The worst car related things you've ever experienced

[dozeydustman]

A week or so after my 18th birthday, driving to school, slowed down because sun in my eyes. My younger brother thought it was a great idea to put his hands in front of my eyes to shield the light. I hit a roadsweeper lorry at 35-40. Thankfully just a broken wrist and two weeks later I sneezed and some windscreen came out my left nostril.

Not much left of my Samba.

[Missy Charm]

4 hours ago, RayMK said:

When @Dyslexic Viking started this thread I could not think of anything significant in my 50 years of car driving. Apart from coming off my 6 weeks old motor cycle in the early 1970s - bruised and suspected concussion, I've subsequently survived mopeds, motorcycles and cars relatively unscathed. Then a memory which I'd closed out of my mind began to emerge. Not me but my wife. About 18 years ago.  I was at work 25 miles away.  She was leaving her workplace mid afternoon to go home and prepare for a hospital appointment.  There was a phone call. It was my son.  Mum's had.....his voice broke. A policeman introduced himself and gave me the facts.  She had died at the scene of a car accident, her car being hit at about 70mph by a transit sized van when she had moved off a central reservation cross-over junction on a dual carriageway.   The air ambulance got there within minutes but nothing could be done.  I can remember saying NO, No, No before my voice broke.  That was bad but 3 hours later after my boss had taken me home, the policeman who had spoken on the phone arrived at my house to collect my son and I to identify my wife at the morgue.  That was grim.  Completely intact and normal on one side, very badly bruised on the other side.  We had been married for over 30 years.  I still flinch slightly when driving past the spot.  

Jesus.  That's dreadful and sorry to hear that happened; must have been a very difficult time for you and your son (and all others involved).  Hope you and your son were able to keep on keeping on, in some way or other.  

Since this seems to have turned to heavy matters, I know exactly what you mean about flinching when you pass a particular place.  I've got my own point on the A12 that still gives me the shivers - near on 20 years later, further to witnessing the aftermath of this incident: https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/2279557.essex-a12-body-identified/.  

It was a quirk of timing; I was driving home and happened to get to the accident site just after the first police car did - it was some little neighbourhood panda car, from memory.  The police hadn't closed the road at that point, so all I could do was drive past very slowly whilst some poor copper waved his torch at me.  For some reason, I think the headlights of the police car or another one that had stopped, the area was fairly well  lit.  

I still dream about that night, sometimes.

I was only a witness, mind.  Dread to think what it must be like for those actually involved in an incident of that nature.  

[Lord Sterling]

Had some interesting ones over the years:

Not my first crash but certainly one of a few that pushed me to the line. 

I was on my way to a job interview in Telford travelling from Birmingham. I wanted to avoid the motorway and went via the back roads through Dudley/Wolverhampton borders. As I was making swift progress I defended into a very large dip in a country B-road road when a car coming out of a driveway right at the top of the approach point of the dip pulled out onto the road in front of me and I couldn't avoid it. The only thing I could do was brake and point it towards the ditch and hit the car in a lighter manner, that was the result.

The 827Si was repaired (read: bodged), but nowhere near to the standard it was then. I used it for a bit and then sold it on for breaking: 

(Note, I did not drive it with the bumper on that state, this was during some spanner work after the crash)

Zafira:

The Zafira had been sold on and sold on again when I was called to take it to its new owner. Unfortunately as I trundled up the M6 there was suddenly a rear brake caliper failure resulting in the clapper freeing itself off and clattering around the brake disc. Thankfully at the time, this just literally post COVID, whilst restrictions were lifted, the motorway was amazingly quiet so I was able to limp to an emergency refuge area, then onto a services which was only a couple of 100 yards from the refuge area.

Jag: 

This absolutely pushed me over the edge but eventually things turned out better than I had hoped for.

As I was heading home one day, I was coming out of a junction, I managed to clip a BMW X6 that was barrelling up the middle of the road.

I got paid more than I had anticipated and as a result, I bought both the Vectra and Jag I have now.

[danthecapriman]

1 hour ago, artdjones said:

Those things are absolutely lethal.There used to be a really horrible one at Picket Post near Ringwood, which was the scene of a lot of accidents. My wife's parents lived in Dorset, and we had to use it a couple of times. It felt completely unsafe.

I know there’s one on the A31 near Malwood, near Ringwood/New Forest. There’s a big SSE depot nearby which I used to go to fairly often at work. When you come out of the depot you have to join the A31 then if you want to head back eastbound towards Portsmouth you either have to get across to the outside lane quickly to take the centre cut across or if you can’t you get stuck westbound for miles until the next junction to turn around.

There had been loads of accidents at that cut across over the years. Not only people getting hit doing the cross over but people from the SSE depot and the lane it’s on trying to go from a standstill joining the A31 to accelerate hard enough to then get into the outside lane to get to the cut across. Loads of our vans had been sideswiped or rear ended trying to do it. 
One day a driver towing a trailer (Land Rover & scaffold trailer) did it, but as he turned from the centre onto the westbound carriageway he turned so hard & fast so he didn’t lose speed the trailer rolled over blocking both lanes. 
After that SSE banned it’s staff using the cross over and insisted all their staff drive the extra miles down to the proper junction further towards the New Forest.

Theres a few nasty centre crossings on the A27 too after Chichester. I’ve seen a few near misses on those!

[artdjones]

24 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

I know there’s one on the A31 near Malwood, near Ringwood/New Forest. There’s a big SSE depot nearby which I used to go to fairly often at work. When you come out of the depot you have to join the A31 then if you want to head back eastbound towards Portsmouth you either have to get across to the outside lane quickly to take the centre cut across or if you can’t you get stuck westbound for miles until the next junction to turn around.

