closest you've come to a serious crash?

on my way back to galway there a while ago, pitch dark, long sweeping corner to the left..

i'm doing maybe 105kph, big row of cars coming towards me, jus rows of lights flashing by me and me not paying any heed when out of nowhere, there's a car in my lane passing out.. no indicator, no nothing. i didn't notice it until maybe 25-30 yards away cause like i say, it was jus a row of lights and it was hard to tell.

anyways, knee jerk reaction to the left, fly past of the front of the oncoming car, slam brakes, go into the hard shoulder nd come to a stop in grass.

so i get car back on hard shoulder, stop car, get out, have a drink, ring a friend and wait 10 mins before i dare drive again.. was shaking with fright.



anyways, shook me up really bad.. first one of those moments since i started driving where i thought i was gone. it was so so close to a full head on collision.. the other car's driver should be banned imo. passing out on a corner with oncoming traffic?!

if there hadn't been a big hard shoulder, i'd have went into a hedge :mad:

leeroybrown

A good few years ago I was the Christmas designated driver for my family. I was dropping my father over to some friends about 15 miles away at about 10pm on St. Stephens night. I was coming up to a bend when a van came around in the other direction. It struck me as a bit odd that the van had it's right indicator on as there were no junctions nearby. As I got closer the indicator seemed to move slightly so I hit the brake and pulled in onto the verge. A few seconds later a black Jaguar XJS with no lights on passed the outside. The moron must have been pissed out of his tree. If that indicator hadn't been on we could quite easily have had a head on collision at a combined speed of over 100mph.

Berty

I was given a certificate from a driving school giving my companies insurance company approval to cover me driving a rigid truck and was told to drive with the boss in the passenger seat. I only had my provisional C license a few days with only 4 hours of driving lessons.

We were in West Clare on regional cum local road(****e roads) when a coach came around the bend towards me. I kept to the left but the front left wheel of the truck went onto the high verge and dropped down the other side acting like a magnet and sucking the truck over the top of the verge. At this stage my new boss woke up with a fright by smashing his head off the roof. The truck lifted up on its left wheels and nearly flipped over doing around 60kph. I held the wheel(massive btw) and got us back onto the road before the junction came up on us. We would have totalled the truck.

Only last week I was in Castlebar and came over the railway bridge and a car decided it would not stop at its stop sign and nearly side swipped me. Whilst cursing and blessing myself at a close shave another car from the next junction ran a red light. Further down the road the Google mobile nearly crashed into me. Check by the Courthouse in Castlebar on Google Earth in a few months when the picture comes up and you will see my car with my fist raised in the window.

leeroybrown

leeroybrown wrote: »

A good few years ago I was the Christmas designated driver for my family. I was dropping my father over to some friends about 15 miles away at about 10pm on St. Stephens night. I was coming up to a bend when a van came around in the other direction. It struck me as a bit odd that the van had it's right indicator on as there were no junctions nearby. As I got closer the indicator seemed to move slightly so I hit the brake and pulled in onto the verge. A few seconds later a black Jaguar XJS with no lights on passed the outside. The moron must have been pissed out of his tree. If that indicator hadn't been on we could quite easily have had a head on collision at a combined speed of over 100mph.

fukin hell, he was passin out nd didn't even have lights on? :eek:


seriously, i think from tomorrow on, every custodial sentence handed out in this country should be doubled. people arn't afraid enough of the law.

