Your closest scare while driving!

The Big Red Button

I though it might be interesting to have a thread about your "closest one" when on the road, whether it was a narrowly averted accident (as driver, passenger or pedestrian or whatever), or maybe an accident that you were involved in where you walked away unharmed. I'm not doing this from a morbid "what-might-have-been" perspective - I'm doing it because, you never know, some of us might learn from each others mistakes and experiences, and might just manage to avoid similar incidents in the future.

I've been driving regularly for about six years, and have had my full license for about four. My "scare" happened about a year ago.

I was in a quiet part of town, at about 11 at night, with a friend of mine in the passenger seat. We were approaching a crossroads with traffic lights, and our light was green the whole time as we were approaching it. As there were high buildings either side, we couldn't see traffic coming from left or right. The light remained green when we reached the crossroads, so I continued through at maybe 35kph.

What happened next, I can't really remember 100% clearly. Basically I wasn't even aware of a Honda Civic coming down the hill from the left at some crazy speed and straight through the red light, but next thing I knew my car came to a dead stop in the middle of the crossroads and myself and my friend were thrown forward a little in our seats. Not enough to hurt ourselves, as we weren't going fast enough, but enough for the lock on the seatbelt to come into play. I was so shocked that my sturdy little Colt didn't skid at all, because we honestly came within just a couple of inches of that Civic. I'm prone to exaggeration, but I didn't even need to in this case - my friend who was in the car can verify that! The Civic didn't stop at all.

If we had kept going through the green light at the same speed, the Civic would basically have gone right through my friend in the passenger seat. My car would probably have hit the line of cars waiting at the red light coming from the right. It would have been very messy.

I definitely learned from that experience. I learned that you can be 90% in the right, but that knowledge isn't going to comfort you when you're dead or badly injured.

I say 90%, because I should have been more careful. My driving instructor specifically warned me about incidents like that happening, and I should have been more aware of it. I didn't look left and right while I was crossing through, I must have just caught sight of the car in my peripheral vision and jammed hard on the brakes. Still, I suppose it's good to know that my reflexes are somewhat functional and that I didn't panic and accelerate or anything!

Well, that's my story anyways. What you got?

Saab Ed

...having a female passenger...You can so easily end up killing them these days..scary stuff :eek::D

Rowley Birkin QC

Saab Ed wrote: »

...having a female passenger...You can so easily end up killing them these days..scary stuff :eek::D

Change the record Ed.

jd

Driving on motorway near Portlaoise, a car that had stopped on the hard shoulder(!) suddenly pulled out on to the driving lane. I probably missed him by about 6 inches at near 120km/hr...

Berty

I had a truck jacknife in front of me in Paris, flip on its side and get pumelled by all those crazy french going at high speed.

I turned the wheel to the right and skidded into the hard shoulder. I jumped out of the car and hopped over the crash barrier. About 5 other drivers saw this and all hopped over the barriers. The truck was thumped over and over by cars getting mangled in the pile up.

Scary stuff all right. A few people were killed apparently. I do not speak French so it was a little hectic around the place for me.

My 307 didn't even have a scratch.

EL_Loco

on the M1 around 9am heading for work. In the overtaking lane doing about 70. White van in the left lane labouring with some issue not going very fast, articulated truck behind it, quite close because of the low speed of the van.

anyways, rear left tyre of the van comes off, luckily the guy still has enough control with the front wheels to stick it in the hard shoulder. In the mean time the truck jams on and makes to go around the van into the overtaking lane, I was level with the truck at this point and was preparing to mount the grass to give it enough room. truck driver thought the better of it, and at this point the van had managed to get out off into the hard shoulder.

We still have a rogue type bouncing up the motorway. it hits another van at the side, and bounces into the hard shoulder too.

All in all very lucky for all parties. I remember thinking it could have gone a whole lot worse for all concerned.

EDIT: oh yeah, nearly hit a box on the N7 at night, luckily it was only at the edge of the lane, had it been in the middle of the lane, game over man!

Saab Ed

A friend of mine flipped a Carina many years ago with 4 of us in it. Hit a huge pothole on a backroad and it sent the car out of control and broke something at the wheel...cant remember now what. Anyway we rolled 4 or 5 times and I'll never forget the noise as we skidded along the road on our roof. I'd honestly said goodbye to everyone, very strange calm feeling that. One guy got chucked out and 3 of us walked away. The car was destroyed . It was a real shock to see the car the next day.