There had been loads of accidents at that cut across over the years. Not only people getting hit doing the cross over but people from the SSE depot and the lane it’s on trying to go from a standstill joining the A31 to accelerate hard enough to then get into the outside lane to get to the cut across. Loads of our vans had been sideswiped or rear ended trying to do it. 
One day a driver towing a trailer (Land Rover & scaffold trailer) did it, but as he turned from the centre onto the westbound carriageway he turned so hard & fast so he didn’t lose speed the trailer rolled over blocking both lanes. 
After that SSE banned it’s staff using the cross over and insisted all their staff drive the extra miles down to the proper junction further towards the New Forest.

Theres a few nasty centre crossings on the A27 too after Chichester. I’ve seen a few near misses on those!

Picket Post was on the A31 as well, but they have built an overbridge since the 80s.

[Imhotep]

I once had to drive a Ford Galaxy 2.3 to Devon with 7 people and their luggage on board/on a roof rack. 

And yes, I have had car accidents that I consider preferable to that fucking journey in that car. But since we were on about accidents… The only brand new car I’ve ever had was a Kia Proceed back in 2016. I crashed it. Twice. It was less than a year old. 

[abir246]

I think probably the worst thing to happen to me was in my old astra J when the spring snapped on a speed bump, the clang that made almost made me crap myself. The worst thing that happened in that car was probably when it was written off when my brother was driving it.

It was a random Saturday afternoon, I was going to drive it to the shops but decided on walking, he then went and took it out for a haircut. About 3 hours later he hobbled home, with some nasty cuts all over his arm, and told me the grim news in a comedic way ("I've got good news, you won't have to worry about the astra any more, bad news it flipped over...")

I didn't believe him, couldn't believe him, it flipped over? Surely not.

Until I saw the photos 

Best way i could describe it was a freak accident. Amazingly he wasn't going fast or anything, it just sort of, happened. Thankfully bar a few scrapes he got out of it fine. Despite all the various issues the astra gave me throughout having it, it did one thing well, it protected him from a much worse fate, and that I'll always be grateful for.

[juular]

We've had luck on our side because things could've been much worse.

This happened to us just after pulling off a motorway where we were doing 70+.

When it went bang I lost all control despite only doing 20mph. If it had happened a minute earlier we'd definitely be jam.

Scarier part of that is that it had just passed an MOT.

Similar situation again:

Doing high speeds, and then as I came to a stop for a roundabout : bang! No more bottom ball joint.

This time it was caused by a shitty aftermarket nylok nut coming undone on the ball joint. I drilled and staked a castle nut on after that. 

Lesson learned, never replace a castle nut with a nylok even if that's what the supplier gives you.

[bezzabsa]

The Rabbit run??

if so seen quite a few cars in the middle of the fields across there -and the junction by the Golf course was usually filled with broken glass and bits of bumpers

[Foz]

Not me personally, but my mum.  Luckily only came out of this not too bad, nothing broken anyway.  I believe it did take about 4 years to finally get paid out from the insurance and personal claim.  (useless solicitor) 

Worse thing was, it is a arrow straight road and my mum had stopped as she was indicating to turn right and waiting for traffic to clear and the Silver astra just ran into the back of her.  Excuse was the driver was too busy looking at their little girl in the back and hadn't noticed my mum had stopped.

The car was near mint (80k miles) and even the insurance evaluator had to agree you would be hard pressed to find another in the same condition.    

[Six-cylinder]

Many years ago, I slit the casing open on the diff of my Triumph Vitesse and totally lost drive. I coasted into a layby at 11pm where the car would be safe for the night. A used diff was not expensive then and I was quite capable of fitting it myself.

So why was it a big drama, the car had no tax or MOT and there it sat in public view. I had a fully legal VW Passat but wanted to drive the Vitesse that evening and as it was only 4 miles took it.  

Now the dilemma, should I leave it there and take my chances the police did not stubble upon it or get my father out of bed to tow me home? I walked the 3 miles home and woke my father. He was not best pleased but as usual he was calm and helped me. To make it worse my tow rope was 5 miles away in my lock up garage. We towed the Vitesse home and after all my anxiety it all worked out ok.  

[MiniMinorMk3]

Writing off my first car 5 months after passing my test.

[dozeydustman]

23 hours ago, danthecapriman said:

Theres a few nasty centre crossings on the A27 too after Chichester. I’ve seen a few near misses on those!

In 10 years of living in that area of Sussex thankfully I have yet to see an accident. A few near misses which could have been extremely messy; the worst junction for these being the first one after Tangmere heading towards Arundel.

[danthecapriman]

16 minutes ago, dozeydustman said:

In 10 years of living in that area of Sussex thankfully I have yet to see an accident. A few near misses which could have been extremely messy; the worst junction for these being the first one after Tangmere heading towards Arundel.

Yep, I know that one! 
I used to be out on the road a lot in the area in my van when I was at SSE. I think part of the issue with those junctions is poor speed perception. People see a car in the distance and think they can make the crossing/turn but that car in the distance is most likely doing 60 or 70 (often more!) V’s they’re standing start at the junction. I think it comes as a big surprise to many of them how quickly that car in the distance comes up on them.

I was at the Yapton Lane crossing one morning in my van waiting behind an artic to turn right off the A27 into Yapton Lane. I don’t know if the truck driver got impatient or just totally misjudged it, but he pulled away to cross the westbound side of the A27 from a standstill but some poor sod in a car was coming, fast. How they didn’t hit each other I don’t know, but the car had some incredibly good brakes! I caught sight of the driver just after it happened and his face was white as a sheet! There was no horn blaring or flashing of lights - I think it happened so fast the driver of the car simply had no time for any of that! 
Could have been very very nasty.