Daughter rolled her car tonight
Discussion
I'm in Germany and with a flight to the US early Sunday morning.
My wife called me at about 12:30 UK time to say our Daughter had called her to say she had rolled her car swerving to miss a bloody fox.
She was still trapped upside down inside but had managed to call the police and so the Fire Brigade were busy cutting her out.
Can't tell you how scary it has been.
It was only about 200 yards from home.
My Wife was able to walk down the road but they were still trying to get her out.
She's not badly hurt and I've spoken with her at the A&E.
She's been so lucky to have been able call for help as she was out of sight in the field.
That's one less new Corsa on the road but from what the Fire Man said, it's strength saved her.
I had a conversation with her only about 8 weeks ago about not swerving to miss animals.
Feel a bit sick now.
My wife called me at about 12:30 UK time to say our Daughter had called her to say she had rolled her car swerving to miss a bloody fox.
She was still trapped upside down inside but had managed to call the police and so the Fire Brigade were busy cutting her out.
Can't tell you how scary it has been.
It was only about 200 yards from home.
My Wife was able to walk down the road but they were still trying to get her out.
She's not badly hurt and I've spoken with her at the A&E.
She's been so lucky to have been able call for help as she was out of sight in the field.
That's one less new Corsa on the road but from what the Fire Man said, it's strength saved her.
I had a conversation with her only about 8 weeks ago about not swerving to miss animals.
Feel a bit sick now.
MJK 24 said:
Sounds like she's going to be fine which is the main thing.
Yes. I'm so relieved she's OK.I called a mate in California who was still up as I felt I needed to talk to someone.
He told me his 20 year old nephew had rolled his car two months ago and was killed.
I agree its hard not to swerve but I hope this will help her in the future.
Glad to hear she is ok - good thing she had a modern, safe car
Its a big problem swerving for animals as in fairness hitting something fox sized can do a large amount of damage to a car so I understand why people do it but sometimes people can be overcautious. I was following someone the other day who anchored on hard for a pigeon in the road - fortunately I was a fairly large distance behind otherwise I'd have been parking 1.5 tons of volvo up his chuff - personally anything fox-sized or smaller I run down these days.
Its a big problem swerving for animals as in fairness hitting something fox sized can do a large amount of damage to a car so I understand why people do it but sometimes people can be overcautious. I was following someone the other day who anchored on hard for a pigeon in the road - fortunately I was a fairly large distance behind otherwise I'd have been parking 1.5 tons of volvo up his chuff - personally anything fox-sized or smaller I run down these days.
morgrp said:
personally anything fox-sized or smaller I run down these days.
Indeed. Overcoming the mental block to hitting something in the carriageway is the big step, as the logical mind needs to override instinct there. Looking at it objectively, some plastic bumper section is easier and cheaper to replace than a whole car if you bungle an evasive manoeuvre. morgrp said:
Glad to hear she is ok - good thing she had a modern, safe car
I was following someone the other day who anchored on hard for a pigeon in the road - fortunately I was a fairly large distance behind otherwise I'd have been parking 1.5 tons of volvo up his chuff - personally anything fox-sized or smaller I run down these days.
Luckily you're one of the sensible ones that keeps a decent braking distance, more often than not I find someone following so close I can't see the front of their car. I was following someone the other day who anchored on hard for a pigeon in the road - fortunately I was a fairly large distance behind otherwise I'd have been parking 1.5 tons of volvo up his chuff - personally anything fox-sized or smaller I run down these days.
It's these people that make it difficult if you did have to stop quick.
Glad your daughter is ok OP, must've been a stressful situation to be in.
Edited by Rammy76 on Sunday 1st September 07:09
greygoose said:
Good that she is ok, it's hard not to swerve to avoid something in the road though!
Glad the OP's daughter is going to be ok which is the main thing but I echo your sentiments. I'm assuming the girl in question is probably a newish driver as I think not swerving comes with experience.Coming out of the foxhole at the nurburgring one time a hare ran out in front of me, somewhere about the size of a decent springer spaniel it bloody was! I was acutely aware of how much a new front carbon bumper was but at that speed on that pert of the track there was no swerving going to be done!
