Car crashes- have you ever been in an accident/ had a near miss?

Posted this in motors a week ago.


I was driving home on the N11 on Saturday, it had just rained pretty hard and it was getting dark, I was in the outside line as I was about to Uturn between Cherrywood and Cabinteely (just before the petrol station if you know it). I was doing 60 in a Subaru Legacy estate. We'd put new rear tyres on and serviced the breaks that morning.

Anyway, there are about 2 kids in the middle of the road, and one darts across from the left to join them about 100m in front of me. I remarked to the passenger that it was bloody stupid, if he'd slipped he would have been right in front of me. Anyway, no sooner had I said it a fourth kid who I hadn't seen before runs from the left. He can't have been more than 7 or 8, he was certainly less than 5ft tall.

He had his hood up, his head turned away from me, he was sprinting, completely oblivious to me. As soon as he put his foot on the bus lane, I hit the breaks hard, I felt them bouncing so I figure the ABS kicked in. There was a van directly behind me also doing 60, probably pissed off that I was only doing the speed limit while hogging the outside line. I knew he was close, so close that if it'd been a dog not a kid I would have just killed it. In those few seconds I was pretty sure I was going to hit the kid, and almost positive the van was going to hit me. I didn't beep or anything, I was afraid that I wasn't going to stop in a short enough distance and the kids only chance was that he got across ahead of me, so scaring him might have caused him to fall.

The car came to a stop less than a metre short of where he had been running, and the van probably got closer to me behind. I was scared ****less. I was close to home, so I took the Uturn drove into the drive and just sat in the car for a while. My passenger had advised I try give out to the kids but I honestly was too shocked to speak, let alone plan the best way to make a complicated point about road safety to a bunch of neglected brats.

Anyway, I guess I'm posting for two reasons. Firstly if you were driving a van northbound on the N11 near Cabinteely at around 7pm on Saturday and you managed to avoid rear ending a subaru estate who braked suddenly and without warning, thank you. If you hadn't been concentrating I was ****ed.

Secondly, when I was learning to drive people never stopped telling me "always concentrate on the road, you never know when someone might jump out in front of you" - I kinda dismissed it. While I don't assume other drivers are of a good standard, I did tend to assume that most people had some element of self preservation, and would never run in front of my car, I was wrong to assume that. On another day I'd take that road 10 clicks faster while playing with the radio and I dunno the legalities of it, but at the very minimum I'd have killed a child, but I guess there is every chance I'd be going to jail.

I also got hit off my motorbike by a driver that ran a red. I was lucky because he missed my knee by only a few inches. I rolled over his car and landed on my back. I had all the gear on so only suffered a little bit of whiplash. Bike was destroyed.

Everybody they are brakes not breaks

FatherLen wrote: »

no idea to be honest, there where no cars in front of her or anything.

Tbh seems as if you were tailgating her.

Went through a wall when I was 23, learnt a harsh life lesson that day because I was drinking, I was arrested and served my ban which I fully deserved.

Not long after my brother was crashed into by a drunk driver, the neighbours came out and told him not to report the driver because he had a young family and needed his license, my brother did the right thing and called the cops.

Had a guy come up the wrong side of the m7 just pass Kilkenny with full beams in October 2012. Moved left and thankfully he passed me on his moronic way. Because he had his beams on, he completely blinded me. Only spotted the woman in front of me who'd stopped dead on the motorway at the last moment - as it turns out she was in complete shock with children on the back of the car. Slammed hard on the brakes. Only had a set if brand new bridgestones fitted a few days before - these no doubt contributed to saving my live.

There's not a day goes by where do you do not see the most moronic driving - my pet hate is using the left lane to go straight on at a round about - invariably some t!t will come up the right hand side, cut in front of you and go straight ahead.

Motorway behaviour here also appalling - developing countries have better driving standards.

Yeah, when I was 12. Me, my parents and my brother and sister (and the dog) all in the car on the way home from a trip to Dublin.

My dad was indicating to pull over to a petrol station on the right hand side of the road, just as the traffic cleared and he started to pull out a car going about 60/70 (later, as we found out, driven by an off-duty gard who was on the phone) slammed into the car behind us. She'd tried to swerve at the last minute but it didn't work, we ended up on the other side of the road facing back the way we'd came, with the biggest impact taken on the passenger-side back seat. If there'd been anything coming the other way one of us would have been killed.

It was chaos! Most of our windows smashed and of course the fecking dog panicked and jumped out, almost strangled herself on her lead. I'll never forget seeing my dad lifting my unconscious ten year old sister (who'd been in the back on the passenger side) out of the car and not knowing if she was dead or what, he was roaring at the other two drivers and just looked like he'd absolutely lost his mind. Also I'll never forget the staff from the petrol station running out to us and taking me and my brother (who was only six) and the dog into the shop and then not really knowing what to do so just leaving us stand by the ice-cream freezer.

Also try and imagine how much craic the insurance process was seeing as the guilty party was a gard.

FatherLen wrote: »

If you read carefully you will see that we didn't hit her car.
It was in fact the car behind us that hit into the back of us and push us into the front car.

She stopped sudden you stopped sudden but the car behind you pushed your car into hers which would indicate you were traveling too close.

Deleted User wrote: »

@ errloyd, that strip of road is 80kph - only 60 in the bus lane. As well you weren't doing 80 anyway by the sounds of it

Yeah I was only a hundred and fifty metres short of the U-turn so I wasn't in a particular hurry. If I'd been heading into town rather than home I'd probably have been doing 80.

dharn wrote: »

The word is BRAKE.....

Their is know kneed to capitolize it.