Bizarre accidents or near-misses
Discussion
Just a thread to share stories of bizarre accidents and near-missed.
During my university days, I spent around three to four hours each day for five years travelling to and from my rural home to the city campus. In that time, I haven't had an accident, but a lot of near-misses. Sometimes due to my own lack of skill, but also often due to the extreme stupidity and negligence of others.
Here are some weird ones:
I was travelling on a 110km/h highway in dense traffic, one car behind a truck loaded with home furniture. Both the car in front, and me, anticipated the potential for items to fall off the truck and kept plenty of distance back from it. Without warning, a moderately-large, light-weight, wooden-steel table literally shot into the air from the back of the truck, arcing dangerously like a mortar shell into our path! Utter chaos ensued as cars in my lane and the right-hand lane swerved and braked to avoid this thing crashing through our windscreen. All survived unhurt, and the truck driver completely oblivious to his flying cargo, continued on without a glance behind him....
Another one involved a learner driver with terrible steering control. I was again on my way to campus, taking a particularly tight left-hand bend, which commuters take very fast. I was in the left-hand lane, travelling at 60km/h keeping with flow of traffic (dangerously fast for the bend, but everyone does it), when I sensed that the L-plater in my right-hand blindspot was not going to keep to his lane. THANK GOODNESS FOR SITUATIONAL AWARENESS! I accelerated as hard as I dared for the upcoming right-hand bend, keeping close to the kerb to my left, just as the car behind me honked his/her horn, and the L-plater swung half-way into my lane behind me, before the instructor finally corrected his pupil's steering and jumped back into his own lane.
Moral of the story? Use the right-gear, and if people won't keep away from your blindspot, then try to position yourself so that they aren't. I had been trying to keep this L-plater behind my blindspot for several minutes before the incident, and it seems to have paid off. There was just enough margin for error to avoid a T-boning when it really mattered.
Then there is the incident where a large crow crashed into my windscreen at 60km/h in heavy traffic.
Then a 4WD losing its spare tyre at over 100km/h. Situational awareness helped to avoid that one too, keeping track of my blindspots, I swerved without hesitation.
Then the attack of the killer foam balls! A truck carrying bags of little foam balls dropped some of its cargo on the highway, blinding everyone with what seemed to be millions of little white foam balls. Recipe for disaster.
During my university days, I spent around three to four hours each day for five years travelling to and from my rural home to the city campus. In that time, I haven't had an accident, but a lot of near-misses. Sometimes due to my own lack of skill, but also often due to the extreme stupidity and negligence of others.
Here are some weird ones:
I was travelling on a 110km/h highway in dense traffic, one car behind a truck loaded with home furniture. Both the car in front, and me, anticipated the potential for items to fall off the truck and kept plenty of distance back from it. Without warning, a moderately-large, light-weight, wooden-steel table literally shot into the air from the back of the truck, arcing dangerously like a mortar shell into our path! Utter chaos ensued as cars in my lane and the right-hand lane swerved and braked to avoid this thing crashing through our windscreen. All survived unhurt, and the truck driver completely oblivious to his flying cargo, continued on without a glance behind him....
Another one involved a learner driver with terrible steering control. I was again on my way to campus, taking a particularly tight left-hand bend, which commuters take very fast. I was in the left-hand lane, travelling at 60km/h keeping with flow of traffic (dangerously fast for the bend, but everyone does it), when I sensed that the L-plater in my right-hand blindspot was not going to keep to his lane. THANK GOODNESS FOR SITUATIONAL AWARENESS! I accelerated as hard as I dared for the upcoming right-hand bend, keeping close to the kerb to my left, just as the car behind me honked his/her horn, and the L-plater swung half-way into my lane behind me, before the instructor finally corrected his pupil's steering and jumped back into his own lane.
Moral of the story? Use the right-gear, and if people won't keep away from your blindspot, then try to position yourself so that they aren't. I had been trying to keep this L-plater behind my blindspot for several minutes before the incident, and it seems to have paid off. There was just enough margin for error to avoid a T-boning when it really mattered.
Then there is the incident where a large crow crashed into my windscreen at 60km/h in heavy traffic.
Then a 4WD losing its spare tyre at over 100km/h. Situational awareness helped to avoid that one too, keeping track of my blindspots, I swerved without hesitation.
Then the attack of the killer foam balls! A truck carrying bags of little foam balls dropped some of its cargo on the highway, blinding everyone with what seemed to be millions of little white foam balls. Recipe for disaster.
CommanderJameson said:
Then there is the incident where a large crow crashed into my windscreen at 60km/h in heavy traffic.
I read that as "a large cow" and thought, "blimey!".
Well I got a swan into the windscreen right in front of me and I certainly didn't think "blimey!"
A couple for you ...
M3 nr Basingstoke, London bound, middle lane (was overtaking), two range rovers in out side land hit each other, just as I looked in my mirror, looked back to find a heavy braking RR had swerved into my lane - hard on brakes (emergency brake assist does work), including ABS which got the speed down (couldn't go left, car I had just overtaken, and couldn't go right as there was another slow RR).
Wrong time to look in mirror I guess.
