Near miss car crash, could have been fatal

[mjheathcote]

Last Saturday evening I was driving to Hitchin, meeting up with a collegue for an early flight from Heathrow to US/Canada on business.
I was faced with a possible head on collision with an out of control car, which I managed to avoid.
Only getting back last night have I managed to download the footage, unfortunately no possibility of identifying the numberplate due to speed and being too dark with headlights.
Its really shook me up with the what if's.
If I was nearer the bend.
If I wasn't paying attention.
If I couldn't have swerved due to traffic in opposite direction.
If another car was behind me when I swerved out of the way.
If my 18 year old daughter who has just passed her driving test was driving...
If it was a head on, only the dash cam to prove it wasn't my fault...
I can't get out of my head the image of the car right in front of me, and how I managed to swerve out of the way with no contact.
After he passed me he just went straight on and disappeared into the distance, on the road, and I was in shock on what had just happened.
How could a self driving car calculate in that millisecond how to respond in such a situation?

 

[Andyk]

Bloody **** that could have been deviating. So glad you are OK and great avoidance.

 

[Scaf]

WOW you did well there for sure, a reminder that full concentration is required all the time.

As you say, it make you think of the “what ifs”

 

[ChrisQP09]

Unreal! Well done on the evasive turn!

1 Series BMW but plate too blurry. Its odd how it was driving straight then completely swerved all of a sudden

 

[CatmanV2]

Well done. Sadly there are always risks

Perhaps some advanced driving lessons for your daughter (and you? After all we could all probably benefit)

C

 

[gb-gta]

Unreal! Well done on the evasive turn!

1 Series BMW but plate too blurry. Its odd how it was driving straight then completely swerved all of a sudden

Looks like coming round the right hand bend they either just lost control due to speed or maybe dropped a wheel onto the verge through not paying attention. Either of these set off a slide he/she overcorrected which sent them into a fishtailing episode.

We’ll done to avoid it, perfect timing to dive to the other side, as it could have spun back into the road.
And you are right, that would have been a crash in an autonomous car…

 

[allandwf]

Well done for avoiding it.My philosophy is, would have been, you missed it, it's history. We get to a ripe old age missing incidents, and probably many more we are never even aware of. It's not worth dwelling over.

 

[Wack61]

Correct use of language , that was definitely a ******* **** moment

Good reactions

 

[3leftovercrest]

I am sure we all have stories like that and it’s ok to talk about them…. It’s almost like PTSD and getting over it,,, I’ve done it many times…. What-if always comes to mind but you can’t legislate for what life throws at you and you can’t change what happened and that is no pre-cursor for what will happen..

I was going on green a couple of months ago in the disco at at set of roadworks on a local b-road and a car came through the red light at the other and at over 70mph on a 30mph limit (wtf!!), smashed into cars 1 and 2 and came to rest 12ft away from me as you can see in the photo of our disco and the crashed car… bloke got out, over 70 and looked like wurzel gummage… I thought he had a medical incident but other people on the scene had been over taken by the **** at over 70. They thought it was a young bloke avoiding the police… never got to find out wrf happened..

Other one and I think about this constantly (like replaying a HD movie in my head) was last November and we were on our way way from seeing our daughter at Uni in Oxford and on the A12 at Brentwood going north where 2 lanes go into 3,,, I go into the outside lane at 70’ish, it’s dark and raining and in the blink of an eye,,, I am on top of a dark caravan than has stopped on the outside lane and I have split second to swerve and where there is a line of cars in the middle lane… 4 wheel drift in the disco and just kept my foot planted… took me 6 months of thinking “what the f^ck if”,, my wife and youngest daughter were also in the car… to be honest,,, I competed in the British rally championship until I was diagnosed type 1 (bummer) and I was so grateful of having learned proper car control…

So yes, doing an advanced course is a good idea, I did ROSPA years ago but it’s all about luck,,, you can’t legislate for what the roads chuck at us….

… just got home after a 10 hr drive from St David’s to Suffolk…. And I saw some “horror” driving today but thankfully no crashes..

Safe driving all,

Stu

 

[mjheathcote]

Unreal! Well done on the evasive turn!

1 Series BMW but plate too blurry. Its odd how it was driving straight then completely swerved all of a sudden

Ironically, it looks like my own M140i I was driving.
There is a problem with them, too many inexperienced young drivers are buying them, and it's totally different from your typical front wheel drive hot hatch to a rear wheel drive with well over 300 BHP, many remapped through your smartphone with over 400 BHP easily. I've always said with mine, as fun as it it, the chassis is totally at its limit with the stock 340 BHP.
Insurance premiums are rocketing also with then...you can see why.
I can see me moving mine on within the next 6 months, mostly my mileage is getting high, well into the 80k now and BMW limit is 100k if I want the comfort of warranty for my business use daily, potential insurance hike come March next year, and easier to sell if under the 100k.

 

[Brendan]

Blimey. Not sure if you’re lucky or unlucky.

 

[ChrisQP09]

The former sounds reasonable!

 

[Wack61]

Watching it again I'd say they've put a wheel up the grass and lost control, can't have been going very fast or they'd be in the trees

Probably looking at their phone

 

[Sam McGoo]

Scary moment for sure!
The first watch I assumed they must have swerved for an animal and lost control.
But now I think they put a wheel off the road then panicked and fishtail.

 

[Doohickey]

Definite squeaky bum time! You did really well to avoid but stuff like that does stay with you but glad you’re ok.

 

[AlpineAlex]

Well done for avoiding it.My philosophy is, would have been, you missed it, it's history. We get to a ripe old age missing incidents, and probably many more we are never even aware of. It's not worth dwelling over.

Agreed,

 

[midlifecrisis]

Correct use of language , that was definitely a ******* **** moment

Good reactions

Funnily enough, I showed the footage to a work colleague and he said the same thing at the same time as our hero driver.

Mike, if you think you needed to change your underpants, think of the other sods!!

 

[2b1ask1]

Looks almost exactly like the clown who chose me to commit suicide using my van as a target about 4-years ago. I avoided him in a similar way and he bounced off five or six others before a 12ton lorry faced him head on! Bi-polar and not taking his meds. The shocker was he had his dog in the fron with him! Took me a long time to come to terms with it.