It's only metal... (crash thread)
Discussion
Mrs OwenK had a bad accident yesterday and wrote off her MR2. (She's fine, for the record, just a sore neck and a bruised ego)
She wanted to write a thread but didn't feel eloquent enough to express it!
She was on her way to a doctor's appointment about 8:30 yesterday morning, a route which takes you along some country A roads.
She was sitting in a stream of traffic at 50 (the limit, and I know she wasn't exceeding it because she very rarely does!) behind apparently a Civic Type R who was giving it the beans a bit, possibly wanting to get past the car in front of them; and a few other cars behind her.
Coming round a left hander she said she just suddenly felt the back end break away. Like the good petrolhead she is, she kept the foot down and tried to power out of the slide, as being midengined the MR2 is prone to spin if you come off the throttle mid-slide thanks to the weight transfer. According to her the car mostly straightened out on the wrong side of the road (fortunately nothing coming the other direction) and looked like she'd gotten away with it, before the front wheels then lost grip, and I believe put her into a spin in the opposite direction.
At some point the car began to roll: whether this was because it found some resistance on the road while sideways, or because it hit the kerb side-on at a fair velocity isn't clear; but witnesses thought she rolled over possibly twice before the car landed upside down in a ditch facing back the way she'd come.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ll=52.2166...
The car landed probably about where the little red blob is, just below and to the right of the centre of the screen. The car was firmly in the ditch to the extent that the floorpan was below road level.
I want at this point to give my profound thanks to the four blokes who stopped and helped yank open the door so my wife could get out - later when I visited the scene and tried to retrieve some things from inside, the police officer & I were unable to open the door more than a few inches - it was firmly wedged into the hedge of thin trees you see in the link above. After that she rang me at work & then got onto a spinal board and into an ambulance.
As I said earlier eveything ended up OK, although the MR2 is toast
with a great deal of panel damage including a crushed rear quarter - I'll take some pictures today. We're very sad to say goodbye to the little car, which was a staple at Sunday Services last year (hers is blue, always parked up next to my red one), and kept her safe when she needed it, despite being 18 years old and a little rusty & unhappy to start in the mornings!
I think now we'll just strip any useful/valuable parts off her, and send her to the big B-road in the sky.
Farewell Blue 02, we had a good year!
She wanted to write a thread but didn't feel eloquent enough to express it!
She was on her way to a doctor's appointment about 8:30 yesterday morning, a route which takes you along some country A roads.
She was sitting in a stream of traffic at 50 (the limit, and I know she wasn't exceeding it because she very rarely does!) behind apparently a Civic Type R who was giving it the beans a bit, possibly wanting to get past the car in front of them; and a few other cars behind her.
Coming round a left hander she said she just suddenly felt the back end break away. Like the good petrolhead she is, she kept the foot down and tried to power out of the slide, as being midengined the MR2 is prone to spin if you come off the throttle mid-slide thanks to the weight transfer. According to her the car mostly straightened out on the wrong side of the road (fortunately nothing coming the other direction) and looked like she'd gotten away with it, before the front wheels then lost grip, and I believe put her into a spin in the opposite direction.
At some point the car began to roll: whether this was because it found some resistance on the road while sideways, or because it hit the kerb side-on at a fair velocity isn't clear; but witnesses thought she rolled over possibly twice before the car landed upside down in a ditch facing back the way she'd come.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ll=52.2166...
The car landed probably about where the little red blob is, just below and to the right of the centre of the screen. The car was firmly in the ditch to the extent that the floorpan was below road level.
I want at this point to give my profound thanks to the four blokes who stopped and helped yank open the door so my wife could get out - later when I visited the scene and tried to retrieve some things from inside, the police officer & I were unable to open the door more than a few inches - it was firmly wedged into the hedge of thin trees you see in the link above. After that she rang me at work & then got onto a spinal board and into an ambulance.
As I said earlier eveything ended up OK, although the MR2 is toast
with a great deal of panel damage including a crushed rear quarter - I'll take some pictures today. We're very sad to say goodbye to the little car, which was a staple at Sunday Services last year (hers is blue, always parked up next to my red one), and kept her safe when she needed it, despite being 18 years old and a little rusty & unhappy to start in the mornings!I think now we'll just strip any useful/valuable parts off her, and send her to the big B-road in the sky.
Farewell Blue 02, we had a good year!Sorry to hear about the crash, but glad your lass is alright, cars come and go.
Shame about the MR2 though, they can be tricky in the wet and you have to have some skill behind the wheel to make them do what you want, rather than the other way round! I was driving my MR2 Turbo home from work this morning, ever attentive to what it was doing and playing safe since the rain was falling and making the road greasy.
These mid engined sports cars, they demand the driver's respect more than most cars! Though I'm sure you'll agree, they reward the driver massively when you're getting it right!
