Near miss ( worst crash witnessed or been in)

[simmo]

My dad and his mate were into Allards and he had mentioned a few times that they were involved in an accident that involved them crashing a P-series Saloon backwards into a lamp post at speed and both thought they were lucky to get away with only minor injuries.  When we cleared his house out we found a cutting from the paper showing the aftermath and yes they were very lucky.

[doobietoo]

Stopped at a T junction many years ago when I was a trade plate driver in of all things a 3 year old Citroen BX. Lorry came up behind me and just didn't stop, pushed me across two lanes of traffic.It was like being inside a pinball machine.... The only part of the car that wasn't destroyed was the area around the seat I was sitting in, the drivers door even opened. I got out completely unharmed and sat on the verge and waited for the emergency services to arrive.

Amazingly despite the carnage no one was hurt at all....

[taxi paul]

My silly one. Few years ago on holiday in Thailand. Going back to my mates house in big buddah from chaweng. Three in the morning. On my rented twist and go scooter. Totally drunk , not very responsible I know. Anyway no road lights pitch black. Doing about ten mile an hour so headlight crap , due to low revs. Got my burger king meal in my front basket and I am struggling to see the road . Get overtaken by a local and decide to follow his back light, top plan . About half a mile down the road I follow his light and go flying , burger and blood and snot everywhere. He had only gone off road down a track and I followed his lights . Expensive night out. Don't drink and drive kids.

[Des]

When I was four, waiting for the pedestrian lights at a crossroads, a big black saloon, probably a Ford Zodiac, gunned it through when it shouldn't have, twatted a smaller car then flipped onto its roof with a nice loud crash, I was transfixed at how the wheels continued spinning, thankfully oblivious to the carnage. Then a few years ago a nice surreal one right in front of me, a Polo enters mini roundabout at the end of my road, turning right, just after everyone has paused to let some kids cross, from the right bolts a white seventies Cadilac overtaking at crazy speed, twats the Polo into a perfect 180 so it's suddenly facing me, nobody hurt but a second either way could have been sticky.

[MrDuke]

Saw loads of aftermaths when I lived down South and was doing a 40-odd mile commute. Worst one was a hatchback that had pulled out in front of a BMW on a NSL road and been utterly destroyed - you couldn't even tell what make it was anymore. I got there literally moments afterwards, and while I know I should have stopped to help (couple of other cars already had), I just couldn't face looking inside the hatch and seeing what was left of the inhabitants.

 

The first incident I remember seeing was from the back of Fatha_Duke's Mk1 Granada, coming round the one-way system near our house. A random bloke (turned out to be a petty robber who'd just 'done' a newsagents) legged it up to a Cortina waiting at the junction and tried to get into the back seat. The middle-aged driver panicked and floored it away in front of us, while the guy, for some unknown reason, continued clinging to the door-handle. After about 100 yards, the driver decided to stop and remove his unwanted passenger, except by that point he wasn't really capable of much movement. The paramedics managed to get him upright eventually - my 7-year-old brain couldn't figure out why he was making such a fuss, I mean he was fully clothed, and none of his limbs had fallen off, what was the problem? 

[J-Rod]

In a similar vein to the one above...

 

A family friend was a cop. In Swansea, there used to be a nightclub right down the end of Mumbles called 'Cinderella's' (or Cinders, to people like Skizzer and myself). Every night, after kicking out time, the cops used to do a sweep of the area to pick up any waifs and strays which were strewn around the path down to the place. One quiet night, they couldn't find anyone who was totally incapable of looking after themselves, so did a quick check of the carpark above the place, stopped for a few seconds and then stuck on their blues and twos and floored it back to Swansea central. 

 

About a mile down the road, a taxi drew up being them and started flashing his lights and trying to flag them down. Duly pulled over, the cops got out for a word when they noticed the cabbie pointing at the riot mesh on the back windows of their van. There was a guy hanging on the back in a catatonic state. Not knowing quite what to do (and probably not wanting the hassle of having to explain why he was there in the first place when they got back to the station), they unpicked him from the mesh and left him on the side of the road. 

[motormatt]

Walking home from work one evening, pedestrian crossing at a zebra just after a bend, car comes bombing around the bend, runs the red light and smashes into the pedestrian who gets thrown over the car. It all seemed to happen in slow motion. Sadly the pedestrian died at the scene. Driver was drunk. Still remember the sickening noise to this day and is one of the reasons why Id never get behind the wheel after drinking. I could deal with losing my licence or prison but taking someone's life through my own selfishness, I don't think I could live with that.

[warren t claim]

Nothing I've witnessed on the roads compares to finding long dead corpses in council properties while working as a bailiff. Imagine a decomposing corpse half sunk into a mattress or a bloated dead body in a bath....

[purplebargeken]

Ewwww. 

[dugong]

Have had a major accident. Near lost my left eye \ head.

 

Someone wrote in to the paper not long after saying that seatbelts kill and originality is king.

My response was charming, I assure you.

[J-Rod]

^^^ Not really understood some people's problem with seatbelts. Someone I know rarely wears theirs (seemingly on a matter of principle)

 

Then again, their entire family regularly polish off entire bottles of wine and drive themselves home/express amazement at speeding tickets/prang their cars needlessly. The mind, it doth boggle... 

