for is for your team to support you to the surface, hard enough at recreational depths, verging on the impossible from the 70m meters of cold quarry water we were in that day with multiple gas switches due to be made on the assent.
On the day I had two identical twin cylinder set ups with me, on with a 'Nitrox' mix (highier O2, reduced Nitrogen) for the planned second dive with a MOD of 36m and for the first dive a 'Trimix' set up (contains Helium which is used to reduce the O2 and nitrogen levels).
The first dive went ok, down to a max depth of 70 meters although I remember not feeling right at depth and was rather pleased when it ended. For the second dive I went to check the contents of the cylinders of the second set expecting the instrument to tell me it was the Nitrox mix.
It wasn't, I had taken the set with a MOD of 36m on the first dive, almost to twice its depth. Whilst the MOD is based on a conservative calculation point this was way past the level of acceptable risk.
I had committed the cardinal and unforgivable sin of being complacent, certain that when I had unloaded the car the first set I had brought out was the trimix set, then having got distracted from my drills I failed to 'make a drill' after 'breaking a drill'.
I'm no commercial diver - just a very keen sports/recreational diver. The bit in bold is a massive red flag for me. I always tell anyone I dive with that if you don't feel 100%, at ANY time or for ANY reason, then you tell your buddy/master and surface together. No ifs or buts.Due to oxygen toxicity all gas mixes have a maximum operating depth (MOD), the reason being that over a certain O2 concentration (the % of O2 in the mix X the pressure at depth) the human body reacts badly causing convulsions.
On the surface (ie in a dry decompression chamber) these are manageable, however underwater the fit would cause you to spit out the regulator although not fatal in itself the post fit incapacitation is as you would be unable to recover your reg and drown, conscious, but unable to react.
All you could hope for is for your team to support you to the surface, hard enough at recreational depths, verging on the impossible from the 70m meters of cold quarry water we were in that day with multiple gas switches due to be made on the assent.
On the day I had two identical twin cylinder set ups with me, on with a 'Nitrox' mix (highier O2, reduced Nitrogen) for the planned second dive with a MOD of 36m and for the first dive a 'Trimix' set up (contains Helium which is used to reduce the O2 and nitrogen levels).
The first dive went ok, down to a max depth of 70 meters although I remember not feeling right at depth and was rather pleased when it ended. For the second dive I went to check the contents of the cylinders of the second set expecting the instrument to tell me it was the Nitrox mix.
It wasn't, I had taken the set with a MOD of 36m on the first dive, almost to twice its depth. Whilst the MOD is based on a conservative calculation point this was way past the level of acceptable risk.
I had committed the cardinal and unforgivable sin of being complacent, certain that when I had unloaded the car the first set I had brought out was the trimix set, then having got distracted from my drills I failed to 'make a drill' after 'breaking a drill'.
I've only had it happen once to me. I'd committed the all-too-frequent sin of diving within 24hrs of getting off a flight, and I had been feeling a bit bunged-up. We hit 40m at the bottom of some beautiful basalt columns, and the dull headache I'd been ignoring turned into searing pain like a knitting needle being jabbed into my eye socket. I saw stars, and wanted to rip my mask off and massage my eye socket.
Instead I gave in to common sense and dropped to the bottom with my eyes closed and banged the heck out of my tank to get my girlfriend's attention. We surfaced together, and the pain went away at our 5m stop - I bought a nasal spray for colds and flu and dived more cautiously the next day.
Not a lucky escape like some others, but a cautionary tale.
Driving along in my recently-acquired 1600 Vauxhall Firenza, I spotted someone I vaguely knew in their new Nissan 300ZX, so I figured I'd show him how much faster my car was and overtook him in the 30mph bit. Needless to say, he came past me like I was standing still in the NSL, so I tried to catch him up. Got to the pub we were going to, decided to let him get away (!), turned into the car park, and my steering joint collapsed as I was turning into the space. Glad it didn't go a couple of minutes earlier, though of course it's under much more stress turning at low speed. The rubber disc on the joint had almost completely disintegrated.
When I was a teenager, like most teenagers who's parents were rich/stupid enough to buy them a car, my mate had an absolute rot box, a car full of us were heading to the cinema and it was raining, as usual he was driving like only 17 year old blokes do; not paying attention on the dual carriageway he realised that car in front was stationary, so slammed on the brakes, this was to become our first experience of aquaplaning!!! We hurtled towards the car in front with that silence that you know is going to hurt. we must have stopped millimetres from the car in front, once stopped we just looked at each other in a kind of shock. I was in the passenger seat with my feet braced against the dashboard, everyone in the back suitably shocked. We went to the film and it was OK, if he had hit the other car, we wouldn't have got to see the film how much of a near miss do you want, and my mate still drove exactly the same as before!
