Dont know if this applies PU but....
Whilst PC on Traffic sent to to a RTA.
Arrived scene which was at a Transport Cafe at side of main road with open car park onto road.
Artic driver parked up at side of road and car park and went for a cuppa.
In those days we had certain ladies of the night who would try and ply their trade at such places. She apparently had a full bladder and crawled under the trailer at the 5th wheel coupling to relieve herself. Whilst doing so, lorry driver returned and drove off with her still underneath and bowled her over causing superficial injuries that did require hospital treatment.
Accident Causation Factor for Report took some careful wording.......
dvd
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reversed car into driveway with driver door open and head looking under car to avoid driving over cement bag , then car door hit wall pillar i had just built
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When a friend of mine was a student in Edinburgh in the late '70s he had a large motorbike. Can't remember exactly what it was, but it was big, with a gold tank and I want to say it was a Kawasaki ? In those days he was hairy, leather clad and looked vaguely neandertal. He is now bald and a surgeon by way of irrelevant background.
Anyway back to Edinburgh circa 1979. Pat was coming downhill on wet cobbles......um.....a bit late for something. A couple of girls in an old Beetle pulled out across his intended route. He simply couldn't stop and hit the car side on where the back door would be if Beetles had had one......if you see what I mean ? The bike actually ended up in the back seat of the car whose occupants were thankfully unhurt. Pat somersaulted over the handlebars, continued over the top of the car and landed on his feet on the other side without a scratch on him for all the world like a circus act. I seem to recall that he ended up going out with the driver.
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Riding BSA Bantam rather too fast round bend about half a mile from home.
Slid on wet surface into kerb. Airborne through bush and down into water filled ditch.
Squelched out several minutes later to find bike leaning up against kerb as if I'd just parked it there.
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did similar on a push bike, hit a brick on the kerb and went a over t , broken nose and a bit of facial scrubbing , taxi driver who seen me go a cropper took me to A&E ....never did get my bike back
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Back in the early/mid sixties I was taking my then wife from Merseyside to Blackpool to see Shirley Bassey at The Opera House. The trip entailed driving through Preston which has a downhill approach road at the bottom of which is (or was) a set of traffic lights. I followed a newish Jaguar down the hill and the road was wet - as it often is when rains! The Jag driver was a lone female and just as she got to the traffic light junction the lights turned to red and she stood on the anchors. The Jag stopped in its tracks but my Ford Anglia failed to respond to my frantic pumping on the brake pedal and I ploughed into the back. The impact was short and sharp and the only immediate evidence was the boot lid of the Jag pinging open. Being the guilty party I sat behind the wheel of my Anglia trying to compose myself and think of an excuse that might sound plausible to the Jag driver and to my employer, whose car it was. Imagine my surprise and relief when, as the lights changed back to green the Jag drove off with the boot lid still flapping in the breeze! I can only assume that she should not have been driving the car - or she had a very urgent assignment. And the damage to the Anglia wasn't as bad as it might have been!
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Many years ago, late at night and quite honestly drunk as a skunk, I found myself sitting in my stalled car in a narrow country lane beside a barn and huge oak gatepost, staring at the brightly-illuminated wet road covered in fresh grass tussocks and lumps of mud, steaming gently in the headlights. To my amazement though I was facing the wrong way, and had no memory of anything apart from a loud slithering Whump!
But it was easy enough to work out what had happened. I had come up the lane like a bat out of hell, swung uncharacteristically wide given my inappropriate speed to turn into the yard gateway on my left and braked heavily with the two offside wheels on the grass verge. This meant that instead of understeering at 30 or 40 mph - more for all I know - into the gatepost and corner of the barn, destroying the motor and very probably hurting myself, the car had executed a neat 180 degree spin without hitting anything at all.
I started the engine and drove quietly into the yard chortling to myself and thinking: No one will ever believe this (if I showed you the place you too would find it difficult).
That near-miraculous escape from the consequences of my own idiocy quite pleased me at the time, but the memory makes me shudder now.
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reverse parked up against a high wall at a garage to look at a car and felt a slight bump. ah well, moved forward a few inches and went in. on the way out I noticed that the guttering was overflowing in a major fashion and the metal downpipe was crushed in line with my towball. I left quietly
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Montesa Cota belting home, from a hostelry, crossed dual carriageway in to a side (ish) road, mis-timed the bend at the start of this road and got both wheels 'stuck' along the opposite kerb...............crashed in to the road side wall of our local Cottage hospital..........................It was closed!!!!! Split lip......ruggered right knee, embarrassed 'boat race'. Went home and had to walk (limp) to A&E half a mile away...............Boys eh! (17 YO)
By the way, did I ever tell you about the time my mate and I 'borrowed' his Uncles Norton Dominator...aged 16...Oh! didn't I..well next time maybe............
VBR........MD
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Some years back I had jacked up the rear end of my car inside the garage so that I could run a line of mig weld around one of the silencer boxes on the (otherwise sound) exhaust system. Whilst I did this I put the car into 1st gear to stop it from being able to roll away.
Once I had done the welding, I reconnected the battery in order to start up the engine to make sure that it wasn't blowing before I dropped the car down/put everything away. Hence I leaned through the open window, flicked the key and the car took off forwards straight through the shut up & over garage door, using the trolley jack to overcome the fact that the handbrake was on.
