Sorry Pete
Active Member
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
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