How lucky was I?
Discussion
My dash cam footage from yesterday of a car almost colliding directly head-on into me...
Private sharable link: https://youtu.be/APgM3_EPrJg
Private sharable link: https://youtu.be/APgM3_EPrJg
Police involved and all blew 0 on the breathlizer.
I have 2 witnesses who said the VW was driving like a looney and that he had already overtaken several cars previously. VW driver had 3 passengers, all adults probably in their 30-40's. What annoyed me most is that none of them apologised (they were not English if that makes any difference).
Pooch is mine too and lucky he is ok. If you listen carefully on impact you can hear him whine.
Wrong place wrong time as I literally had no time to react. He hit me before my brain even processed the car coming out! If I was driving my Cliosport 172 cup I don't think I'd be making this thread!
I have 2 witnesses who said the VW was driving like a looney and that he had already overtaken several cars previously. VW driver had 3 passengers, all adults probably in their 30-40's. What annoyed me most is that none of them apologised (they were not English if that makes any difference).
Pooch is mine too and lucky he is ok. If you listen carefully on impact you can hear him whine.
Wrong place wrong time as I literally had no time to react. He hit me before my brain even processed the car coming out! If I was driving my Cliosport 172 cup I don't think I'd be making this thread!
Edited by Prohibiting on Monday 31st August 13:51
Thanks everyone for the kind words! The PH community can be a great place on the whole.
In response to a few posts:
Yes he is insured luckily so I've got the ball rolling in regards to that.
The police told me that he will be tried for dangerous driving but I got the impression that they won't follow through with this as it's not worth their time(?) unless I can somehow press charges myself with the help of witness statements (I have their details and they were ever-so friendly).
My passenger I had only known for 3-weeks and we were coming back from a lovely day out walking the dog. It was our 4th date together and we were on the way back to my house where I was going to cook a roast dinner
Bless her she doesn't drive hence why we were talking about how to use the clutch and gears
My reaction..... I don't really swear so it's not natural for me to swear, but I guess as it all happened so fast I was just like "what the heck just happened?!?" After watching the video lots of times, it looks like I do slightly swerve to the left a split second before impact which could have shifted the car by a few centimeters which is better than nothing I guess.
You can kinda tell from the pictures, but the drivers steering wheel, dash area and pedal area etc has been pushed in and is all twisted. I literally have no idea how I was about to walk out of that.
5-minutes after the crash I went over to the 3rd party vehicle and shouted at them saying they could have killed us and they didn't say anything back... not even a sorry
In response to a few posts:
Yes he is insured luckily so I've got the ball rolling in regards to that.
The police told me that he will be tried for dangerous driving but I got the impression that they won't follow through with this as it's not worth their time(?) unless I can somehow press charges myself with the help of witness statements (I have their details and they were ever-so friendly).
My passenger I had only known for 3-weeks and we were coming back from a lovely day out walking the dog. It was our 4th date together and we were on the way back to my house where I was going to cook a roast dinner
Bless her she doesn't drive hence why we were talking about how to use the clutch and gears My reaction..... I don't really swear so it's not natural for me to swear, but I guess as it all happened so fast I was just like "what the heck just happened?!?" After watching the video lots of times, it looks like I do slightly swerve to the left a split second before impact which could have shifted the car by a few centimeters which is better than nothing I guess.
You can kinda tell from the pictures, but the drivers steering wheel, dash area and pedal area etc has been pushed in and is all twisted. I literally have no idea how I was about to walk out of that.
5-minutes after the crash I went over to the 3rd party vehicle and shouted at them saying they could have killed us and they didn't say anything back... not even a sorry
Edited by Prohibiting on Monday 31st August 17:36
ApOrbital said:
Very lucky,How is the dog?
Dog is fine thank god!tumble dryer said:
Pics of the Cup man!! 
I have the same thoughts whilst out on an occasional weekend blast in my 182 sans airbags and in buckets and harnesses. Scary.
It wasn't your time. (Bet the new girl friend ends up a keeper! )
I have the same thoughts whilst out on an occasional weekend blast in my 182 sans airbags and in buckets and harnesses. Scary.
It wasn't your time. (Bet the new girl friend ends up a keeper! )
The police officer who was at the scene called me yesterday evening as a routine checkup to find out how I was doing. I told him I want to press charges for dangerous driving given the dash cam footage and witnesses. He said OK then (obviously they weren't going to bother) and he has since received my footage. I had an email earlier to say that he will be reviewing the info with his supervisor later to discuss next steps.