Saab Ed

bigkev49 wrote: »

Change the record Ed.

Just having a laugh hence the ..... Report me !

Cookie_Monster

Locked the brakes and bounced off the kerb while trying to stop when some daft aul one pulled out in front of me two weeks ago. All I got was a dirty look off her.

In heavy traffic on the Rock Road car in front suddenly braked. I stopped in time but the guy behind me wasn't paying attention and had to swerve into the buslane to avoid me. Luckily it was empty at the time.

kmick

I came close to being creamed in bordeaux about two weeks ago. Come over the top of a hill to find a black peugot going at 100kmh or more on the wrong side of the road coming staright for me. I missed them by a hair. Frightened the crap out of me.

EPM

Coming around a blind s-bend (at a snails pace because the road is deadly) to find a guy in a Glanza (it was so I'll mention it) overtaking a tractor and trailor on the bend. I just stopped on the spot because there was nothing else to do, he tucked in behind trailor and lost the sad little front bumper on his sh1t box. If he'd hit me I'd have been fubar'd

BadCharlie

Fell asleep for a few seconds on a bend. Would have ended up over a ditch at the other side of the road if I did not wake up.

Late for work one morning and and was speeding. On this long left bend I met a slow moving JCB. Slammed on the breaks and starting to skid all over the place. The road was wet with about 1mm of water on it which did not help. Anyways some how I got the car back under control without hitting the oncoming traffic or the JCB.

Edit: forgot to say another time i was driving my breaks failed. I had to stamp on it a few times before they started to work... scray stuff.

Also another time on a roundabout, i almost took out a Motorbike who failed to have his lights on in the middle of the night.

Wont mention any more.
Goes off to touch some wood.

fintonie

Back in the days when we could drive it on the roads once it started,, I was coming up a one-way st heading for the main st when me breaks went in the car,,,

so as you do I pulled the handbrake only to realise it was not working,,, so I dropped down the gears to try to slow it down but because the car kept cutting out while I was idling I had the carb running high,,

so once I got to first gear the car went faster,,, with nothing left to do I headed for a large pole on the footpath missing it and now I was driving down the footpath,,

so the next pole I came to was a bus stop sign,,, so I headed straight for it and duly mounted,,,

the front of the car was wrecked and while sitting there looking at the sky I panicked and stuck her in reverse to get away (I was expecting the Gardy by now) I was in reverse heading for the side st when it dawned on me fcuk I got no breaks so I ended up going into the nearest building to stop the car,,, now the back of it is wrecked,,

I got out pushed it onto the footpath and headed to the pub for a pint,,, in the process of this 3min ordeal I killed 13 cabbages which were around the bus stop pole which cost me 18 punt,,,

it cost 164 punt to fix the pole and 270 fine for leaving the car there (this was paid by a crowd who were meant to lift it that day I paid them 35 to do this) so all in all twas grand, there are plenty more like this plenty.

stevenmu

I was driving on the old N4 from leixlip to maynooth on a dark and rainy night, when a giant boulder appeared in the middle of the lane just meters in front of me. This thing was huge and my car, along with myself, would have just crumpled against it. It was so close there was no hope of me stopping, braking would have just been a complete wast of time so I flung the car into the other lane as hard as I could. It might be just in my head but I'm pretty sure I went up on two wheels, I remember feeling them touch down as I swerved back to the left.

I couldn't understand how it had just appeared in front of me like that, but mostly I was just in complete shock and just carried on on auto-pilot not knowing what to do. After a few minutes I realised I couldn't just leave it there for someone else to hit, so I popped into the Garda station and let the Garda on duty know about it, then went back to park in front of it with the hazards on. I went back to where it was, but couldn't find the damn thing anywhere. I went up and down and eventually came to stop about where I was sure it had been.

I got out and had a look around but couldn't see a thing, when there was a gust of wind and upped popped a giant gray canvas coal-bag



(I went back to tell the Garda, but he wasn't there and I couldn't find him so god knows what he ended up thinking)

Drummerboy08

I've had a few hairy moments on the M50 with traffic coming to a sudden stop, but the most recent scare was while I was driving a Scirrocco to Wexford.

