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

Here is my story

I had a car crash on the M40 with my wife and our pet dog. On the 20th of October 2001

A guy in a Ford Ka answered his mobile in the fast lane and lost control on a damp serface. He went into a spin the crash barrier which bounced him into a 4X4 which span him more he hit crash barrier for a second time which span him to a spop to straddle the centre lane. I spotted it first as i was in the back of the car in my electric wheelchair and yelled 'BRAKE BRAKE BRAKE' the were other cars to left and right so no lane to get into...... well we hit the side of his car at say 30 mph BANG.

Well lucky for us an AA Patrol man had spotted the accident an put his roof lights on so we did not get rammed by other cars.

He then helped get both cars to the hard shoulder before the police and ambulance got there. I suffered a bad back and my wife got whip lash and the dog was fine just a bit shaken up like my wife and I.

We found out that the driver was just under the drink drive limit, it was his girlfriends car and he was not insured to drive it.

Well both my wife and I got compensation.

Now Please post your story.............

On Thursday just gone I was pared in stationary traffic in the main road into Plymouth from the suburb where I live. My motor has been totalled and I have whiplash.

Damn those boy racers. It was a Nova of all cars that crashed into me.

Is that your first ever accident?

yup

Scary arn't they I could not stop shaking and had nightares for weeks I still have them now and again and every time we drive on that bit of M40 I get a chill down my spine.

nightmares aaaaaahhhhh I can't spell

The first time would have been when as a cyclist a person opened their car door without looking and I did a good impresion of superman flying through the air Second time would have also been on a cycle, when I was cycling algon the road, close in the kerb, round a long gentle bend, during the day, nice and bright good visability. Or it would have been had the driver who was comeing up behind me been able to see properly: I threw myself off my bike onto the grass verge, and she drove past, her wheels touching the kerb all bar....
The next time would have been as a pedristian when I was hit by an articularted lorry, and spent the best part of year in hospital including several months in a coma.
The next time would havve been when coming back from the pub to halls of residence, I crossed over a quiet side road of a main road, and got hit by a car pulling up to the juncion, I rolled over the bonnet, on to the road and had a fit of hysterical laughter, which purturbed the driver who leapt out thinking they'd injured me, I don't think I even had a bruise from this.
The next time was again when at university, we were moving house, and in a B Bedford Rascle van type thing (which was the only van we could get). It was packed with tons of stuff in the bakc, and I guess this was weighing the van down a fair bit, heading out of Cambridge, we went over a hump back bridge type bit; I think it may have been where the road just rose up a bit as the rail track crossed the road. Anhow, the car took off into the air, and landined back down again, grinding the axel into the raod, and we s swerved across the oncoming traffic spinning round and halted eventually on the edge of the grass verge. I turned to the driver and said 'cool, can we do that again?'. We got out and expected the amage but it semeed fine, though whilst we were standing by the van I had a cigarette and was nearly hit by a car as I wasn't paying much atteniont The next few times were all close misses, involving me crossing the raod near by house whilst my mind was elsewhere oh and I've developed a new passtime of annoying cyclists by leaping out in front of them and letting them just* miss me as I cross the road, it seems to terrify them, but its good fun.

Oh and talking of cyclists, I was hit a couple times by idiot student cyclists when at university, whilst I was walking on the pavement and they decided to ride into me and hurt themselves.

I have no claim to be as accident prone as 2legs, but:

A38, just south of Derby, September 2003. Pulled out into the overtaking lane after a roundabout without checking my blind spot. I was tired - only had 3 hours sleep the previous night, and the lane system had been altered following roadworks. Unfortunately, there was a artic cab there. He suffered no damage, I was spun round several times, damaging all the bodywork down the driver's side and popping the front-right tyre. Ended up mounting the central reservation. Nice chap the driver was, he gave me a hand changing the wheel.

It occurred to me later that if it had been a _loaded_ artic, I would have been killed. On the other hand, if it had been loaded, I'd have seen it in my mirrors and he wouldn't have been accelrating so fast.