Also, in as similar event. About 15 years ago, I was on a project that involved the local university so had to visit them occasionally, it was a dry day, so took my cherished 1980s Ford Escort (that I started to question the logic in keeping after this). I was at the end of a queue of traffic behind a lorry waiting to drive into the Uni entrance (stationary, in neutral), I glanced into the rear view window to see a Isuzu Trooper barrelling down towards me and very close (at the time I think it was a 60mph limit), I only had a second or two, to cross my arms across my chest (apparently you are less likely to break your arms in that position), the Isuzu realised at the last moment and swerved into the other lane (nearly hitting another car), he just scratched the rear bumper of my Escort as he passed), it was that close! I don't want to imagine what a Isuzu at 60mph would do to a 1980s Ford Escort, I imagine given the lorry in front there wouldn't have been much left to put in a coffin.
Also, in as similar event. About 15 years ago, I was on a project that involved the local university so had to visit them occasionally, it was a dry day, so took my cherished 1980s Ford Escort (that I started to question the logic in keeping after this). I was at the end of a queue of traffic behind a lorry waiting to drive into the Uni entrance (stationary, in neutral), I glanced into the rear view window to see a Isuzu Trooper barrelling down towards me and very close (at the time I think it was a 60mph limit), I only had a second or two, to cross my arms across my chest (apparently you are less likely to break your arms in that position), the Isuzu realised at the last moment and swerved into the other lane (nearly hitting another car), he just scratched the rear bumper of my Escort as he passed), it was that close! I don't want to imagine what a Isuzu at 60mph would do to a 1980s Ford Escort, I imagine given the lorry in front there wouldn't have been much left to put in a coffin.
Edited by GrizzlyBear on Sunday 5th July 17:07
Not up to the standard of some on here but...:
A few years ago I had a share in a Piper Turbo Arrow IV (4-seat, single engine, propeller, roughly 150mph cruise) out of Coventry.
Plan for the day was to fly to Earls Colne to pick up my Dad, Abbeville for lunch, drop Dad back off and then home. 4 legs each a bit less than an hour with a cruise burn of 12 gallons per hour. Factoring in a bit of taxi time and full power for take off - a rough 48 gallons required. I brimmed the two 30 gallon tanks to give the 4 hours plus 12gallons (1 hour) reserve - no need for more complex calcs or to pick up fuel en-route.
Lovely flights and lunch and I was coming back to Coventry having done about the times I'd planned for.
Now Cov at this time was quite busy with some based commercial operators, charter flights and bizjets. Us little boys were used to being told to play for a while while the big boys did their work so it was not unusual this time, on asking for join, to be told to hold at Draycote Water while 3 big boys were coming in.
20 mins of holding later I realised the radio had been quiet for a few mins and called up with my callsign to be greeted by a different Air Traffic Controller who asked me to pass my details - this meant there had been a shift change and previous ATC had forgotten to hand me over <sigh>. New ATC asked me to come a bit closer then hold as there were two more inbound - further 10 mins wait. Then a departure which sat at the threshold (i.e. blocking the runway) waiting airways clearance for 10 mins. So far 40 minutes hold out of, fag-packet calculation, 1 hour reserve... Wellesborne about 10 mins that way, Birmingham 5 mins that way for emergency diversions so tight but not terrible. I was then told another 2 inbound - at which point I finally explained the fuel situation and pointed out a 10 min hold meant I was asking for a diversion. She knew that meant paperwork explaining why I'd been forgotten so asked me to keep it tight and gave me permission to land. Landed OK, taxied to fuel and topped up.
Taxiing back to hangar I worked out, based on what I'd put in, that I actually had 7 gallons on board when I landed - so 35 mins at cruise.
Old flying Instructor helped me pushed the aircraft back into the hangar and I was having a whinge about the length of the hold - I got to the part where I said 7 gallons on board and he got a funny look in his eye...
FI: 7 gallons total?
me: yes
FI: This has the long range tanks doesn't it?
me: yeees... why?
FI: What the unusable fuel in this, with those tanks fitted?
me: 6 gallons... um... oh sht...
As he walked away he tapped my shoulder and said "Sleep well, Paul".
A few years ago I had a share in a Piper Turbo Arrow IV (4-seat, single engine, propeller, roughly 150mph cruise) out of Coventry.