Took a corner with a little too much enthusiasm, and the rear stepped out. I was lucky that i got her under control, as it wasnt my car, and I didnt feel like explaining how i wrote of a brand new car to the boss and the customer...

Man the rear of those things can get light! :eek:

Gary ITR

I got caught up in this very scary stuff. I was at the exact spot where that lady was killed and only some quick thinking on my part got me and my father out of there

Delirium

Last Friday, heading from Tipperary town over to Cahir. The part of the road I was on is basically a series of bends. I came around a bend and this idiot is overtaking at speed on the bend.

No hard shoulder available, basically had to do an emergency stop and hope that the overtaking car could get back across to right side of the road. The car was travelling at such speed I didn't get any part of the reg so I could report it to the guards.:eek:

mickdw

Was on a good stretch of road with hard shoulder, clear night. dry roads. Oncoming car on straight stretch. Just as car approaches I suddenly see an old man with a dark coat & a bicycle in middle of my side of road. I was right on top of him, no chance of stopping, quick swerve to the right and squeezed between bike & on coming car (Just) and ggot so sideways as I straightened up car again.
I quickly turned around, there was the man still standing in the same place. I got out to see what the hell he was doing. He says "What kind of driving are ya at youngfella" It turned out he was coming from the pub and was trying to cross the road to get to his house. He thought the road centre line was the hard shoulder line and was convinced he was standing at the side of the road, not in the middle of it. Anyway, I threw the bike to side of road and brought him home. No harm done.
I week later when washing car I noticed a slight scrape on rear wheel arch. Im not sure but I must have been that close to the bike. Scary stuff.

RentDayBlues

Been in a few crashes, mostly as passenger.

1. Fell out of car going around a bend, aged about 5 at the time. Some good scraps but nothing serious

2. Front seat passenger in car, about 16 at time, driver was 7 months pregnant. Slowed to take a right turn off major road at crossroads, car came over the hill, couldn't stop and went into driver side of us as we turned. Car spun and ended up facing the opposition direction. Driver knocked unconscious, scariest moment I think.

Recently crashed as drive when a stupid pedestrian walked out in front of the car in front of me and I went into the back of them -- although airbags are there to save lives I could easily have died of shock due to the sound and dust created. Made the whole thing seem a lot worse than it was

EPM

Onkle wrote: »

I got caught up in this very scary stuff. I was at the exact spot where that lady was killed and only some quick thinking on my part got me and my father out of there

Now thats nasty

ianobrien

My closest scare was coming on to the North Ring in Cork.

Normally, I'm a "the instant the lights go green I'm off" kinda person. This evening, I was sitting at the lights (red for me) at the top of the que, away in a world of my own. The lights went green and it never registered. It registered a fraction of a second later, and just as I moved, a 40foot artic broke the lights in the other direction at about 40mph.

If I had moved as soon as the lights were green, I would have had a DAF truck sitting on my lap - Scary.....

Slidey

The pic is up here somewhere.

I was going to work one morning on the Dual Carrigeway in Colloney, Co Sligo when a tool decided to do a u-turn and head back down the carrigeway in the wrong direction. I hit him head on without getting to the brakes at all. Combined speed in excess of 60mph. I was defo at 60, he said he was doing about 10-15mph.

Got away with 1 cut knuckle. If it had been the morning before I would have been brown bread. Had the tool boxes in the back of the van, each one takes 2 men to lift.

Another time a road train cut right across me, climbed the bank to get out of his way. He hit the front bumper and kept going :eek:

The Muppet

Took my drivers side wing mirror off with a CIE double decker while rooting around in the foorwell for a tape, lesson learned.

bostoncommon

The Muppet wrote: »

Took my drivers side wing mirror off with a CIE double decker while rooting around in the foorwell for a tape, lesson learned.

thats what we call doing a biddy on it (re: Glenroe ask your parents!)

Damien360

Most tales so far are of bad overtaking. Mine is the same.