Oops...
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All back-roomers must be warned of a strange paranormal event which has occurred at least twice in the past two months in South Ayrshire. Just like the village which appeared out of the mists in the story 'Brigadoon', roundabouts in the vicinity of the original Brig 'O Doon have started appearing out of nowhere, and causing motorists to find themselves stuck in the middle of them.
First was a spectacular with an HGV, at the Holmston roundabout on the A77 (junction with A76). Large truck heading north on A77, instead of following curve of road onto the roundabout, mounted the raised divider, demolished very tall 'roundabout style' street light, crossed one side of the roundabout and continued on into the very large, recently landscaped roundabout centre, leaving two very deep and long furrows.
Then last night, a podium placing for a Vauxhall Astra. The podium was the roundabout right in front of Prestwick Airport (or Glasgow Prestwick, as Ryanair like to call it - to trick people into thinking they're flying into Glasgow - not really a problem as it's only 40 minutes up the road!). This roundabout is one of the kind where the edge is built up of closely fitted black and white concrete pieces, arranged in a chevron or striped pattern, the sides sloping at an angle of something like 45 - 50 degrees, with a flat top about a metre or so above the road surface. Again, the roundabout seems to have appeared out of nowhere, into the path of the Astra, which found itself perched on the middle of the raised platform, minus it's front bumper (and probably minus it's sump as well). Quite amazed that it stayed upright, and didn't overturn - or even do a 'back-flip'!
So, the public need to be warned. Roundabouts may materialise out of nowhere. Can I please have a £500,000 grant to research this, and a PhD when I write it up?
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Drivewell, re the airport roundabout, I heard this on the news last night that there was an accident there but they stated on the road report that the road was closed.
Now I thought to myself, AFAIK, there is only that one entrance into Prestwick Airport, that could cause a bit of a problem!!
On a slightly different note, I remember about 30 years ago or so, staying in the caravan park directly opposite the airport when Concorde flew into and out of the airport.
What a fantastic noise, surprised all the caravans weren't blown away!
My village has one of those roundabouts in it and I rememember seeing someone lock up their wheels as they approached and skidding onto it, half way up the chevron bricks. He just reversed back down and then drove away with that look of "I hope no-one noticed me" on his face!
More and more roundabouts are being protected with those one foot high solid concrete edges, must really do damage if you hit it, even just slightly striking it!
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Hi Bobby
Don't think road was closed for very long. Accident happened the back of 5pm, I think.
I passed around 6.30, and there were 4 police cars and an ambulance at the scene, but traffic was flowing. Don't know why ambulance was still there. Maybe driver or passenger had suffered suspected spinal injury, and they were taking their time to get them out (or back down from the top of it). Couldn't see if anyone was still in the car. That roundabout is a particularly high one, with steeper than usual sides. (the one before it, at the road which goes along the north side of the runway into Monkton, is a lot lower).
Amazing how many of the locals down here still remember the times Concorde flew in and out on training / engineering flights. My folks have stayed in that caravan site too. Prestwick used to be a popular day trip from Wishaw, where I grew up.
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Wishaw? Just along the road from there now!
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Flatmate of mine many years ago had lost sight in her left eye as a toddler. Managed to get a driving licence (scorching premiums even back in 1980s) but tended to have an accident of some kind at least once a year.
She came back to the flat laughing hysterically one night after a nearside to offside collision on a filter lane of the A3. Neither car was particularly damaged and the drivers got out to have a "chat" about what had happened. After a while realisation suddenly dawned on both drivers that SHE hadn't seen HIM because he was on her LH, i.e. "blind" side. HE, on the other hand, hadn't seen HER because he was ... blind in his right eye. They both agreed that it would be utterly surreal and a complete waste of time to even think about insurance claims.
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My dad reversed into a bollard at the hospital he worked at back in the early 90s. Not really his fault, they had installed the bollard during the day, blocking the way he'd come into the space. Made for an entertaining insurance claim.
Similar thing at work - before I joined my last company there had been considerable merriment when a new wall had been build one day, completely boxing in one guy's car. No accident involved, but they did have to knock the wall down again to get the car out.
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Friend of mine had a souped-up metro in the late 80's. Drove enthusiastically, bit of a jack the lad. He had a habit of swinging into his parents' drive at some speed, and pulling up sharply behind his father's car. His father was not pleased with this behaviour, but my friend laughed it off, stating that he'd uprated the brakes & was an excellent driver. Sadly one day he performed his usual trick, but the bump from road to drive dislodged a coke can that had been sitting in the centre console (or somewhere similar), which proceeded to roll beneath the brake pedal & led to a compromise of both my friend's metro and his dad's Peugeot as well as reputation and driving privileges!
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A few years ago now, I came out of the house and jumped into my works transit to go out on a call. Jumped in started it up, put it in reverse, pulled away and instantly bump, I think "what the...." looking in my mirrors I can't see anything, jump out to find my mate in his car giving me a grumpy look.
In the time I had jumped into the van and started it, he had pulled into the drive, but so closed up behind my van he was not vivible at all. Luckily as it was so close there wasn't enough momentum to cause any damage.
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