Lucky and unlucky and stupid

BigEejit

TLDR: driving home today on the A2 from London down into Kent when there was a serious crash involving 5 cars, both in front and behind me, and thats when I found out my mini 0806 dashcam is broken.

Traffic was heavy enough, it was queuing to get off at Gravesend so I moved over to lane 4, there was a long wheelbase sprinter in front of me so I backed off because I couldnt see up the road and traffic is inclined to slow down and speed up around there with lane changing going on due to on and off ramps. A fiesta being a complete dickhead dived into the gap I left for my braking distance and for some unknown reason stayed very close to the back of the sprinter. Speed was about 60mph.
Next thing our lane is coming to a stop fast, emergency braking all over with smoke coming off the fiestas tyres, my own braking was not too extreme, but the ABS kicked in a bit, I stopped a good 8 to 10 feet behind the fiesta, I'd guess that the car behind me stopped about the same from me. I heard a bang from well behind me and I looked in the rearview mirror and saw the focus behind me rocking and the car behind him (Cee'd i think) nose into the central divider with a lot of dust in the air. I was looking at it trying to figure out how the Cee'd managed to do that when i just saw a vectra come flying in from lane two, 90 degrees to the lane we were in and smashed into the front wing of the fiesta and then across the back of the sprinter and then came to a rest also with his nose into the divider.

I hopped out and checked people were ok, and they were mostly ok, all walking and talking anyway, the Kia guy was rubbing his back and the vectra driver had a broken nose I'd say.

I then thought to myself, "I caught the crash in front of me on the dashcam" so I had a look at it and .... nada .... thing wont power on, checked micro sd when i got home and nothing new on it since about 3 weeks ago. bugger. Just been testing it here and its dead.

A guy from 4 or 5 cars back came up and said he saw the whole thing, Mr Vectra braked very late, tried to change lane, hit the Kia which rear ended the focus, went out into lane 3 and 2 but because front right tyre was blown he made a semicircle and hit the fiesta and sprinter... somehow a car in lane two got out of his way and there was a gap in lane 3. Cee'd looked to be write off, damage on front looked worse than rear. Fiesta definitely written off with front wing, wheel and half of bumper and radiator knocked off and so was the vectra. Van will need some work on the back and so will the focus. Nothing at all wrong with my own car. ****ing haunted. Buying a lottery ticket.

Cops turned up quite quickly, asked for witness, two people said they had seen it all, I said that I had only witnessed the bit in front, cops took my name and number and said i should go as there was no need for me to be there so off I went. And then realised I had taken no fecking pictures. :mad: it just didnt occur to me.

Mint Sauce

Just be thankful, and go off to get your lotto ticket. Have a stiff drink for your self at your final destination.

soups05

Not lucky, smart. You were aware of your surroundings, anticipated what may happen and took steps to avoid it just in case. Your a good driver and we need more like you on the road. Glad your safe.