DaMonk

That limerick galway road is an absolute disaster after the bypass. I've never driven it wihtout having a cringe moment watching someone overtaking up ahead and going 'oh man, that car didnt just go for it..'. I'm no stranger to overtaking but keep it on a clear straight.

leeroybrown

Another one that happened to someone I know through work. He was driving behind another car at about 60mph on a decent N road with hard shoulders. Some moron in a van coming from the opposite direction attempted an overtake that he never had the power to complete. Instead of braking then pulling in he started flashing his lights and beeping at the on coming cars. The guy I know started slowing down and so did the driver in front but he couldn't pull in as the driver in front froze and stayed in the middle of the lane. The oncoming van pulled onto their hard shoulder resulting him being passed simultaneously on his left by it and on the right by the overtaken traffic. To top it all off about two seconds later the driver in front had a delayed reaction panic and did a full emergency stop almost wiping him out.

leeroybrown

Deleted User wrote: »

fukin hell, he was passin out nd didn't even have lights on? :eek:

I couldn't believe it. Overtaking on a blind bend on a pitch black night with no headlights on. At least he had the courtesy to indicate...

a friend in work has a similar story.. friend of his passing out a car and it speeds up out of ignorance. the car behind the friend had already pulled up behind the first car.. so friend has no choice but to go onto opposite hard shoulder cause of oncoming traffic.

bad buzz.

leeroybrown

leeroybrown wrote: »

I couldn't believe it. Overtaking on a blind bend on a pitch black night with no headlights on. At least he had the courtesy to indicate...

ah yea, sound lad

ankles

Here's one that happened to a guy at work. Traveling on the N2 coming into Collon, up that big hill and as he approaches the top he sees two cars coming over the hill side by side in his direction. Boy racers. He pulls into the hard shoulder... but so does the car on his side :eek: so they're still heading straight for each other, he swerves back into the middle and both cars fly by either side of him. Into Collon and pull over and try and breathe...
You wouldn't care if they killed themselves, it's just taking other people with them...

ankles

ankles wrote: »

Here's one that happened to a guy at work. Traveling on the N2 coming into Collon, up that big hill and as he approaches the top he sees two cars coming over the hill side by side in his direction. Boy racers. He pulls into the hard shoulder... but so does the car on his side :eek: so they're still heading straight for each other, he swerves back into the middle and both cars fly by either side of him. Into Collon and pull over and try and breathe...
You wouldn't care if they killed themselves, it's just taking other people with them...

fuk that... that's basically 17yr olds on mammy's insurance forcin other people into playin chicken.

Caliden

ankles wrote: »

Here's one that happened to a guy at work. Traveling on the N2 coming into Collon, up that big hill and as he approaches the top he sees two cars coming over the hill side by side in his direction. Boy racers. He pulls into the hard shoulder... but so does the car on his side :eek: so they're still heading straight for each other, he swerves back into the middle and both cars fly by either side of him. Into Collon and pull over and try and breathe...
You wouldn't care if they killed themselves, it's just taking other people with them...

****ing hell thats bad. He was more concerned with carrying on racing instead of braking and going in behind his fellow arsehole. :mad:

shaney-baby

I was coming home heading towards town on the red cow.I was taking the corner to town and the back end swung out from behind me.(I was going the speed limit.) The car went into a sidewards slide(drift)around the corner slid into the path divider wrecked the front right wheel the car went over the path onto the other lane.
Had to try reverse the car of the road ended up having to wait till a tow came because i bust a shock.The funny thing is not one of the many that past me asked was i ok or did i need a hand they just beeped at me because the car was in the way of the road,They had plenty of space to get around me!.People like make me hate this country:mad:.Eventually the truck came and he asked me would i like a lift home prob the only descent person that night
That was the worst ive been in

timmywex

Closest i had was going around a corner and someone was coming at me on my side of the road, meant i had to cross right over to his side to get around him, not the most plesent of expiriences.

Also had an incident with someone driving the wrong way around a roundabout....

Whosbetter?

Coupla years ago,we're headin up to Carlow from Waterford.
Dark evening and were on a narrow streach of the road.

There was a car parked on our left as we were driving.
Also there was a car coming in the oppisate direction.
So far, no probs. Plenty of room.

Then, all of a sudden, some TOOL decided to get into the parked car from the OUTSIDE!!!
We missed him by inches, literally.