[omegod]

Nothing I've witnessed on the roads compares to finding long dead corpses in council properties while working as a bailiff. Imagine a decomposing corpse half sunk into a mattress or a bloated dead body in a bath....

I bet that didn't half stink !

[needforspeed]

I have been run over a few years ago ended up fracturing umpteen verabtae my back, my ankle and compression fractures from base of skull to mid back!!

The thud and afterward double sumersault across road will live with me for years to come,i actually feel like i witnessed it rather than being in it!

[Supernaut]

I've been in one minor accident and had a few near misses.

 

I've been driving since 2005 (I'm only 27!)

 

- The first car I drove regularly after getting my licence was a 1975 Land Rover SIII SWB. Went round a corner totally sideways in the snow and almost bounced it off a couple of snow drifts.

 

- The first car I owned (at the age of 22) was a 1997 Peugeot 306 1.9TD, 5 door in white. Loved it. I experienced the famous lift-off oversteer in that a lot. My most memorable was going round a banked left-hander in the middle of Glen Shee in the wet... completely sideways. I was watching fence posts go past the windscreen from right to left and thinking "This is it" but somehow my armful of opposite lock saved it, and it suddenly flicked back to the right direction.

 

- I also owned a Mk2 Mazda MX-5 1.8 for a year. That went sideways a lot in the wet, but 99% of the time it was deliberate.

 

- My current car, the A4 Quattro simply reacts to too much speed by understeering catastrophically. I've exited a couple of corners on completely the wrong side of the road then thanked whatever deity that nothing was coming the other way. I now take corners about 10-20mph slower.

 

- The actual accident I've been in was when I was a passenger in a 2002 Fiat Punto. Waiting at a roundabout with my brother driving and we suddenly jumped forward about 5 feet. I thought he just stalled it at first. Nope, some eejit in a Merc C class punted into us. He owned a bodyshop so instead of getting insurance involved, repaired it free of charge. It was just a cracked bumper and a slight dent in the spare wheel well. That Punto took so, so much abuse at the hands of our family for years after that.

[dugong]

One of the luckiest people alive, getting out of that with just facial and mental scars was amazing. You sir should be immune to terrible things for life now

I know people asked (unbelievably), but there are no shots of the car.

[J-Rod]

Nearly got wiped out by an artic last year on the South Mimms roundabout. Stopped for a red on the middle of the roundabout and glanced in my mirror, only to find this massive thing bearing down on me. Thankfully, it was early morning on a Sunday and he was able to drive around me and go through the red as there was bugger all else about. 

 

Just shows how quickly things can happen though; the driver of the truck must have glanced down or away for a second and the next thing he knew, the lights were red and the car that was rolling a good 100 yards in front was stopped and getting very close, very quickly. 

[dugong]

Hasn't the owner restored it or something (don't mean to be nosey) if they have, I wouldn't be driving it again lol

No, it was sold in a Copart auction earlier this year.

[CHRIS1980]

2002 I was on my way to Peterborough in a pool car from work. It was 51 plate Volvo V70. Come off the Duddington roundabout if you know it,up the hill with a long sweeping right hand curve. An Astra came the other way not making the turn and slammed head on into me. An explosion of air bags I was in a daze and shocked. I couldn't see out of the car and heard the wheels of a truck locked up and a hiss of air brakes. I climbed out and the front was gone,the engine,box and front wheel complete with drive shaft lay in the road. The other driver had a shattered cheekbone and eye socket. He had no liecence ,insurance,tax or MOT. He claimed it was my fault and that I had crossed the corner despite witnesses in my favour. A complete muppet who changed his statement 3 times before he admitted it. My boss was not happy,we had 3 of those Volvos with consecutive number plates, I took the middle one out:) I walked away with a bruised black shoulder. I rember the Police were impressed with how the car reacted,especially as they turned up in the same car.

[Jikovron]

I once happened upon the aftermath of a car and biker who had turned off into a side road and proceeded to 20-60mph v max it straight into the side of a corsa that had pulled out not anticipating such rapid acceleration

The chap was ok but the foot peg had landed squarely onto his ankle and crushed it badly after the bike had cartwheeled over the bonnet, thankfully aside from shock in the lady drivers case and a wrecked ankle for him ,he conceded that he was lucky to be alive to see another day go by

[Station]

Off the M42 onto A42 and onto the roundabout towards Kenilworth, see a steaming bike on the verge with a biker lying dead further up.

 

On the M53 went through a multiple pile up in the late 90s, it was chaos everywhere, smoke, steam, car parts,etc. A contorted man was very dead propped against the central reservation with his eyes wide open looking straight into mine, nearly threw up. Further along my dad suddenly said 'oh my God just don't look keep your eyes down' which I did, I was holding my mouth. I had Frank Zappa's Grand Wazoo album on and I think of that every time I hear it.

[needforspeed]

Off the M42 onto A42 and onto the roundabout towards Kenilworth, see a steaming bike on the verge with a biker lying dead further up.