Plan for the day was to fly to Earls Colne to pick up my Dad, Abbeville for lunch, drop Dad back off and then home. 4 legs each a bit less than an hour with a cruise burn of 12 gallons per hour. Factoring in a bit of taxi time and full power for take off - a rough 48 gallons required. I brimmed the two 30 gallon tanks to give the 4 hours plus 12gallons (1 hour) reserve - no need for more complex calcs or to pick up fuel en-route.
Lovely flights and lunch and I was coming back to Coventry having done about the times I'd planned for.
Now Cov at this time was quite busy with some based commercial operators, charter flights and bizjets. Us little boys were used to being told to play for a while while the big boys did their work so it was not unusual this time, on asking for join, to be told to hold at Draycote Water while 3 big boys were coming in.
20 mins of holding later I realised the radio had been quiet for a few mins and called up with my callsign to be greeted by a different Air Traffic Controller who asked me to pass my details - this meant there had been a shift change and previous ATC had forgotten to hand me over <sigh>. New ATC asked me to come a bit closer then hold as there were two more inbound - further 10 mins wait. Then a departure which sat at the threshold (i.e. blocking the runway) waiting airways clearance for 10 mins. So far 40 minutes hold out of, fag-packet calculation, 1 hour reserve... Wellesborne about 10 mins that way, Birmingham 5 mins that way for emergency diversions so tight but not terrible. I was then told another 2 inbound - at which point I finally explained the fuel situation and pointed out a 10 min hold meant I was asking for a diversion. She knew that meant paperwork explaining why I'd been forgotten so asked me to keep it tight and gave me permission to land. Landed OK, taxied to fuel and topped up.
Taxiing back to hangar I worked out, based on what I'd put in, that I actually had 7 gallons on board when I landed - so 35 mins at cruise.
Old flying Instructor helped me pushed the aircraft back into the hangar and I was having a whinge about the length of the hold - I got to the part where I said 7 gallons on board and he got a funny look in his eye...
FI: 7 gallons total?
me: yes
FI: This has the long range tanks doesn't it?
me: yeees... why?
FI: What the unusable fuel in this, with those tanks fitted?
me: 6 gallons... um... oh sht...
As he walked away he tapped my shoulder and said "Sleep well, Paul".
Edited by fishermanpaul on Sunday 5th July 19:50
Davyf said:
I was standing in my local bar, in the Shankill Road Belfast, with my two mates when one of the ''other crowd'' came charging in wearing a balaclava and holding a machine gun, he shouted something in irish then opened up, the whole bar started screaming and shouting, my two mates fell to the ground with the blood pishing out of their bodies. Eight people died forty eight injured and I got away with a bit of guinness spilt over me.
You win. 
Riding my motorbike along a straight stretch of single carriageway somewhere East of Telford. Saw a slow moving vehicle ahead with a queue of traffic behind and eased off slightly, maybe to 50, and pulled into the left in case someone tried a desperate overtake. I'd just got past the van at the head of the queue and someone did, I moved even further to the left and he got past with a foot or two to spare. For a moment I was thinking 'that was a bit aggressive' and 'I wonder why he seemed to be leaning over to the passenger side as he passed me?'. Then the penny dropped, he hadn't seen me at all until he was committed to the overtake and was flinching out of the way in a panic. A slightly narrower road and it would have been a head on crash. The closest shave in nearly 40 years of riding.
Both these happened some 30, years ago I was driving along a road, in Burpham, Guildford that the curved around to the right but had a junction to the left - used to be a T-junction.
I was braking for the bend when a car shot across the front of me at some speed, completely oblivious to the fact the road layout had changed some months earlier and was still treating it like the old T-junction it was. I only missed them because I was already braking, if I’d left home just a couple of seconds earlier I probably wouldn’t be here now, or at least not in my current form.
Oddly enough another kinda close escape was just up the road from that one. An idiot who thought he could drive crossed a roundabout in front of me, only just keeping it on the road, I remember thinking ‘I’m glad he’s in front of me and not behind’ - came around the next bend and he’d lost it, gone airborne off the bank, hit a road sign at some height and put it on its roof, crushing it down to the height of the doors., apart from above the driver which was about half crushed. Fortunately he had no passengers, and amazingly he got away with a broken collarbone. In fairness, he wasn’t speeding, as I was gaining on him, and I was below the limit, he just took the wrong line through the bend and clipped the bank. 30 seconds difference and he could have landed on top of me.
