Discussion
Had a car on the M23 come down the slip road, cross all three lanes then hit the central reservation, bounce off & hit the car in front of me - I was travelling at about 80mph & the car it hit ended up side on right in front of me. The funny thing was when the traffic cops arrived 20mins later the copper asked me to jump in the damaged car & attempt to steer it when he towed it off the motorway. Whatever he tied it to pulled off, then his rope snapped - I was almost in tears sat in the car!
Over 40+ years, far too many:
Hitting a roundabout while asleep.
Just being missed by a fish-tailing car with a blowout.
Just braking enough to avoid having a deer on my bumper.
Just braking enough to suffer only a scratched wing mirror from an oncoming nutter overtaking when there wouldn't have been enough room to pull back in!
Accelerating enough to squeeze in front of a lorry pulling on to the motorway from a works section, seemingly without looking. (more lorries close behind and to my right so hard braking wasn't an alternative)
Accelerating just enough to squeeze through a narrowing gap with the central crash barrier on the A331 as the car in the inside lane got squeezed out by a car joining and forcing his way in.
Hitting a roundabout while asleep.
Just being missed by a fish-tailing car with a blowout.
Just braking enough to avoid having a deer on my bumper.
Just braking enough to suffer only a scratched wing mirror from an oncoming nutter overtaking when there wouldn't have been enough room to pull back in!
Accelerating enough to squeeze in front of a lorry pulling on to the motorway from a works section, seemingly without looking. (more lorries close behind and to my right so hard braking wasn't an alternative)
Accelerating just enough to squeeze through a narrowing gap with the central crash barrier on the A331 as the car in the inside lane got squeezed out by a car joining and forcing his way in.
Almost having a head on due to a hidden dip. (Someone told me it was safe, my fault [obviouly] but I was a rookie [17 in my XR2] at the time), which one doubt would have hurt. The guy in the passenger seat went on to win a gold in the Olympics, that dream at the least would have been over.
How I got back in without hitting anything I will never ever know.
Oh, and one that i still kick myself a lot about (espically as I had the wife and kid in the car).. Was following a taxi up a road (50), and he was slowing down to 20/30 for quite a while (100+ meters) looking for something. Then he signed right, i (f
king stupidly) took this to mean go past, so i did, just after I went past he turned right into a small road.. Honestly.. 1 second later and he would have been in my side.
I really (I mean really) kick myself about this stupid stupid mistake, However in 17+ years of driving that the 2.
How I got back in without hitting anything I will never ever know.
Oh, and one that i still kick myself a lot about (espically as I had the wife and kid in the car).. Was following a taxi up a road (50), and he was slowing down to 20/30 for quite a while (100+ meters) looking for something. Then he signed right, i (f
king stupidly) took this to mean go past, so i did, just after I went past he turned right into a small road.. Honestly.. 1 second later and he would have been in my side. I really (I mean really) kick myself about this stupid stupid mistake, However in 17+ years of driving that the 2.
Edited by joe_90 on Wednesday 22 June 22:07
Cheap tires on back, michelins on front. The back end let go in a big way on an left hander at NSL(ish) speeds sliding me toward cars in the oncoming lane. Over corrected, slid back the other way, rear wheel bounced of the kerb, straightening the car back up, with me ending up offside wheels just over the center line, now traveling at about 25mph.
Never been so scared. The rest of the drive was completed at about 15mph, and I have never since fitted cheap tires.
Second one was my only stop for speeding. I was enjoying my XJR's acceleration on one of its last journeys before I pxed it. After accelerating hard on a slip road (the Porsche Boxster also joining the motorway had nothing to do with it guv
) I eased off to coast back to my normal cruise speed. (I don't really travel that quick to be fair) As I slowed to the speed limit, a Police car caught up. Let me on my way after a bit of a telling off. He knew I was speeding, I knew it, so I was polite, apologised and thanked him for his discretion. 
Cheers officer! I think in truth, he didn't get an accurate speed check on me before I started slowing, but knew almost exactly how quick I'd got to.
Never been so scared. The rest of the drive was completed at about 15mph, and I have never since fitted cheap tires.
Second one was my only stop for speeding. I was enjoying my XJR's acceleration on one of its last journeys before I pxed it. After accelerating hard on a slip road (the Porsche Boxster also joining the motorway had nothing to do with it guv
) I eased off to coast back to my normal cruise speed. (I don't really travel that quick to be fair) As I slowed to the speed limit, a Police car caught up. Let me on my way after a bit of a telling off. He knew I was speeding, I knew it, so I was polite, apologised and thanked him for his discretion. Cheers officer! I think in truth, he didn't get an accurate speed check on me before I started slowing, but knew almost exactly how quick I'd got to.I was going hard around a corner in a MK1 Capri GT3000, back stepped out went across 4 lanes of traffic including going backwards over the central reservation, ended up facing same way I was going at other side of road so total 360 degree spin, all I could see was tyre smoke and somehow missed all the cars. Only damage was a blown tyre.
The one that's sticks in my mind the most was when I was 17, me and my mate were on the way home from college. We were just coming to a town called 'middleton cheney', where they is a box junction, and I for some unknown reason didn't look either way and just drove across the road, norrowly missing 1 car. I still play it back in my mind and wonder how we didn't die, still kicking myself about it too.
2manycars said:
What is the luckiest thing to ever happen to you when driving?
In pouring rain I aquaplaned a 545bhp Supra on the southbound M3 at 7.30 on a Monday morning. The car turned 90 degrees to the right but was still travelling in the original direction, if you see what I mean. In other words, the car was heading sideways along the motorway. I had been in the left hand lane when I hit the standing water but as the car slid along it got gradually nearer to the central reservation. Then the front bumper touched the centre armco and sent the car into a spin. It span round two and a bit times before straightening out - at this point I was still doing probably 40 odd mph but in reverse in the middle lane. I can still clearly remember the faces of the other drivers as they passed me on both sides, unable to stop.
Eventually I came to a halt with the front on the hard shoulder and the rear wheels up the grass bank, the car still facing the on-coming traffic. I just sat there in the car for a minute or so, hyperventilating and wondering if I was going to have a heart attack.
It was a miracle I didn't wipe anyone out and that everyone else managed to avoid my spinning car.
Mr Happy said:
A 360 degree spin in the middle lane of the A1 in torrential rain. It happened so quickly that as I was pointing southbound in the northbound carriageway, a car that was behind me, overtook me in the outside lane! I remember watching him go past me through the passenger window!
st! Those seconds must have seemed very long . . . . . Driving on the A46 towards Coventry, its 3 lanes, im in the outside lane in a Seat Altea hire car. Its snowing extremely heavily. A lorry moves from lane one to lane two and its trailer continues in to lane three missing my front bumber by inches!! The driver then somehow manages to pull it back into lane and carries on. Very scary!!
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