Nearly lost it!!

[Brown, Jon Brow]

I was my way home from work, it was drizzling and dark (8:15pm). I was approaching a corner at probably a too high a speed. :uhoh:

I noticed the headlights of a car coming in the opposite direction and went to dip my lights, but as I did I accidently jerked the wheel in the middle of the corner (on a wet road).

I felt the car go light and drift sideways. I panicked, floored the accelerator and somehow ended up in the middle of the road. I don't know what happened to the car that was coming in the other direction, but I ended up with brown underpants :s


Has any one else had a near miss?

[RaceFanStan]

The last one for me wasn't a near miss ... I got hit ... :s
I got nailed really HARD in the driver's door !!! :eek:

[KILOHMUNNS]

I once had a very close shave with a hard shoulder embankment and central reservation! :eek:

Driving the a dual carriageway one handed with my arm restingon the window (as you do) at 70ish when I hit a bump, this caused said arm to fall off the window thus creating a wild movement of the steering wheel. This sent me across the other side of the carriageway very quickly, at which point I tried to correct and ended up fishtailing between the hardshoulder and central reservation for a few hundred yards before sorting in out. Thank goodness it was late and no traffic was around!

[Daniel]

Hey Jon glad it happened and you're ok :) Let that be a reminder to have good tyres, to drive a bit slower in the wet and hopefully you now realise that even though you have a 5 star car it's better just not to have that accident in the first place ;)

[Daniel]

The biggest moment I had was in the yet in my dads 504 with 4 crap tyres. Turning onto a dual carriageway at about 2 in the morning and I had my foot down a bit and wasn't going particularly fast but hit a pretty big change in the surface and the back started coming around. Put an armful of lock and even more throttle on and it slowly came around so slowly I had a chance to wind even more lock on. And watch the armco come to a stop a couple of feet away. Scary!

[Brown, Jon Brow]

Today I saw the corner in daylight and it was extremely muddy on that piece of road. I'm guessing that the mud combined with the rain made the road surface very slippery.

[racing59]

I once had a spin in my old Nova Sport coming off of the A1/A428 roundabout (known locally as the "Black Cat Roundabout"). I was heading north, went around the roundabout as normal, turned onto the A1 northbound, backend stepped out, spun around, and slightly scuffed the n/s/r on the central reservation barrier. Nobody stopped to let me get back across, bearing in mind that I was now facing the wrong way!. Thankfully, a quick thinking truck driver performed a bit of a "rolling roadblock" and let me get back across the road into the petrol station forecourt opposite.

One guy stopped to see if I was alright, and someone obviously tipped off the feds, as a traffic car arrived (blues flashing and sirens wailing) just as I got over the road.

Investigation showed that somebody had spilled a vast amount of diesel on the road - you could see the rainbow (the road was damp), and the nice policeman set about organising a load of sand.

While we were passing the time of day, probably half a dozen people had "moments" including someone in a 325 beemer, who got a round of applause from all gathered!!

I took out my first aid kit, found two elastoplasts and put them cross-fashion on the scuffed rear panel.

The moral of the story is:

Make sure the cap is fitted to your diesel tank you twonk! Next time you might kill somebody.

[Daniel]

Exercise for you Jon. Find a corner like the one you slid on where there's nothing to crash into. Go through nice and slowly. Then in through at the same speed but put your foot down a bit more going through the corner and repeat the process until the car starts to feel like it's going to do what it did last night. Upon completion of this you will now know the limits of your car ;) You're going to want to know what it feels like to get a bit out of shape before winter kicks in :)

[Mark]

Had a near miss outside Silverstone once. The roundabouts were brand new and coned off so that traffic in both directions had to use the same side of the roundabout. On the second one I forgot this and cut the corner only to meet a Porsche headed in the opposite direction. Only a very fast direction change seperated me from a head on :s . Taught me a lesson that.

[Drew]

Let's just say it was the day when I was running a bit late, I had a train to catch and it was snowing. Luckily nobody uses the road near my house at home...

[Allyc85]

yea everyday :D :D











just kidding! I did have one last week where a rep in a BMW decided to over take a lorry n cut in front of me in the middle lane with out indicating. Typical eh?