Traveling to Derry on old N2 near Ashbourne, prior to new road being built. 5.30am and I was cruising on an empty road doing 60mph except for the truckers. A marked Garda car cruised up behind me and I was fully aware of it. He wanted to overtake so I edged towards the hard shoulder. As I did a car came over the crest of a hill overtaking a truck right in front of me. He missed me and somehow missed the cop car. Cue all the blue lights and an instant U-turn. If I was hit it would have been a 3 car pileup with a truck for good measure.

Same journey further up the road near Monaghan. 2 trucks stuck on brake lights ahead of me. Trailer of truck ahead raised ahead of me as the remains of an animal passed under his wheels. I hit it and stopped just a bit further up the road. First truck in the line stopped, second one did'nt bother. No damage to me but I lost my front numberplate in the impact. Too dangerous to go back to see what I hit.

Woke me up !

The Muppet

bostoncommon wrote: »

thats what we call doing a biddy on it (re: Glenroe ask your parents!)

Don't have to ask anyone, I'm old enough to remember Glenroe, and Bracken and The Riordans for that matter. My incident happened in the early eighties, I still get cold sweats when I think it.

Senna

Few months ago driving home for work, miserable dark night bucketing with rain, was on a fairly wide road with long stretch of cars coming in the other direction, all i could see was a line of car lights into the distance, as i got near a slight left hand bend, one light seemed to be moving faster but as it's a left hand bend i didn't realise it was some idiot with only one light passing out all the other cars until s/he came flying within an inch of my car, probably doing at least 100kph (but probably a lot more). Frighten the life out of me.

Back when i was only learning (on the roads a few weeks at most) i was driving on a straight stretch and seen a car come to a stop at a junction maybe a hundred yards up, the car remained stopped right until i got within a couple of yards and pulled out right in front of me. The next few seconds were panic, i slammed on the breaks but my car just skidded towards the back of the red fiesta (i'll never forget), i yanked the steering to the right and eased off the brakes, got the car slightly pointed away and slammed on the brakes again, only problem now i'm headed into on coming traffic, again i eased off the brakes and straightened the car up a bit. I ended up level with the red fiesta on the hatched lines in the middle of the road. The silly mare had braked when she heard my tires squeal. It was all over in a second, but i was so shocked i didn't get out of the car to punch her in the face have a word.

Yakult

my closest was on the way home one night and it was raining. Came into a bad bend at 70mph and the back of the car kicked out, All I can remember is looking at the ditch as the car was completely sideways. Didnt panic and got it straight again. Needed a cig after that I will tell you.

AugustusMaximus

R_H_C_P wrote: »

my closest was on the way home one night and it was raining. Came into a bad bend at 70mph and the back of the car kicked out, All I can remember is looking at the ditch as the car was completely sideways. Didnt panic and got it straight again. Needed a cig after that I will tell you.

Something similar happened to me.

Lost the car in a corner I would usually take at 60mph. It was bemused to say the least. Natural reaction was to steer into the slide and thank god I did. I steered into the slide so much I nearly put it into the near side ditch.

Within a week, oil on road signs were put up and in the end, that bend in the road had to be resurfaced.

Midnight_EG

Going out for lunch in Cookstown, Tallaght, in a DC2 Integra, we cruised around the sorta chicane type corner at 25mph or so, at the second bend a truck decides to cut the corner coming for us, cue us nearly going under the back wheels, with maybe an inch on the passenger side close to the wall, saw my life flash before my eyes, survived :P

I'm sure you all now how low a DC2 is, and the shape of the nose, truck would have mounted us no problem, driver would have been dead, fxckin truck drivers :eek:

Vertakill

Was driving into work via the M50 last year at about 60mph in the p1ssings of rain and just as I drove under a bridge/footbridge, an entire segment of hand railing dropped from the bridge about 15ft in front my car. Instinctively veered away from it and by pure luck, avoided hitting any cars either side of me.

chubba1984

My close shave happened in July 07 on the road between Kinvara and Ballyvaughan, which as it is on the edges of the Burren in full of bends with stone walls either side. I went around a bend at approx 50mph but as I didn't really know the road didn't realise there was another sharp bend in the opposite direction downhill 50 yards after it. Tried to keep on the proper side of the road as you can't see what's coming. The front wheel went into a rut on the road margin and I hit the brakes, car more or less aquaplaned a 180 and I ended up virtually sliding in over the wall sideways. The field was about a ten to fifteen foot drop the other side and I landed the right way up thankfully.

