When was the last time you had a close call?

When was the last time you had a close-call?

  • In the last week

    Votes: 23 39.0%
  • In the last month

    Votes: 12 20.3%
  • In the last six months

    Votes: 7 11.9%
  • In the last year

    Votes: 4 6.8%
  • In the last 5 years

    Votes: 8 13.6%
  • I honestly can't remember the last time I came close to crashing

    Votes: 5 8.5%

  • Total voters
    59
  • Poll closed .
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Sorry Pete

Active Member
Joined
Dec 13, 2007
Messages
459
Location
London
Car
a most boring Honda
I thought it would be interesting to see just how often you've had a near-miss on the roads, regardless of what car you drive. It's more an exercise in assessing your attitude, observation and awareness on the road, than anything else.

The results may or may not be related to annual mileage, I honestly don't know: does doing a higher mileage make you more aware of potential hazards?

If you have had a prang, vote as if it was a near-miss, but give a description; your annual mileage, your/other party's fault, severity etc.

To get the ball rolling, I crashed three weeks to the day after passing my test. Head-on collision on a blind bend on a country lane. Wrote-off my mum's Nissan Micra, gave my best friend the scare of his life, and the other driver mild whiplash. I got a nasty shock that night; if it had been a biker I encountered, I don't think I could have lived with myself with the potentially fatal injuries I would have inflicted upon him.

After that my attitude to driving went through a sea change, and I can count on one hand the number of near-misses I've had in the 13 years since. Admittedly, I don't do many miles, <5000 pa, but the last time I had a near miss was >5 years ago, on a mini-roundabout leaving Reading to join the M4 at junction 10. Lots of people fail to indicate, and a large white van indicating right, I assumed had failed to indicate his exit. It was far too late when I realised he had indicated correctly and was doing a u-turn, that I hauled on the anchors. If he hadn't anticipated my dumb-assity, I would have hit him for sure, totally my fault. A few expletives and some steering wheel bashing later, I mouthed 'sorry' to the guy, and started thinking more about the journey and not my destination. What ****** me off more, thinking back on it, was I didn't even steer to avoid him. It would have been straight-line braking till impact :doh:
 
I was on the M1 week and a half ago. Other side of London for 10AM so would have been about 6.30. Lorry next to me had a blow out. He lost control and took out a load of cones on the left hand side. Had he gone right, I would have had nowhere to go, but under him. Missed my mileage off - about 30k pa.
 
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Hauling up the M6 mit caravan in tow, probably exceeding the speed limit by a fair amount, in middle lane overtaking truck, overtaken by 4x4 something-or-other which pulled into the middle lane ahead then slammed on his anchors cos the traffic started to back-up ahead of him. Bang on the brakes then get walloped as caravan over-run brakes catch up. Just missed him.

Whew!
 
Well those two put my potential fender-bender into perspective. The scariest noise I heard was an 18 wheeler locked-up in lane 1 having seen a line of traffic too late. It skimmed, skidded, creaked and juddered to a halt centimetres from the rear of the hatchback at the tail of the queue. I wouldn't have liked to see that in my rear mirror!
 
Tuesday morning at about 5:30am coming into Uttoxeter (from Stafford) on a sweeping right bend, when a dust truck decided to take up half my side of the road :eek:.
Anchors on and he just managed to pull over to his side with about 4inches to spare.
He was probably at max speed and the road surface had just been newly dressed, with 20 MPH signs up all along.:ban:

It definately woke me up, as I'm normally still half a sleep 'til Derby ;)
 
I put my bike into a headge going to work 3 weeks ago to this day . I was leant over into a right hand corner and front washed out from under me . The bike suffered minor damage , only bent handle bars and a broke foot rest .
 
I hope it's only your bike that requires repairs!

