Shiter down

[MikeR]

that was one  lucky escape for you !

some of the moss roads around us are the same with big ditches , and can be full to the brim with water .. ..and car doors are dam heavy to lift when a car is on its side and your balencing on the side of the car .

 for what its worth , the cars I have had I have modded the rear hatch to open from the inside as it is posible to land upside down jamming the doors shut 

[grogee]

Look on the bright side! 

There's a Sherpa in your first pic. 

[Barry Cade]

23 minutes ago, MikeR said:

 

 for what its worth , the cars I have had I have modded the rear hatch to open from the inside as it is posible to land upside down jamming the doors shut 

Never buy a Delorean!

 

Glad you're OK! Your pic gave me a bit of a flashback to a recovery I attended. Young chap wasn't so fortunate. 😞  nobody truly knows whats round the corner.

[delux]

Glad you weren't seriously hurt. Never nice to hear about the unavoidable stuff. Roads around my global headquarters are missing off the gritter drivers map too. Considering what just happened, car didnt look too bad from the pics.

If it makes you feel any better, despite the ice and skid you still managed to park it straighter and closer to the kerb than I've ever managed! 😃

 

[danthecapriman]

Black ice is an absolute bastard. The chances are you weren’t going to be able to do much about it no matter what. 
I remember one day at work I had a hire van, a Combo, been running about all day and had no problem. Went down one particular road in Selsey and it got me. Driving along started to turn for the bend in the road and the entire bend was covered in black ice so the steering just went light as a feather and that was it! The van slid straight instead of turning, bounced up the curb and slid over the pavement before it regained grip and turned properly. It catches you out so easy because you can’t see it. Horrible shock it is as well when you do hit it. 
Luckily when I had that incident I was only going slow as I was doing a lot of stop start bits. And nobody was on the pavement either!

[Bren]

You walked away. 

Nothing else matters.

[Missy Charm]

A car is only metal and that one had a far longer innings than was its birthright.  Yours continues and, to look at it another way: it's your lucky day!  You had a serious car accident and walked away from it.  Glad you're up and doing and make sure to get yourself checked if anything doesn't feel right in the next few days.  

That's a really stupid place to have dug a massive ditch.  

[stuboy]

crikey !!

 

cars disposable and recyclable ..................

 

humans are not

[Angrydicky]

Next day now and I feel ok, managed to get a few hours sleep and no aches or pains which is good. Didn’t think there would be.

I feel a bit sad about the car but to be honest it was one of those cars that was destined for the scrapyard sooner rather than later, I was just delaying the inevitable.

I’m getting to the stage with the Rover where I’m going to have to start spending money on it, there’s quite a lot of issues mounting up that I’ve been ignoring while I put my efforts into the old stuff. The idea of the Picasso was to take the pressure off over winter.

[comfortablynumb]

9 hours ago, Missy Charm said:

That's a really stupid place to have dug a massive ditch

Don't come to fenland, it's all like that!

Glad you're ok @Angrydicky

[Tickman]

That's a very impressive picture, glad you only got a cold plunge and no other issues.

[Skcat]

Shit happens, could have happened to anyone. Just good your are ok.

Out of curiosity what tyres did the car have? Not to try and be rude, I've run tyres well over 20 years old knowing it's less then ideal, but the idea of fitting £500 of rubber on a £500 car is hard to justify somtimes. Just wondering if that's a big factor here.

[Hertz]

Glad you are OK, you were lucky not to hit one of those lamp posts/telegraph poles, could have been a lot worse!

[Angrydicky]

1 hour ago, comfortablynumb said:

Don't come to fenland, it's all like that!

Glad you're ok @Angrydicky

Fortunately the Witham Forth drainage board have reduced the water level in all the drainage ditches/dykes around here, to prevent flooding due to the high rainfall we had the end of last year.

I guess I was lucky really, it could have been worse. The ditch could have been full, I could have landed upside down, could have hit the telegraph pole, all sorts of things really! If I had landed upside down I wouldn’t have been able to open the doors either which would have been a bit concerning.

[Jazoli]

1 hour ago, Skcat said:

Shit happens, could have happened to anyone. Just good your are ok.

Out of curiosity what tyres did the car have? Not to try and be rude, I've run tyres well over 20 years old knowing it's less then ideal, but the idea of fitting £500 of rubber on a £500 car is hard to justify somtimes. Just wondering if that's a big factor here.

unless you have studded tyres it would not make a difference on black ice.

It’s a different matter in other conditions obviously.

[comfortablynumb]

I was passenger in a MK3 Granada, which got rolled by an ex mate who , being a dickhead, thought he was Colin macrae, and rolled it in a country lane.

Because of the wraparound style of the doors, we couldn't open them, because the car was sitting on the doorframes upside down.

The passenger mirror had taken out the nsf window, so we had to crawl out through the aperture, not nice at night on a blind corner.

I got cut to pieces on my hands dragging myself out, worse than the accident! 

[St.Jude]

The Citroen Picasso. It saves your arse.

Glad you’re alright!

[ruffgeezer]

I was sorry to see the pictures on Facebook, I did similar years ago in my Xantia, thankfully it was a shallower ditch but I had to kick a door open as it had ended up on it's roof.

I've no cheap runners at the moment, but if you end up looking, I'll keep you informed.

Glad you are OK though, that's the main bit.

[carlo]

17 hours ago, Angrydicky said:

I feel a bit sad as it was quite an early Picasso and I had done a bit of work on it to improve it.

However! When the guy was pulling it out, his strap went through the rotten sill on the passenger side rear, turned out someone had wobbed 1/4” of filler over it and painted it, quite well I must admit as I hadn’t spotted it.

The same bit on the other side opened up with the impact!