 

On the M53 went through a multiple pile up in the late 90s, it was chaos everywhere, smoke, steam, car parts,etc. A contorted man was very dead propped against the central reservation with his eyes wide open looking straight into mine, nearly threw up. Further along my dad suddenly said 'oh my God just don't look keep your eyes down' which I did, I was holding my mouth. I had Frank Zappa's Grand Wazoo album on and I think of that every time I hear it.

Did you ever find out what you where not meant to look at?

[Matt]

I've got a great little story from my dad a couple of years ago. One the people that works under him phoned in one morning saying that she would be late, my dad asked why and she explained that she had had a car accident. Father asked if she was okay and where she was, she was fine and not far from the office so he goes along to check on her. He pulls up at the same time as the fire service who did a blue light run to get there. The reason she needed the fire service was because she was trapped in the thing. She phoned him to explain that she would be late before calling the emergency services to get her out of the car... My dad at this point is like you don't need to call your boss while stuck in a crashed car, that's a perfectly legitimate reason to not show up to work! Some people.

[Lankytim]

Did he fire her for being late?

[UltraWomble]

A Capri broke up? wtf, the whole ordeal sounds terrible. 

It had been in a smash before and repaired (badly) with wob and a £50 blow over. The driver (a different Andy) always said it pulled to the left and "kept meaning to get the tracking done". The front of the car from the A-pillars forward almost totally broke away and the car folded up.

Anyway, yes it was a bit shit as was burning my bollocks, but there you go - these things are sent to try us.

[J-Rod]

 

Anyway, yes it was a bit shit as was burning my bollocks, but there you go - these things are sent to try us.

 

Understatement of the year 

[dugong]

I remember being very young and seeing an Astra B estate propped up against the Armco with its nose pointed at the sky. I was on the way to Motorfair '90 with my dad, probably somewhere on the M6 or M42.

 

I'd never seen an accident before and I've no idea how the car ended up the way it did. We drove through a huge cloud of steam (presumably from a bust radiator), pulled into the hard shoulder and I waited on the verge while DUGONG_FATHER asked the (very) shocked driver if he was alright and wanted the emergency services calling (he had a car phone). I remember seeing the bloke in question covered in blood - we waited with him until the ambulance arrived about five minutes later.

 

Years later I was travelling home from Wales in the Amazon and a long wheelbase Sprinter somehow ended up in a tank slapper merging on to the M56 from the entry slip near ICI Runcorn. I don't understand how it ended up pirouetting - granted, the road was greasy, but he wasn't speeding. All I remember was the terrified look on his son's face as the Mercedes donutted out of control, did a complete, pendulous 360 across all three (or four) lanes - which were thankfully empty at that point - and came to rest about an inch before smashing head on into the central reservation. Any closer (or later) and he'd have pinballed off the divider straight into the flow of fast lane traffic.

 

Luckily traffic was light at that point and everyone slowed down in time to see the van fire up again and drive on to the hard shoulder. I imagine the dry cleaning bill was colossal.

[needforspeed]

Nothing I've witnessed on the roads compares to finding long dead corpses in council properties while working as a bailiff. Imagine a decomposing corpse half sunk into a mattress or a bloated dead body in a bath....

Aww jesus!

[the judge]

^^ still would though...

[chaseracer]

This is the only big one, and I hope it stays that way.

 

 

T-boned a TR7 convertible (off-duty copper running a red light in Brighton) at 40mph and punted the rear axle straight out the other side of the car.  The GS was ten years old, predictably frilly, and crumpled back to the B-pillar - but it did its job.

 

 

[Twiggy]

1985, on the M6 just North of Shap, a quiet Saturday afternoon with little traffic travelling North. Long straight, and it was clear that something was wrong - vehicles parked on the hard shoulder and one in lane 3. It was when there were gaps in the central armco to allow E V`s to get to accidents faster. Only one Escort driver obviously thought that they had been helpfully provided to allow him to do a U-turn... He`d had his nose out of the gap and had been hit by an Audi. Result was the front half of the Escort was on the hard shoulder, and the other half was still in the Armco gap, with him still in his seat holding the steering wheel. The Audi was 200 yards or so further up the motorway, not badly damaged, and the driver still at the wheel. It was amazing that they were both still physically intact - I dread to think what the psychological consequences were. Had it been me, I think I would have died of shock.

Daftest thing I ever saw, again on the M6 was a brand new Rolls Royce parked in lane 3 with the driver trying to change a wheel.

The worst was on a summer evening as I was walking to the pub. This meant I had to cross the East Lancs road on a traffic light controlled junction. I was perhaps 100 yards from the junction when an artic passed me... apparently he was crossing the junction with the lights in his favour when a car carrying four youths and allegedly, according to witnesses, travelling well in excess of 70 m.p.h. drove under the trailer decapitating the four occupants. The sound of the collision  was dreadful, but I did not hear any sound of skidding tyres or heavy braking prior to it. From perhaps 25 yards away I saw enough of the carnage not to want to see any more... and there were more than enough folk there with out me sticking my oar in. I think I was suffering from shock. Finished up going back home. I can still hear that sound.............