I was braking for the bend when a car shot across the front of me at some speed, completely oblivious to the fact the road layout had changed some months earlier and was still treating it like the old T-junction it was. I only missed them because I was already braking, if I’d left home just a couple of seconds earlier I probably wouldn’t be here now, or at least not in my current form.
Oddly enough another kinda close escape was just up the road from that one. An idiot who thought he could drive crossed a roundabout in front of me, only just keeping it on the road, I remember thinking ‘I’m glad he’s in front of me and not behind’ - came around the next bend and he’d lost it, gone airborne off the bank, hit a road sign at some height and put it on its roof, crushing it down to the height of the doors., apart from above the driver which was about half crushed. Fortunately he had no passengers, and amazingly he got away with a broken collarbone. In fairness, he wasn’t speeding, as I was gaining on him, and I was below the limit, he just took the wrong line through the bend and clipped the bank. 30 seconds difference and he could have landed on top of me.
As a kid lived on a railway main line. The station was disused at the time but was being prepared for being re-opened post Beeching cuts 20 years before. Simple two platform station with overbridge that was still part of a public footpath.
Quite often as we came out from school a freight flatbed would come through the station. One day it was stopped there and a few of us jumped on the trucks (30 or so, like the image below behind the loco but a bit less scenic).
One of us Alex, lived a mile south of the station and his house was next to a big grass embankment "where the train past real slow, shall we stay on". So we did and the train got a bit quicker and a bit quicker and we went past Alex's house pretty quick it felt (none of us realised that the railway South from the station was a 1 in 70 downgrade which trains can accelerate quick on **), no one was jumping to say the least.
We then went over an 80 ft high viaduct. Shuddery scary!
We then went past a signal box to much shouting from somewhere. Shouty sweary!!!!!
We then eventually stopped at the next station South to be met by British Transport Police to fess up our names and to be held whilst our parents collected us. Apparently the train got up to ( ** ) 50 mph on some sections and we were just sat on these girder conflats holding on for dear life.
At least I learnt my lesson re staying on trains you shouldn't be on. When we accidentally started a class 08 shunter whilst borrowing "Dets" at Tinsley Marshalling yard we got off quick and the deadman brought the shunter to a stop down the line with the rail workers running to it whilst we ran the other way with our haul of Dets (should add those to have I stolen anything thread). Mind you, I don't think a class 08 clould do 50 mph unless being Steadmanned!!!!!
Quite often as we came out from school a freight flatbed would come through the station. One day it was stopped there and a few of us jumped on the trucks (30 or so, like the image below behind the loco but a bit less scenic).
One of us Alex, lived a mile south of the station and his house was next to a big grass embankment "where the train past real slow, shall we stay on". So we did and the train got a bit quicker and a bit quicker and we went past Alex's house pretty quick it felt (none of us realised that the railway South from the station was a 1 in 70 downgrade which trains can accelerate quick on **), no one was jumping to say the least.
We then went over an 80 ft high viaduct. Shuddery scary!
We then went past a signal box to much shouting from somewhere. Shouty sweary!!!!!
We then eventually stopped at the next station South to be met by British Transport Police to fess up our names and to be held whilst our parents collected us. Apparently the train got up to ( ** ) 50 mph on some sections and we were just sat on these girder conflats holding on for dear life.
At least I learnt my lesson re staying on trains you shouldn't be on. When we accidentally started a class 08 shunter whilst borrowing "Dets" at Tinsley Marshalling yard we got off quick and the deadman brought the shunter to a stop down the line with the rail workers running to it whilst we ran the other way with our haul of Dets (should add those to have I stolen anything thread). Mind you, I don't think a class 08 clould do 50 mph unless being Steadmanned!!!!!
A couple, though not nearly as scary as some of the previous examples
9 years ago in Vietnam , aboard a junk for a night in Halong Bay, all good, didn’t think much of it till a day later it emerged another junk near us sank killing many passengers, had to find an internet cafe sharpish to let people at home know we weren’t on that boat.