I always said I could never get onto the back of a bike again after losing a very good friend of mine 4 years ago. But then I hope to do India on the back of an Enfield in the next year or so... :rolleyes:
 
I had an Escort driven by Raoul Moat's double :eek: hit my ML wheel. It didn't leave a mark :thumb: I imagine the Escort limped home. He drove off without stopping. :eek: Friendly word with the traffic police friend followed this along with his numberplate :thumb:
 
aproaching a r.bout quite fast and expecting the car waitng in front to move off as there was nothing comming round,it didnt.i just managed to swerve around it.ALL MY FAULT.:eek:
 
I hope it's only your bike that requires repairs!

I always said I could never get onto the back of a bike again after losing a very good friend of mine 4 years ago. But then I hope to do India on the back of an Enfield in the next year or so... :rolleyes:

Yea i was fine , i rode the bike back home and got into the car a went to work . It wasnt the frist bike crash i have had , its the 6th . Ive lost a few friends due to bikes myself , i still couldnt live with out one .
 
Going a long a country road, and it being wet, arrived at the bend too fast (my own fault) and I nearly ended up in a ditch. I just managed to keep the car on the road.
 
Yesterday taking my son home, some idiot pulled out of a side street without looking properly. The BAS and ABS worked perfectly. Avoided a collision by around 2 metres. I then proceeded to critically appraise the skills of the other driver through the passenger window.
 
About three years ago when I still had my C200T, I was leaving the westbound M40 to join the M25 on a rain-sodden evening, and must have been momentarily distracted by something - I can't remember what. When I looked ahead I realised the traffic was at a standstill, and I was hurtling towards it. Instinctively I just stamped on the brakes, and stopped within inches of the car in front. I have ABS (and a decent set of tyres) to thank for averting disaster that day. Served as an excellent wake-up call, though.
 
May 19 a doddery old woman cut me up.
Slammed her Ford Ka into the front DS wing and door of my W124 breaking the wing mirror (including casing) and denting scratching the front wing.
Totally dented and scratched along the side of her Ford, all because she didnt look in her mirror and changed lanes without looking.

I got a replacement wing mirror from the scrappy for £20 and hammered out the wing, havent painted it yet. The insurance claim is still ongoing.

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Also some nipple in a Mondeo nearly rear ended me this morning, heard a screetch and looked in the rear view mirror to see a Mondeo nose diving towards the back of the W124, he stopped with inches to spare.
 
Almost every day now I use the motorbikes. I think you get used to not beeing seen at junctions, or when filtering, so I just think of myself as invisible......and learn to dodge very well!!
 
I'm actually pretty surprised by how many of us have just recently avoided a crash. I think it's fair to say that if we're honest, the own fault near misses could be completely avoided with better attention/observation.

Having heard the responses so far, it makes you wonder whether there's any point in having a nice car at all, it seems it's more than likely to be hit at some point. IIRC the insurance industry stats average out as an accident for every 70 000 miles driven.
 
When was the last time I had a close call?

Just about every day on the motorways.
People who don't realise that the gap in front of me is there for my safety not their convenience.
Wagons that don't have indicators, they have "pulling out lights"
Todays 2 party tricks,
Someone who overtook me at about 80 then pulled back in front of me and braked down to less than 50 because his bloody phone rang.
And the wagon driver who simply couldn't back off a quarter of a mile an hour and pulled into the outside lane as I was 10 yards away and stayed there for about 4 miles.

The biggest surprise to me is that there isn't carnage on a daily basis.
 
Only even had one close call - was driving in France with my family in the car when a flat-bed lorry understeered onto my side of the road. As I was on the right hand side of the car and driving on the right I managed to brake hard and steer all the way to one side away from him (there was a big ditch if I went to far). I then had to accellerate hard (once the van had passed) to avoid the renault 5 that had been tailgaiting me rear-ending my car as I had seen it all coming far earlier than he had.

Over in a flash but my wife, who obviously had a very close perspective on it all, was as white as a sheet and said the lorry missed us by millimeters.

I do see plenty that could be near misses but I drive about 30k miles a year and do so very defensively!
 

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