[Robinho]

the best one was another greasy roundabout story, on a new bypass (the A500 past Crewe towards chester) there is a roundabout (with no exits other than the bypass) as i always seemed to see new skidmarks and scars up the verge or armco, generally on a monday morning.

one slightly wet morning i pushed slightly too hard and was understeering straight towards the outside of the road, lifted off and lost the back end, even with a big handful of lock i did a 180 and ended up on the roundabout on the inside of the exit facing oncoming traffic. managed to extricate myself, stoopped to remove the traffic cone i'd run over in the process and survived with only a slightly bent steering arm.

i've since seen more than one car in the process of the understeer or oversteer or full spin in greasy conditions (i think there was some diesel/substance spilled there) and now they have applied the high grip covering all the way round

[MrJan]

Never really had a 'proper' moment. Aquaplaned in Sainsbury's car park the other day because I turned to fast and the surface was like ice. That opened my brown eye a bit.

Last year my brother had an old Ford Pop which I'd take out around the lanes to get sideways. Because the thing was so slow though I just had loads of fun. I like to think that while I drive quickly I'm very rarely anywhere near the limiit of either the car or my ability. Just hope that it stays that way.

[Easy Drifter]

A hint: When it has not rained for several days the roads will be quite slippery until the rain has time to wash off the surface oil etc.
First snowfall: Find a deserted parking lot and play around to get the feel of driving on snow again. Do not stay too long or some busybody will be on the phone to the boys in blue.

[GridGirl]

My two near misses are both non events. The first was when I was younger and didn't want to go somewhere with my dad. I played my face, threw a tantrum and didn't end up going. It was my brother that ended up with a hospital stay after a 40 tonne truck crashed into the car.

My second near miss happen about 4 years years ago. A really quiet night where I hadn't seen a car for ages. I stopped at a give way sign where I needed to get onto a road directly after a blind bend. I usually wouldn't have stopped because in many years of driving on that piece of road I'd never seen any a single car come round the bend. I don't know what made me stop that day but it was lucky for me as a car came round the bend on that occassion. If I hadn't it would of T-boned my car on the drivers side at high speed and I would of hurt alot! I always stop there now and I've never once seen a car come round that corner since.

[Mark]

I had a 'moment' last year when driving past Kielder reservoir, similar time of year to now and the ground was very frosty, I was bombing along at the 60mph speed limit and came into a bend without slowing and the back end just stepped out on me. I managed to gather it up and get straight again pretty quickly,, no idea how! At first I thought "Cool!!!", then seconds later I was thinking "Crap! I could have easily ended up wrapped around a tree there :s ", so I slowed down.

[GridGirl]

Mark, your incident just reminded me of something that happened to Ibby when he was at Kielder earlier this year. He and one of his mates were walking down a road towards oncoming traffic like your supposed to when a bike came round a corner at high spee, leaning on his kneepads thinking he was Valentino Rossi or something. Needless to say Ibby and his mate jumped for cover into a hedge and tried to stop themselves falling back onto the road as more bikes flew past them. I guess the bike rider had the moment of his life and was pretty glad they sucessfully managed to jump for their lives. :p

[Daniel]

I thought you were supposed to ride a bike and walk away from traffic. Which for the record I think is a dumb idea and I always do the opposite :p

[GridGirl]

Your definately supposed to walk towards oncoming traffic. Walking in the same direction would give you no chance to take avoiding action if something came towards you. :)

[Daniel]

Your definately supposed to walk towards oncoming traffic. Walking in the same direction would give you no chance to take avoiding action if something came towards you. :)
Oh I agree. It's just that you're told to ride bikes into oncoming traffic so I can't see why walking is any different. I would never ride on a busy road with traffic behind me. Just isn't safe as you can't do what Ibby did as you wouldn't see it happening......

[Mark]

You would ride a bike into oncoming traffic? :s .

[Daniel]

Yes. At the side of the road of course :p

I meant to say you're taught to ride with traffic behind you :mark: Which I disagree with.

[Mark]

If you are on the road and riding towards oncoming traffic then you are pretty much committing suicide. If you are on the pavement, well you shouldn't be :p

[Erki]

If you ride fast enough then it's better to ride away(sometimes literally) from the traffic.

I wouldn't ride a bicycle on the same road with cars anyway.

