In the interest of anonymity, please don't name, shame or show registration numbers, if you include pictures. Without going into too much detail, I was in a crash the other week. After attempting to avoid a driver who opted to do a u-turn (without indication or warning) on a major A road, I struck their vehicle, left the road and crashed head first into a tree at ~50mph. Once on the grass, ABS is completely useless obviously! The car was declared Cat B total loss and must never reappear on the roads. I was extremely lucky and if it hadn't been a big heavy and nearly new German car, the outcome may have been a bit different. I'm now back on the road though and quite pragmatic about it all. No point worrying about what may have become! The one thing that has changed: I'm much more wary of other road users intentions now.
When I was a young 'un I crashed my Dad's Citroen BX. It was a terrible car made worse by an intermittent fault whereby it wouldn't go in gear. Approaching a tight right hander I experienced this very same fault and being full of inexperience I looked down and fought with the gear stick rather than simply dipping the clutch and coasting around the corner. By the time I looked up I was already about to mount the pavement. I turned sharply right and headed back on the road but not before taking out a concrete lamppost! No other cars or pedestrians were involved so I rang my Dad (who then rang the council as lamppost was on a wonk!) who came to collect me and the car and my lesson was learned. He took it surprisingly well to be honest. I did wonder if he secretly hoped one of us would kill the car so he could get it replaced. Bizzarely the police turned up to my house some time later (might have been the next day) and took me to the station and arrested me for leaving the scene. Not sure why as there were no 3rd parties involved and the council were notified about their damaged property. Unsurprisingly the CPS did not prosecute.
I had an accident a few years back (almost 9) with a pedestrian. Weird light (rainy weather, dusk, sun behind me and low), taxi (they're the bane of everyone's existence around here) u-turning in front of me (at a spot where it's illegal), multiple traffic lights to consider. Overall a complicated situation. I was doing no more than 30kph at the time, and I see someone lying across the lanes, right in front of my car. I brake, I swerve, I got 4 wheels over him. Turns out the guy was drunk as anything, and a police officer saw him shortly before, and told him to go home. The guy tried, and decided to have a nap in the road (in the CBD, mind). He got taken to hospital with a mild head injury. His head struck my Volvo's oil filter right off, which contributed to the engine needing replacement. All in all, factoring in body damage (I hit a sidewalk right after, causing some panels and a rim to take some beating), some radiator pushing in, etc. the insurance decide to write off the car, which I am still a little sad about. I liked the S40. The guy was released from hospital the next morning already. Thanks, 5 star pedestrian safety rating. These days, I still catch weird-feels when I see pedestrians walking unpredictably in bad light.
Had a pretty bad motorbike accident, clear road, lights on, high vis, under speed limit, taxi driver was waiting to cut across my lane to go up a road, he was waiting so I was "all ok", as I got closer he set off and boom, straight into the wheel and wing. I slid up the gas tank into handle bars, bust my pelvis but glady that was all thanks to full leather gear. Off my feet for 1 month then 2 years of struggling to finally get a pretty impressive operation involving metal and cow bone, now am 99% as I was physically but I do have hesitation in my bodies abilities to take an impact and also T junctions on the road. The taxi driver wasn't prosecuted as it was just driver error but he was an elderly taxi driver from another area, I don't think it'd help his insurance. Side affect of this was it affected my mental state for a long time and destroyed my long term relationship but in hindsight that was a blessing as it was already a mess that I just didn't see, silver linings.
Push bike crash this one, pretty big an semi life changing. Local jump park is set in woods usually we built the jumps with the trees to support big old pines so perfect. I came down did the first jump little whip, came down into the second had a bit of an angle but thought it was OK, turned out it wasn't, kept the same line into the next jump which is a lot bigger, I was off line now headed toward the tree, met said tree handlebar went into my ribs with my arm attached still then I kind of crumpled around it. Nice drop of a few feet as well. landed still conscious obviously dazed, stood up an pretty much passed out straight away in pain. broken hip, four broken ribs an punctured lung, three broken fingers an thumb, fractured wrist, broken forearm and a broken ankle. Like Goldstar nice bit of metal no cow mind you. 6 weeks non moving then learning to walk and being shocked how quick muscles waste away. Mentally I crap out now on jumps I can barely do any now, physically at some point ill have to have a replacement hip joint and I feel the cold on my hip really quickly and bleep when going through metal detectors.
