h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

OR 'Why my life was saved by beer'

So a few years ago now I was in the Venture scouts, and we were going off camping... The cars were full of gear, we climbed in a headed off.

Now, I hadnt bothered to put my seat belt on. We were piled in with loads of camping gear and I could be a*sed to find the buckle underneath it all. When we got to the motorway I debated for a bit, then decided that maybe I should look for the buckle. This is one of the things that saved my life.

5 mins later the car ( a Ford Fiesta) suffered a blow-out. We were travelling in the third lane at about 80 mph. As the car started to swerve we crashed into the central reservation at about a 45degree angle. From here we bounced 360degrees across the two fast lanes and hit the central reservation at the same angle we'd hit it the first time. If there was any cars at all near behind us we would have been f*cked... And on a busy motorway that was a miracle in itself. As we all jumped out of the car sh*tting a brick that it was going to explode a car pulls up, puts a emergency sign in the road and announces that he's an off-duty casualty doctor, and he'd already alerted the emergency services.

Nobody was hurt, apart from a bit of minor whiplash... The driver was in shock , but no physical injuries.

We were later told that as it was such a tiny car, it was amazing that it hadn't flipped over in the accident, which would have been a lot nastier for all of us... But the reason it hadn't flipped? Well that would have been all the weight of the camping suff. Which was composed mostly of several crates of beer.