The fun didn't end there tho. The road is right on the edge of Galway Bay and a small stream was culverted under the road. My car ended up rolling into a concrete channel and ended 45 degrees from horizontal stuck in the channel. Tide was out and no water in the channel thankfully. Seat belt saved me from going through the now shattered windscreen but it was some struggle to get out of the car. Car was wrote off, assessor said they didn't see many people survive the type of damage I'd done. I walked out with a tiny scratch on my hand which I got getting out of the car.

starbelgrade

When my missus tells me to slow down or be careful, I remind her that I've only ever crashed once. In my mind, it's reassuring.

miju

had a few scares, once on a moped I got clipped by a car that couldnt see and off the bike I came. When I went to stand up and turned me head I realised a truck wheel was about 3 feet away from my head thank christ he was paying attention and was braking before i'd even come off the bike.

Second, was on a national road down in Wexford. Some foreign driver obviously no sure where they going pulled out in front of me from the hard shoulder with zero distance between the two cars and no indicator. Literally stood on brakes and missed rear ending the car by a fraction. Thank christ I was paying attention there as well.

Senna wrote: »

The next few seconds were panic, i slammed on the breaks but my car just skidded towards the back of the red fiesta (i'll never forget), i yanked the steering to the right and eased off the brakes, got the car slightly pointed away and slammed on the brakes again, only problem now i'm headed into on coming traffic, again i eased off the brakes and straightened the car up a bit.

Not being a know it all or anything but if your car has ABS don't take your foot off the brake or you lose alot of stopping power. You'll still be able to complete any emergency manouver

starbelgrade

miju wrote: »

had a few scares, once on a moped I got clipped by a car that couldnt see and off the bike I came. When I went to stand up and turned me head I realised a truck wheel was about 3 feet away from my head thank christ he was paying attention and was braking before i'd even come off the bike.

Second, was on a national road down in Wexford. Some foreign driver obviously no sure where they going pulled out in front of me from the hard shoulder with zero distance between the two cars and no indicator. Literally stood on brakes and missed rear ending the car by a fraction. Thank christ I was paying attention there as well.

Mopeds are f*cking dangerous.. I owned a 1980 Vespa when I lived in Dublin... all the weight in them is in the back where the engine is, so they skid like mad on wet roads going round bends.

Came off it twice due to that, then went headlong over a car bonnet when it pulled out in front of me on a snowy day.

Couldn't blame the driver due to really poor visibilty, but I soon bought a car after that!

miju

starbelgrade wrote: »

Mopeds are f*cking dangerous.. I owned a 1980 Vespa when I lived in Dublin... all the weight in them is in the back where the engine is, so they skid like mad on wet roads going round bends.

Came off it twice due to that, then went headlong over a car bonnet when it pulled out in front of me on a snowy day.

Couldn't blame the driver due to really poor visibilty, but I soon bought a car after that!

hah I know exactly what those Vespas are like to handle had one of those too (loved it to bits) till an incident with a granny similiar to yours (though the granny saw me panicked and instead of hitting break hit the accelator doh) involved me going tits up over her bonnet and my handle bars, crashed ****ed my back up for about 3 years afterwards :mad:

DUBLINHITMAN

i was recently on the m7 behind a rhino tipper truck
and it has 2 wheels at the back on each side.
i was just looking at it doing about 100kph and i noticed a big rock
between the right hand side back wheels .
it was ready to be flung out the back like a missile,
so i went infront of him put on me hazards and then indicator to the hard shoulder
he followed me and we stopped ,
when he got out i told him about the rock it was big as a pint glass when we took it out
which it wasn't jammed in either ,
he thanked me and said that it wouldn't have just dropped it would have fired out probably into my window screen or someone else's .

sorry abot the rant just a heads up when behind a tipper truck like this ,

starbelgrade

miju wrote: »

hah I know exactly what those Vespas are like to handle had one of those too (loved it to bits) till an incident with a granny similiar to yours (though the granny saw me panicked and instead of hitting break hit the accelator doh) involved me going tits up over her bonnet and my handle bars, crashed ****ed my back up for about 3 years afterwards :mad:

Ouch!! I was lucky enough to get away with a few scrapes & bruises... still love the Vespas (the old ones!), but only in good weather!!