Then there was the numnuts in a BMW who, as I slowed to go straight on, but round, a mini roundabout, decided to overtake me ...
Probably the worst one, was a few years back ...
Braking for a 90 degree right bend, (but blind as trees and bridge) on a road layout that, some time back, was a T-junction, but was now a right hand bend, with the "left bit of the T" requiring a right turn. National limit road ... and a car comes (at about 60) straight across the front of me. Now, I'm rarley wound up, but I followed the said car to Sainsburys, and very politely (honest) asked the lady driver to take another look at that junction as she had just very nearly killed me.
Her comment ... I don't think you approached that junction safely at all
Me .. OK then, what colour car was I driving
Her ... ?
Hadn't even seen me - which I knew, as she hadn't even seen the road markings, and was looking straight ahead as she past me - truely frightening.
Was still shaking about an hour later.
Martin
>> Edited by mph999 on Tuesday 6th December 00:27
>> Edited by mph999 on Sunday 18th December 22:29
M3 nr Basingstoke, London bound, middle lane (was overtaking), two range rovers in out side land hit each other, just as I looked in my mirror, looked back to find a heavy braking RR had swerved into my lane - hard on brakes (emergency brake assist does work), including ABS which got the speed down (couldn't go left, car I had just overtaken, and couldn't go right as there was another slow RR).
Wrong time to look in mirror I guess.
Then there was the numnuts in a BMW who, as I slowed to go straight on, but round, a mini roundabout, decided to overtake me ...
Probably the worst one, was a few years back ...
Braking for a 90 degree right bend, (but blind as trees and bridge) on a road layout that, some time back, was a T-junction, but was now a right hand bend, with the "left bit of the T" requiring a right turn. National limit road ... and a car comes (at about 60) straight across the front of me. Now, I'm rarley wound up, but I followed the said car to Sainsburys, and very politely (honest) asked the lady driver to take another look at that junction as she had just very nearly killed me.
Her comment ... I don't think you approached that junction safely at all
Me .. OK then, what colour car was I driving
Her ... ?
Hadn't even seen me - which I knew, as she hadn't even seen the road markings, and was looking straight ahead as she past me - truely frightening.
Was still shaking about an hour later.
Martin
>> Edited by mph999 on Tuesday 6th December 00:27
>> Edited by mph999 on Sunday 18th December 22:29
This morning actually! 
I was driving through a village and approaching a crossroads on a very slight left hand bend . I was busy pulling up to the junction when this big blue van came straight across the crossroads towards me and drove down the wrong side of the road!! I immediately checked my mirror (it was safe to stop) and braked. In the mirror I saw the guy behind me - he had a classic look of shock on his face and had also braked to a standstill (he was in a lovely looking M3 - say hello if you're on PH!). Thankfully, the guy behind me had seen everything and we both stopped abruptly on the left hand side of the road whilst this van brushed past both of us. The guy behind me did NOT look happy at the van driver!
I was driving through a village and approaching a crossroads on a very slight left hand bend . I was busy pulling up to the junction when this big blue van came straight across the crossroads towards me and drove down the wrong side of the road!! I immediately checked my mirror (it was safe to stop) and braked. In the mirror I saw the guy behind me - he had a classic look of shock on his face and had also braked to a standstill (he was in a lovely looking M3 - say hello if you're on PH!). Thankfully, the guy behind me had seen everything and we both stopped abruptly on the left hand side of the road whilst this van brushed past both of us. The guy behind me did NOT look happy at the van driver!
One of the guys who used to fit in-store displays for my old company was driving along the motorway on the way to a job one morning with his work mate when a sign from a motorway maintenance vehicle came flying through the window of their lorry. It imbedded itself in the back of the seat between the two of them. They were, needless to say, rather shocked. It doesn't bear thinking about what could have happened though.
Jungles said:
I was travelling on a 110km/h highway in dense traffic, one car behind a truck loaded with home furniture.
Similar thing happened to me in Peru. Truck in front shed what looked to be a load of 3 inch diameter steel pipes. All the cars around us could be heard locking up but fortuneately the guy driving was had been a bit of a rally ace in his day (Swede named Per - used to mechanic for Toyota WRC) kept his cool, his instinctive reaction was assess the situation rather than hitting the brakes and swerving which would not have been nice in a well loaded 4 x 4. His next action was to accelerate straight through the pipes. The split second he took to have a really good look at the pipes gave him the chance to see that they were not steel but plastic, avoided any chance of rolling and avoided the chaos caused by all and sundry losing control around him.
Large beer was had at the hotel shortly afterwards.
Heres a freaky oone of my own:
Travelling up the M5 in light traffic, when I see something in the middle lane of the motorway. As I get nearer I realised that it was a road sign (triangular) on it's face, with just the thin supporting legs sticking up. My wife quickly called the emergency services, I hate to think what damage it might have caused if we'd hit it - probably skewered the radiator!
Travelling up the M5 in light traffic, when I see something in the middle lane of the motorway. As I get nearer I realised that it was a road sign (triangular) on it's face, with just the thin supporting legs sticking up. My wife quickly called the emergency services, I hate to think what damage it might have caused if we'd hit it - probably skewered the radiator!
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