[Daniel]

If you are on the road and riding towards oncoming traffic then you are pretty much committing suicide. If you are on the pavement, well you shouldn't be :p
If you are riding on the road and someone doesn't see you and goes into you from behind then you've also committed suicide too :) If no one's on the pavement then I've just ride there :p If someone is on the pavement then I ride around them on the verge :p I always operate under the motto of "Don't turn your back on danger"

I should add that I'm not one of these people who rides 10 abreast or rides in the middle of the road and I ride right next to the kerb so oncoming traffic has plenty of space.

Makes a lot more sense than hoping someone will see you and not knowing if they haven't.

[Caroline]

If you are on the road and riding towards oncoming traffic then you are pretty much committing suicide. If you are on the pavement, well you shouldn't be :p

We have had this discussion many times :p Cycling into the traffic just strikes me as plain scary. As a driver I wouldn't know how a cyclist was going to react if I saw them heading straight at the car. When I ride, I stick to cycle routes. I travel on roads when I absolutely have to. Daniel is right to be worried about cycling in traffic as it can be absolutely terrifying, especially on the A roads around here, used by cars and big trucks.

[Daniel]

That's why I just don't cycle anyway :p

I think in a city I would probably assimilate as the speeds are much lower and so on :)

Caroline if I saw someone cycling towards me on my side of the road I'd have a long chat with them as clearly they share my vision for road safety and common sense cycling :p As long as they don't cycle 5683.2 people abreast it's all good.

[J4MIE]

Can't recall having any "proper" moments, apart from following really slow cars, pull out to overtake (safely) then they speed up :angryfire So heading to a blind corner just having to floor it, hold my breath and hoping nothing comes the other way :s But not my fault!!

[wedge]

I remember I was very lazy checking my blindspot when I first drove on motorways. A couple of tank-slapping moments, that see-sawing body roll in a car with soft suspension felt like a near death experience!

I generally make good habit of checking my blind spot these days.

A few years ago I had an argument with my boss and I was still angry on the way home from work. Having Rage Against The Machine on the stereo did me no favours as I tried to go round a corner at 60mph in the damp.

I thought I made it round the bend but after the apex the back end wiggled a bit, tried to correct it, spun backwards with oncoming traffic and flew off down a bank and into some bushes!

Most people would've needed a new pair of underpants from that experience but I remember feeling like a complete ass for making that stupid mistake and hoping the suspension was still OK and there were no scratches on the car!

From that experience I have the mentatilty of race car driver!

[J4MIE]

Actually, I now remember overtaking a lorry in the fast lane of the M6 late one evening a few years back, and suddenly had a blow out. Luckily it was on the rear and managed to pull over ok (though did get pretty close to said truck :eek: ). But I assure you that Saxo wheel nuts were not designed to be put in when the wheel is off the ground, or when it is dark :mad:

Of course, I nearly had a Basil Fawlty moment when the engine lunched itself I was so upset :bigcry:

[Brown, Jon Brow]

From that experience I have the mentatilty of race car driver!

But not the car control of one, eh :p

[Mark]

Most people would've needed a new pair of underpants from that experience but I remember feeling like a complete ass for making that stupid mistake and hoping the suspension was still OK and there were no scratches on the car!


A rally driver is not concerned about scratches on the car. All he is worried about is if the roll cage will pass FIA inspection :p

[janneppi]

Most people would've needed a new pair of underpants from that experience but I remember feeling like a complete ass for making that stupid mistake and hoping the suspension was still OK and there were no scratches on the car!

From that experience I have the mentatilty of race car driver!
I've flown over the handlebar of my bicycle at 60kph, after rolling in the grass several times I finally stopped and the first thing on my mind was where the bike went and if it was ok. Next came the though whether I still had all my limbs with me. :)
Yay for the past judo lessons, forward ukemi is still somewhere in the muscle memory.

As for having off's in a car, none in temperatures over 0C, under it quite a few, mostly brought on by my own stupidity with the accelerator or hand brake, some genuinly scary while just driving along. :)

[Malbec]

I've flown over the handlebar of my bicycle at 60kph, after rolling in the grass several times I finally stopped and the first thing on my mind was where the bike went and if it was ok. Next came the though whether I still had all my limbs with me. :)

Same for my motorbike, the first thought that ran through my mind as I slid along the road was 'thank God I fitted crashbungs' and 'bugger the handlebars look wonky even from here'.