Shame about the MR2 though, they can be tricky in the wet and you have to have some skill behind the wheel to make them do what you want, rather than the other way round! I was driving my MR2 Turbo home from work this morning, ever attentive to what it was doing and playing safe since the rain was falling and making the road greasy.
These mid engined sports cars, they demand the driver's respect more than most cars! Though I'm sure you'll agree, they reward the driver massively when you're getting it right!
Baryonyx said:
Sorry to hear about the crash, but glad your lass is alright, cars come and go.
Shame about the MR2 though, they can be tricky in the wet and you have to have some skill behind the wheel to make them do what you want, rather than the other way round! I was driving my MR2 Turbo home from work this morning, ever attentive to what it was doing and playing safe since the rain was falling and making the road greasy.
These mid engined sports cars, they demand the driver's respect more than most cars! Though I'm sure you'll agree, they reward the driver massively when you're getting it right!
What he said, and get her back in a car soon, best way to make sure she doesn't, lose her confidence.Shame about the MR2 though, they can be tricky in the wet and you have to have some skill behind the wheel to make them do what you want, rather than the other way round! I was driving my MR2 Turbo home from work this morning, ever attentive to what it was doing and playing safe since the rain was falling and making the road greasy.
These mid engined sports cars, they demand the driver's respect more than most cars! Though I'm sure you'll agree, they reward the driver massively when you're getting it right!
I came straight home and sat in the classifieds 
Not sure I will be hooning any time soon but I'm sure I will be out again today running errands (this time in the nice big safe car )
I think what scared me most is how bad it could have been at hooning speeds, I have driven this road many times, and faster. In my eyes I was allowing for the conditions etc and I still ended up upside down.
I'm impressed how well the car held up though!
Not sure I will be hooning any time soon but I'm sure I will be out again today running errands (this time in the nice big safe car )I think what scared me most is how bad it could have been at hooning speeds, I have driven this road many times, and faster. In my eyes I was allowing for the conditions etc and I still ended up upside down.
I'm impressed how well the car held up though!
Glad that she's ok, that's the important thing.
I'm still not sure how it could have happened with a string of cars in front, driving at 50 or the relevance of the Civic "giving it beans" in front of her. I can only imagine that the Civic was slowing down, accelerating and then slowing again once catching up on the aforementioned traffic? I can see this thread going on a bit when the rest of PH wake up.
I'm still not sure how it could have happened with a string of cars in front, driving at 50 or the relevance of the Civic "giving it beans" in front of her. I can only imagine that the Civic was slowing down, accelerating and then slowing again once catching up on the aforementioned traffic? I can see this thread going on a bit when the rest of PH wake up.
MrDarkBlack said:
Glad that she's ok, that's the important thing.
I'm still not sure how it could have happened with a string of cars in front, driving at 50 or the relevance of the Civic "giving it beans" in front of her. I can only imagine that the Civic was slowing down, accelerating and then slowing again once catching up on the aforementioned traffic? I can see this thread going on a bit when the rest of PH wake up.
I forgot to mention that the Civic guys when talking after the crash were saying how they'd felt a slip on the road when they went round the corner in front of her. Also everyone who stopped reassured her that from watching the accident there was no apparent driver error & nothing she could have done to catch it, the tyres simply lost grip and when the fronts went too, she was a goner!I'm still not sure how it could have happened with a string of cars in front, driving at 50 or the relevance of the Civic "giving it beans" in front of her. I can only imagine that the Civic was slowing down, accelerating and then slowing again once catching up on the aforementioned traffic? I can see this thread going on a bit when the rest of PH wake up.
I know she wasn't driving stupidly, she doesn't even like breaking 70 on the motorway & has handled herself very capably on some much more serious "runs" including a spirited driving weekend in Wales (as I think YesItsAVW will attest).
When I went to visit the scene the road was exceedingly slippery (at the scene, and on other roads nearby) so I don't think it was any sort of driver error whatsoever.
Just one of those things!
edit: Need to clarify apparently I explained it wrong; there wasn't "traffic" per se, just a line of 4 or 5 cars of which Mrs K was in the middle, we live in the country so it's not all that common to have a string of cars like that. And the Civic wasn't speeding really, just accelerating round the corner, MrsK saw them doing it and thought she saw them wobble a little on the corner - and so chose not to speed up while cornering, being a consciencious driver aand aware of the nature of her car. I think she just managed to hit a particularly greasy patch which broke the rear end away & then another patch when she had nearly recovered it which broke the front.
Edited by OwenK on Saturday 18th February 08:41
OwenK said:
I know she wasn't driving stupidly, she doesn't even like breaking 70 on the motorway & has handled herself very capably on some much more serious "runs" including a spirited driving weekend in Wales (as I think YesItsAVW will attest).
Mrs OwenK can drive. Edited by YesItsAVW on Saturday 18th February 08:49
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