Over 20 Years ago I was driving through the Blackwall tunnel. Not entirely comfortable as the lanes are narrow, anyway , noticed a scruffy Skoda next to me, out of the corner of my eye, something told me to slow and let it clear us, so I dabbed the brakes, it duly went past, but as it nosed ahead of us, I could see the driver reach down to try and move/ touch something in the car, as she did, she swerved violently into my lane , over corrected back into her own lane, but by now out of control, she carreened into the wall, bounced off it, spun around and then bounced of the wall of my lane,
The Skoda ended up with both ends smushed quite badly, one of the alloy wheels was attached at the hub, but not the rim...! anyway I got out, made sure traffic was stopped and not about to add to the scene, made sure she was alright(she was, just a little disoriented by the spins) she got back in, started it up, and proceeded to drag it the rest of the way out of the tunnel, I followed at a safe distance as there were quite a few sparks. We stopped where it was safe to talk , I checked my car, not a mark to see, hers was a write off, we discussed swapping insurance details, but as I wasn’t really involved, ultimately didn’t, she did give me her telephone number, but once we got home and checked it, it was fake, maybe she wasn’t insured, who knows?
To this day I have no idea what made me dab the brakes when I did, but I am glad I did.
9 years ago in Vietnam , aboard a junk for a night in Halong Bay, all good, didn’t think much of it till a day later it emerged another junk near us sank killing many passengers, had to find an internet cafe sharpish to let people at home know we weren’t on that boat.
Over 20 Years ago I was driving through the Blackwall tunnel. Not entirely comfortable as the lanes are narrow, anyway , noticed a scruffy Skoda next to me, out of the corner of my eye, something told me to slow and let it clear us, so I dabbed the brakes, it duly went past, but as it nosed ahead of us, I could see the driver reach down to try and move/ touch something in the car, as she did, she swerved violently into my lane , over corrected back into her own lane, but by now out of control, she carreened into the wall, bounced off it, spun around and then bounced of the wall of my lane,
The Skoda ended up with both ends smushed quite badly, one of the alloy wheels was attached at the hub, but not the rim...! anyway I got out, made sure traffic was stopped and not about to add to the scene, made sure she was alright(she was, just a little disoriented by the spins) she got back in, started it up, and proceeded to drag it the rest of the way out of the tunnel, I followed at a safe distance as there were quite a few sparks. We stopped where it was safe to talk , I checked my car, not a mark to see, hers was a write off, we discussed swapping insurance details, but as I wasn’t really involved, ultimately didn’t, she did give me her telephone number, but once we got home and checked it, it was fake, maybe she wasn’t insured, who knows?
To this day I have no idea what made me dab the brakes when I did, but I am glad I did.
Higgs boson said:
Davyf said:
I was standing in my local bar, in the Shankill Road Belfast, with my two mates when one of the ''other crowd'' came charging in wearing a balaclava and holding a machine gun, he shouted something in irish then opened up, the whole bar started screaming and shouting, my two mates fell to the ground with the blood pishing out of their bodies. Eight people died forty eight injured and I got away with a bit of guinness spilt over me.
You win. PPEhero said:
My wife had tickets to take our daughter to the Ariana Grande concert that was attacked. She didn’t go as my daughter wasn’t well. I woke up in the morning to hundreds of missed calls and messages.
Will never forget the voicemail my boss left me at about midnight after he’d seen the news. My opinion on him and several other people completely changed that morning.
Nowhere near as serious as your little'un, but I was in Manchester for work that evening. I was planning on going into town to have a drink as it'd be a bit more interesting than a dozen sales reps in the crappy hotel bar. The guy I worked with loved football and said he'd foot the bar bill if I watched the football match with him. I like free drinks so I agreed. It was only when I went out for a smoke and noticed every local police vehicle from the airport do a Vmax run towards the town centre, did I think something was wrong. Will never forget the voicemail my boss left me at about midnight after he’d seen the news. My opinion on him and several other people completely changed that morning.
When I walked back into the hotel, all of the staff were watching the news, mouths agape, with no hospitality care because their loved ones may have been impacted. I wished them the best, grabbed two pints and called it a night.
I got a call just as I fell asleep from our corporate guy making sure I was safe. That was soon followed by my boss chasing up. I ended up falling asleep around 2am and got woken up at 6am by my parents, having heard the news. I cancelled the work meeting and drove back home. Everybody at work agreed that was the right decision, except our finance woman, who said "well why didn't you discuss things anyway as nobody was affected?"
Her senior ended up approving my expenses and even paid what I'd marked as personal - woohoo, I got £15 of free drinks and food!
Drive it fix it repeat said:
Higgs boson said:
Davyf said:
I was standing in my local bar, in the Shankill Road Belfast, with my two mates when one of the ''other crowd'' came charging in wearing a balaclava and holding a machine gun, he shouted something in irish then opened up, the whole bar started screaming and shouting, my two mates fell to the ground with the blood pishing out of their bodies. Eight people died forty eight injured and I got away with a bit of guinness spilt over me.
You win. 
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