As a fellow Picasso owner very glad to hear you're OK and the old car protected you!  The front and rear sill area is a real weak spot on these otherwise excellent cars, can see the state of them on your pictures!  I think they can go quite suddenly too.  Mine got through its MOT last time but I think they may need some remedial attention next time (if I can be bothered keeping it).

[Scruffy Bodger]

3 hours ago, Skcat said:

Shit happens, could have happened to anyone. Just good your are ok.

Out of curiosity what tyres did the car have? Not to try and be rude, I've run tyres well over 20 years old knowing it's less then ideal, but the idea of fitting £500 of rubber on a £500 car is hard to justify somtimes. Just wondering if that's a big factor here.

I've fitted a full set of Continental All Season Contacts at a cost of £340 on a £700 car in the last year. They're brilliant in the wet, brilliant in the snow but still happily spin on proper sheet ice. As alluded to above, unless you're on studded tyres it's not going to make much difference imo.

Glad you're OK Dicky, just saw this on The Dark Wob. Surprisingly difficult to open a passenger door with a car on it's side like that isn't it?!

[Scruffy Bodger]

5 minutes ago, carlo said:

As a fellow Picasso owner very glad to hear you're OK and the old car protected you!  The front and rear sill area is a real weak spot on these otherwise excellent cars, can see the state of them on your pictures!  I think they can go quite suddenly too.  Mine got through its MOT last time but I think they may need some remedial attention next time (if I can be bothered keeping it).

On the one I welded it only needed the outer skin cutting out and replacing, the inner was OK. I'd definitely get it assessed before scrapping it for a simple job like that.

[sierraman]

3 hours ago, Skcat said:

Shit happens, could have happened to anyone. Just good your are ok.

Out of curiosity what tyres did the car have? Not to try and be rude, I've run tyres well over 20 years old knowing it's less then ideal, but the idea of fitting £500 of rubber on a £500 car is hard to justify somtimes. Just wondering if that's a big factor here.

No, if you hit ice like that you’ve fucked it whether it’s some bald Roadstones or it’s some Crossclimates. 

[Skcat]

1 hour ago, Scruffy Bodger said:

I've fitted a full set of Continental All Season Contacts at a cost of £340 on a £700 car in the last year. They're brilliant in the wet, brilliant in the snow but still happily spin on proper sheet ice. As alluded to above, unless you're on studded tyres it's not going to make much difference imo.

Sheet ice is pretty scary just need to be careful. I guess that's why most modern cars have the little snowflake on the dash when it gets cold (which I ignore).

I drive through the fens quite often in a work van, I do the national limit for my van which is 50mph, feels like I'm pushing it in a van on those roads! I always end up with someone in a Audi S3 or similar behind me. The second they can they always overtake and blast down the road at crazy speeds. I'm convinced I'm going to witness a crash one day.

[trigger]

The Ronnie Pickering gods were watching over you!

[beko1987]

24 minutes ago, Skcat said:

Sheet ice is pretty scary just need to be careful. I guess that's why most modern cars have the little snowflake on the dash when it gets cold (which I ignore).

I drive through the fens quite often in a work van, I do the national limit for my van which is 50mph, feels like I'm pushing it in a van on those roads! I always end up with someone in a Audi S3 or similar behind me. The second they can they always overtake and blast down the road at crazy speeds. I'm convinced I'm going to witness a crash one day.

I drive fen roads fairly frequently too and if it snot black ice it being bounced off the road into the dyke from the state of the roads.

I don't go deep into the fens (Gedney Hill) but the droves I do drive down I'm doing 50/60 at max in ideal conditions and the locals fly past at 70+, suspension bottoming out on every bump... Decent tyres stand no chance  my dad always scrubbing his out or fucking them up on the roads. 

My stepbrother ended up in a dyke many years ago as a new driver turns out his passengers all started jumping up and down together and bounced his mk1 clio off the road within a few yards. We drove past one just outside crowland on new years eve years ago, they were waiting for recovery but had gone a long way into the field.

[UltraWomble]

Bummer

Still, you got to hobble away from that & looking at the underside of that Picasso, it looks ace, 

A bit of time with a hammer and Im sure it will be right to soldier on.

[SiC]

46 minutes ago, UltraWomble said:

A bit of time with a hammer and Im sure it will be right to soldier on.

Problem also will be that the engine is likely a bit fucked from being ran at a 90° angle. Plus any water damage both in the electrics but making the interior minging.

[SiC]

Good to hear you are alright. While it was a nice one, there is plenty of Picassos around still to make it a sacrificial modern that saved your arse. Thankfully it was one of them than one of your much rarer classics - not just from a vehicle being damaged but also your survivability which is always more important than folded bits of sheet metal.

[comfortablynumb]

1 hour ago, beko1987 said:

locals fly past at 70+, suspension bottoming out

Visiting a mate near Ramsey forty foot a few weeks ago, on a lane with passing laybys, an Audi A3 coming the other way in a hurry got the front end at least 2 feet off the ground, looked like fireworks night when he landed🥺

[beko1987]

2 minutes ago, comfortablynumb said:

Visiting a mate near Ramsey forty foot a few weeks ago, on a lane with passing laybys, an Audi A3 coming the other way in a hurry got the front end at least 2 feet off the ground, looked like fireworks night when he landed🥺

I bet! There's roads and ways to my dad's I don't use now as I have visions of my 160k shocks going nope and exploding 😂 I'll go 2 miles longer to use better* roads

When I had the 406 we drove down and I went down it at 50/55mph and that was the limit. Kids loved it, they bounced around a treat and still talk about it now.

Can't use a car with lane assist around there. 40% of the time if you dont straddle the lanes and lines you have a tyre ripped off the rim.