Once again, thank you all for the kind words.
Once again, thank you all for the kind words
.OpulentBob said:
Blimey. Fair play to a 14 year old Focus (not meaning it in a snobby derogatory way!), it collapsed where it should, the airbags worked well, that's a mighty fine demonstration of a well developed, safe car for what, 80mph closing speeds?
Funny how the steering wheel airbag didn't go off! Fair play to the 2 curtain and side airbags though.I would estimate it was a combined 95mph hour crash. I was doing 50mph and I would estimate that the dawdler was doing 40mph so the 3rd party driver was probably accelerating up to around 45mph at the time for the overtake. I had no time to break and I expect they didn't either!
- Dog was loose in the boot probably lying down up against the rear seats (like he usually does) so he would have felt quite a shunt. If anyones dog had been on the back seats it would have been so much worse!
- Hire car turned up today which I'll have until things all get sorted (68 plate Astra SRI 1.6 turbo).
- Not sure what to replace the Focus with... can't decide whether I go for another similar shed or something more modern for daily use.
- My thoughts on the driver is that he probably knows the road very well and it was probably his commute (Gloucester to Newent) and running late for work, hence why he had 3 other adults in the vehicle. I would guess they all work on one of the industry estates and he knew it was a little straight bit of road to make an overtake. I think he committed the overtake before actually checking properly as there was a bit of gap between the Range Rover infront of me but it only takes a few seconds for the distance to close as we can all see!
- Injuries wise (I originally didn't want to say anything) but I am sore/stiff, my right foot prevents me from running properly at the moment (where my foot got bashed into the side of the brake pedal when the cabin twisted) and I have multiple cuts and grazes. My passenge has a bruised rib and a pain in her side. As a result I've instructed a personal injury firm which is part of my RAC membership.
Taylor James said:
Couple of things on this OP.
Secondly, this being PH, it's important to prove that you did something wrong.
Can you fix the missing apostrophe in the video please?
Secondly, this being PH, it's important to prove that you did something wrong.
Can you fix the missing apostrophe in the video please?
Edited by Prohibiting on Thursday 3rd September 10:31
OP here.
I decided to press charges and I have the results from the court case.
The driver was fined £250, ordered to pay £34 into a victims support pot, to pay costs of £90 and received 8 points on his license.
My passenger got £2k for personal injury, I got £3k.
Insurance paid me out £950 for my Focus (which tbh is fair looking at similar cars on AT)
I decided to press charges and I have the results from the court case.
The driver was fined £250, ordered to pay £34 into a victims support pot, to pay costs of £90 and received 8 points on his license.
My passenger got £2k for personal injury, I got £3k.
Insurance paid me out £950 for my Focus (which tbh is fair looking at similar cars on AT)
Edited by Prohibiting on Sunday 17th January 13:12
I think everything has been pretty fair, although some may argue he should be banned. My friend put it into perspective when he said he got a £90 fine and 3 points for doing 34mph in a 30... so is it really that fair considering he was driving like a looney and could have killed 2 people?
Hahahaa nah we called it off ages ago, it was nothing to do with the crash although we have been checking in with each other every now and again. She started to have driving lessons with her payout just before lockdown
I'm thinking off getting a 2005ish BMW X5 4.4i V8 to replace the E39 540i I used to have.
Regarding the offenders reasons, still don't know! I think we have to put it down to very bad timing and not seeing me. It may be worth me email the police contact to see if I can find out the reasons.
I'm thinking off getting a 2005ish BMW X5 4.4i V8 to replace the E39 540i I used to have.
Regarding the offenders reasons, still don't know! I think we have to put it down to very bad timing and not seeing me. It may be worth me email the police contact to see if I can find out the reasons.
CaptainSlow said:
Prohibiting said:
CaptainSlow said:
Where does the PI money come from?
Just a personal injury lawyer so unrelated to the insurance. My RAC membership put me in touch but you could just Google any "no win no fee" type outfit. Xenoous said:
Nice to hear you're ok, if nothing else. The level of punishment the VW driver got was nothing short of a joke. A ban should have been the minimum he received. If you were in a smaller, older car such as a Pug 106 the outcome could have been far far worse.
Still, what's important is you're hear to tell the tale.
Yep, I dread to think what would have happened if I was in my Clio 172 Cup. Broken legs at a minimum I reckon!Still, what's important is you're hear to tell the tale.
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