Hairy moment in the rain

[fastfrank]

Hi,

I was travelling back home on Wednesday from work during the torrential rainfall. In the time I took my eyes off the road to adjust the radio the traffic had stopped!
I did nothing more than jam my foot on the pedal which instantly threw the car into a high speed skid hurtling rapidly towards a brand new merc stopped in front. I tried to swerve out of the way but it made not difference – just carried on straight. Anyhow, just as I was meters away from his bumper he slowly pulled out to overtake the traffic queue and I just missed him. I slid past and finally ground to halt centimetres away from the Vectra in front.

What a frightening experience... I'm so grateful and lucky this never turned nasty - obviously someone was looking over me on this occasion.

This has certainly taught me to pay more attention.

-F

 

[Ed]

VERY lucky there. The Merc may have actually seen you come flying towards it. I doubt youll ever have that luck again, you were lucky in this case since you were able to learn from it without injury or damage to anyone. Others will not be so fortunate as you'll see here if you stay with the MSC over the winter months.

Ed

 

[chie]

yup its not good aquaplaining at 80 and getting wheelspin :S lol

 

[Ed]

alot of the time aquaplaining is due to bad worn tyres - EVEN if they ARE still road legal.

Ed

 

[59 bhp is more than enough]

yeah but its completely different in a situation like that. i know instead of slamming on you are meant to perform "cadence braking" but most of the time you dont think and just stamp on. believe me ive been there. i even had time to think but i couldnt bring myself to let go off the stop pedal even when skiding forward. thats why i practise on a empty car park when its throwing it down.

 

[JayY]

Yeah i dont rekon you would think about how you brake if your get into a sticky situation. Ive had lots of close shaves and two crashes. All where a learning experience. These all happend in my old car and my mums car. I can honestly say nothing like that has happend since the two crashes because you begin to relise the limits of the car and more importantly, your driving

 

[getronics]

Do the MSC or have the MSC organised a skid pan day? This would be good fun and educational too. I believe there are various locations in the UK that offer them and generally you get to drive a rear wheel drive car and a front wheel drive car.
I'd be up for a day out.

 

[hughes_16v]

i must say u are lucky, ive been in that situaton and hit the avensis in front causing a fare amount of damage to my car! luckily the women in the avensis drove off as soon as it happened, well i say drove off, flew off sounds more like, probably not insured.

but iv learned my lesson and dont drive fast in the rain!

 

[fastfrank]

yeah i thought the merc has seen me put he pulled off too slow but having said that eveything appears in slow motion when its all so sudden!!!


as for the braking, its a kind of instinct when it happens, once you see an emergency you just instinctively jam down that pedal.

 

[Arnold]

as for the braking, its a kind of instinct when it happens, once you see an emergency you just instinctively jam down that pedal.

Completely agree. In the last 20 minutes, i've almost and im talking inches here, nearly had a crash with some $%^**(&*(^( in a ford KA. Pulled out infront of me on a dual carriage way right infront, a few feet clearance, and decided to slam on his brakes!! Tyre smoke everywhere and the K10's warning light came on.. Im still furious now, i almost stopped infront of him at the round about to have words but i know it would have turned nasty, so just drove off and will try sleep it off

My pride and joy could have been wrecked by some careless idiot grr grr grr grr grr grr grr

edit : sorry to hijack thread, didnt wanna start a new one