Swear to God, if we killed him, we'd have a totally clear concience.

Nobody that stupid deserves to live.

L-M

I was driving home from Clonlara one pissy night. Came down to this bend, which was tighter than I thought. Only realised mid bend and when I turned the wheel, due to the wet ground, the car just kept going straight. Eventually when I came near the ditch I got a bit of grip but the front left wheel slammed into the ditch. A bit of grass in the front grill and a scrap on me bloody new wheels.

Another time I was going down these back roads heading towards Ruan. Fairly acute bends, so they were. Next thing I see this Subaru Impreza coming around the corner at me, he must of been doing at least 80-90mph, which is complete madness on the type of roads we were on. I just flicked the steering wheel to the left, and I swear to god, if I hadn't, I'd be six feet under. I stop the car in at the next straight and the car just shook from the vibrating of mine and a friends heartbeat. Hard to describe, but it was the biggest fright I've had while driving.

Just another one I saw that frightened me, and that I learned a valuable lesson from. I was behind a car, which was behind a truck. Heading out the Limerick - Nenagh road. Anywho, the truck driver pulls into the hard shoulder to leave the car pass. I stayed behind him, but the car infront of me decided to accelerator only a tiny bit. Slowly pottering its way past the truck. Next thing I see the truck starting to pull out, (at this point the car overtaking was only half way past the truck) - the hard shoulder ended for 200 m for a driveway. There was traffic coming, and I cringed as the car over taking was basically pushed out onto the other side of the road onfront of oncoming traffic. Very scary to watch, but luckily, no accident.

ParkRunner

My first time driving my first car, a little 1.2l opel corsa i had to drive it across the city to get it home. I had to take a right turn across a busy road and waited for a long time for a chance to cross. I went to make the turn and some guy coming in the opposite direction who must have been doing well over the speed limit jammed on his brakes and skidded for a good few metres. I had finished the turn at this stage thank god but it frightened the life out of me and was a good lesson to learn on my first day!

Hal1

Coming up threw Tipperary'ish from Cork heading to Dublin (N74?), I wasn't driving *honestly*, but a tool of a guy I was working with was driving the companies transit back home, it was late (11pm) and we where fairly tired.

I was questioning this guys ability to drive tbh. So we are stuck behind a line of cars, artic lorries. Genuis that he is decides to do a bit of overtaking, first couple of cars fine. Then we approach 2 artics and make it past the first one but due to limited vision he couldn't see what sort of a gap was between the 2 trucks.

There must of been 15ft (at a guess), so he notices this mid manevour and puts his foot to the floor, but the next minute the truck starts speeding up to close the gap, and to make matters worse an artic truck is approaching from the opposite direction lit up like a christmas tree.

The guy in the truck starts blasting his horn and flashing his lights and only with less than 10 seconds to spare he reduces his speed enough to let us pull in. It all happened so quickly but I seriously thought that I was going to creamed. Never drive when your tired folks.

hedgeh0g

Deleted User wrote: »

a friend in work has a similar story.. friend of his passing out a car and it speeds up out of ignorance. the car behind the friend had already pulled up behind the first car.. so friend has no choice but to go onto opposite hard shoulder cause of oncoming traffic.

bad buzz.

Same happened to me in the Dublin mountains. Was behind a slow car and on overtake he closed the gap between him and the car in front on purpose by accelerating really fast.
I had to slam on the brakes and go behind him to avoid a head on.
I overtook him minutes later and drove at two miles an hour in front of him for about five miles.

Was the scariest driving I have ever done. He tried to over take me several times but I kept him there for twenty mins + the bastard before I hit the pedal.

Trampas

Not involved but was in a tail of traffic when a line of cars a head.

One car pulled out and start over taking cars a couple of head of mine.

Next thing I see a couple of cars coming against us in the hard shoulder (which there isn't much off on the road).