Luckily it missed the bumper but didn't half take a chunk out of my newly refurbished alloy wheel
OP, how about making the most of a bad situation & investing in some advanced high speed driver training? Hope she's not too shook up about the whole thing, if she is something like this might help get her confidence back & who knows, she might even enjoy it
Glad to hear she's OK. Make sure you get her back behind the wheel ASAP to ensure she has no hang-ups about the crash; perhaps get her to do a safety course, where she learns to safely swerve around objects while braking.
Make sure you comfort her and explain it could happen to anyone and that she wasn't at fault.....
My youngest got one of my cars T-boned at a dangerous junction near here, a split second later she'd have had the other car in her lap. I was very quick to rubbish the damage to the car (totalled), she ws OK, cars can always be replaced. I sent her on the Audi drivers course shortly after, where she learnt the avoidance tactics and good impact braking. She's said that the biggest thing after the accident was that I wasn't worried about the car at all, just her. I think she felt I'd b
k her for totalling the car....
Make sure you comfort her and explain it could happen to anyone and that she wasn't at fault.....
My youngest got one of my cars T-boned at a dangerous junction near here, a split second later she'd have had the other car in her lap. I was very quick to rubbish the damage to the car (totalled), she ws OK, cars can always be replaced. I sent her on the Audi drivers course shortly after, where she learnt the avoidance tactics and good impact braking. She's said that the biggest thing after the accident was that I wasn't worried about the car at all, just her. I think she felt I'd b
k her for totalling the car....Edited by JMGS4 on Sunday 1st September 09:11
Glad she's safe.
In the early 90s we had a fleet manager who was so sick of crashes due to animal avoidance that he wrote a guideline:
"Do not swerve for animals in the road"
Someone then pointed out that a stray cow could cause major damaged to a car.
The rule was re-written:
"For animals in the road, larger than a small horse, swerve to avoid them. For anything else, hit it."
In the early 90s we had a fleet manager who was so sick of crashes due to animal avoidance that he wrote a guideline:
"Do not swerve for animals in the road"
Someone then pointed out that a stray cow could cause major damaged to a car.
The rule was re-written:
"For animals in the road, larger than a small horse, swerve to avoid them. For anything else, hit it."
My Daughter has just started driving in her own car so I sympathise. Luckily She is mainly driving to work with some local driving during the day and early evening and she has a current model Ibiza so hopefully if she does crash it will protect her. Still nerve wrecking though. On the other front My son regails me with tails of a "bit of oppo!" in what will be his car. At the moment he hasn't run out of talent.
My daughter hit the car in front when it stopped suddenly on a country lane to avoid hitting a kitten, in mitigation my daughter thought it was slowing due to a car coming the other way.
End result - two traumatised young ladies ambulanced to A&E, road closed for an hour, two written off cars, days of form filling, interviews and phone calls with insurance co., two sets of NCD wiped out, £450 daughters excess lost and loads of Police time wasted. All for a feral farm cat!
Answering the phone to hear "your daughter has been in an accident" makes your blood run cold, I think that animals in the road should be covered in the driving test.
Ironically I had recently had a conversation with her about avoiding small animals, as it really doesn't make sense to do so. The jury is out on the increasingly common badgers and muntjacs though, they are solid lumps which can cause a lot of damage.
End result - two traumatised young ladies ambulanced to A&E, road closed for an hour, two written off cars, days of form filling, interviews and phone calls with insurance co., two sets of NCD wiped out, £450 daughters excess lost and loads of Police time wasted. All for a feral farm cat!
Answering the phone to hear "your daughter has been in an accident" makes your blood run cold, I think that animals in the road should be covered in the driving test.
Ironically I had recently had a conversation with her about avoiding small animals, as it really doesn't make sense to do so. The jury is out on the increasingly common badgers and muntjacs though, they are solid lumps which can cause a lot of damage.
Glad to hear she's ok. It's hard not to react to something in the road, esp when you realise it's an animal, even harder in my line of work!! Kind of goes against what my career choice is but I do get the reasoning behind it.
Hope she recovers quickly and is back behind the wheel asap.
Hope she recovers quickly and is back behind the wheel asap.
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