B

i've been in a couple:

1. As a young (11yr old) cyclist i was crossing a small a road and next thing i knew i was astride my bike on the road and 5 mins later i was very grey. the ambulance men were kind but my mum arrived shortly.

2. On the moped i was filtering down the right hand side of some traffic and a car pulled out from the left. i ran into them very gently hauling on the brakes. If they hadn't stopped i would have missed them but they stopped right in my path. they asked was i ok and i said yes fine and we went our separate ways.

3. Just across the east lancs. from my house a car pulled out in front of the car in front of me but only got 1/2 way then stopped. car in front did an emergency stop, i tried to, my front brake failed, my back brake locked and i had to pull my front mudguard out from underneath the car in front. Went left into side road and saw no damage to car. Some surface damage to moped. Nightmares etc. for about 1 week.

I should add that later that same day, I met Vip for the first time, which kinda made things better.

B

Thanks folks interesting stories

I'm not accident prone!
*bangs fist on desk, disloging freshly made black coffee, which spilts on to his leg, and knocks over the ash tray, which as it has a still smoldering cigarette in it, lands in his lap and sets fire to his pants I'm sure I've had more car related accidents than I wrote of up there::: Hmm, can't remember though and who says being constanly hit by trucks and cars can give you a bad memory? yeh, who says that, I've forgotten

I managed to write first car, a little red Ford Fiesta called Kurt, or C669 FOP, off in a quite spectacular style. At the end of my second year at uni in Southampton, I had arranged to meet up with some friends at our shared house in the summer holidays for a bit of a break. After the weekend, I drove home alone to Bury St. Edmunds, stopping periodically for coffee to keep me awake after my heavy couple of nights. I got as far as the BP garage on the A14 between Cambridge and Newmarket when I realised I was running low on fuel. I probably could have made it home, but I thought it best to stop and get a splash just to make sure. As I pulled off the carriageway on to the slip road, I fell asleep at the wheel, which meant that I was still doing about 30mph when I arrived at the very sharp left-turn at the end. I went over a kerb, up a small grass bank and collided with a very thick, square steel post on a very large, strong concrete foundation. The impact ripped the front driver's-side corner off of the car with almost scalpel-like precision, cutting along the edge of the bonnet as if it had been planned that way. It also twisted the chassis so that the rear seat was bent in the middle and the driver's-side footwell was crumpled, stretching the throttle cable and making the engine scream its little heart out.

I switched the engine off and got out of the car, but through the passenger door, as the driver's one was stuck due to being twisted. I went to the shop, bought coffee and chocolate, phoned the AA and wited for them to arrive to take me and my car back home. They arrived after an hour or so, and wiched the wreck on to the back of their lorry. On the journey home I felt strange, but didn't think about it too much, and was laughing and joking with the AA men. Then they got back to my house and had to push Kurt off the back of the truck, as there wasn't enough room in the garage court to lower it off properly. When the poor little car crashed to the ground I burst into tears from delayed shock and didn't stop crying for about five days. I'd missed being killed by about two or three inches. If there had been a stationary car at the end of the slip road, I could have killed the occupants, too.

My Dad called a scrap merchant to come and take Kurt away about a week later while I was at work. The only thing left of him was a little pool of oil and the number plates, which my Dad had taken off for me.

The steel post was fine.

glad you were ok YalsonKSA

Likewise Wolf, and thank you.

Are you male or female?

I'm a 29 year-old male from Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk, England.

Thanks.......

Yea for Suffolk (I'm rom Lowestoft origionally) Taht accident sounded pretty bad by the way, glad you survived it

My worst, or at least most embarrassing, was missing a bend on the way to Cheddar on a motorbike. I had no choice but to go straight on into a field (no fences or walls thank god), and slid through the grass for 100m or so at 60mph with both wheels locked up, scared to release the brakes in case it tumbled. No damage, but I could sense the laughter from the cars I'd just overtaken .