Most days driving to work there is a ford focus which drives at 120+kph weaving in and out of cars in a 80 zone. over takes in crazy places.

Voodoomelon

Closest I ever came to being killed, let alone in a crash, was when I was actually on my pushbike.
At the massive Xerox/PJ Carrolls junction, the main road lights were green and I was sitting on me bike beside an island, waiting to cross the cars whizzing by. No cars coming for a few seconds, lights turn orange and the split second they were about to turn red I took a quick look up and down the road, saw nothing (was getting dark and raining) and started to cycle across.

My god, I saw this shape coming out of no-where on my right, a gold mondeo doing 60mph+ obviously after putting the boot down to try and get the lights. He saw me at the last second, I was RIGHT in front of him and he swerved the car to the right, jammed on the brakes and skid for about 40 metres on the wet road, heading straight for the cars who had stopped on the other side of the junction. He stopped just infront of them while I nearly got sick on the other side of the road.

Never forget it...

hedgeh0g

I was a passenger in a Nissan Micra and the driver was flooring it.
In the distance we could see two people in the hard shouler looking in our directon. They were the owners of a car / empty trailer.

As we got closer we began to notice a very big object approx 8 inches high. Was to late to hit the brakes. We hit a double matrice, all wheels left the road and we were flying through the air. Skidded to a stop and no damage, except to the matrice.

GalwayKiefer

Driving from Tuam to Galway 2 Christmas' ago I was approaching Claregalway at about 11.30pm on a Sunday night. Rambling along in the van I used to have and I saw a UK reg Lexus bombing it down the road approaching me. The car was full of young lads (inside neons to aid my vision) and we were the only two vehicles on the stretch of road at the time when the c**t killed his lights and changed lanes driving straight at me playing chicken. I slammed the brakes and skidded into the hard shoulder as the car flew past. Sat there in the hard shoulder for about 20mins shaking and trying not to puke. Idiots like that should be put down.

McSpud

About 10 years with hire car in Tampa, Florida. Was in a hurry to find accommodation & on dark dualcarrageway took median u-turns too quickly as dived in at last moment. Couldn't make the turn so went straight through onto kerb ahead. Lucky I did gave up the turn otherwise would have spun with my ass sticking out into traffic. Luckily not even a single visible scratch when returned car.

Esel

timmywex wrote: »

Also had an incident with someone driving the wrong way around a roundabout....

A guy I knew years ago (alcoholic) drove drunk the wrong way around a roundabout at night, and killed the oncoming driver.

Would you believe driving the wrong way around a roundabout is a 1 penalty point offence? I kid you not.

firefly08

Last year I was driving towards Dublin on the M7 on a really rainy night. I was doing about 70 and was a good long distance from the car in front. Suddenly a convoy of boy-racers cam flying past and about 85-90MPH. There was about 4 or 5 cars, all civics and colts, all with tacky blue leds and stickers everywhere etc. Engines roaring. I slowed down.

Then a few seconds behind came this last straggler, same kind of car, same speed. But now there was a normal car in the right lane up about 50 metres in front of me. So this asshole flys right up to within a few metres of him, and tries to swing round him, at at least 80 MPH on a wet road. Needless to say, he spun wildly out of control - and I don't know whether he hit the other cars, but one way or another, the 2 nearest cars to him started spinning like crazy too.

I looked at all this clatter of spinning cars getting close and closer, for a split second, then jammed on my brakes...and guess what? I started spinning too!

Luckily, my car only turned less than 90 degrees before I managed to correct it, then wobbled back and forth a bit before righting itself. But the other 3 cars did a couple of 360s - miraculously, they all came to a stop without hitting each other. The guy who caused the whole thing hit the big earth mound at the side of the motorway but no one was injured. His car wasn't even damaged to badly - the fcuker drove away before anyone could call the cops!

That came very close to a 4-5 car pile up at least. Luckily there was no one close behind me, which is unusual for that stretch of road on a Sunday night.