DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Having recovered from next door's chimney fire (New Year's Eve / Day), which was bad enough to require the fire brigade for three 1/2 hours, we thought life would settle down again.

Bit of snow? No problem. Rapid thaw? No problem, just a lot of water everywhere, that's all. Quite a lot of water running across the road just up from us though . Oh well, it'll soon clear, what could possibly go wrong ( ).

Well, around 10:30 tuesday evening there was the sound of a car on the slide. I looked out, to see a Vitara making it's way up the road, turn round and head off into the distance. 'Odd' I thought, and went out to check that he hadn't scuffed the verge up. Nothing .

About an hour later, slippy slippy skid skid: another one! Again, it found it's feet and drove off. Again, I went out and had a look around: nothing. Very strange . Just as I turned to wander in, another car (not going fast) wiggled down the road, by no means under full control. By now a couple of neighbours joined me. It was soon apparent that the gritter may have been through, but not left much. The road was quite slippery, even to walk on. I suggested to Mog (next door), that perhaps he should roll his truck back a few feet, just in case. We laughed, and upon reflection he thought it probably wasn't a bad idea ....

Around 1:30 wednesday morning, a very loud BANG! Cripes, what was that?? I looked out of the bedroom window, and there was a Vauxhall Vectra nussled upto Mog's front door, with the driver trying to re-start it. This is what I saw when it was light ....



Just looks like a bit of wonky parking until you see:



Note how it missed the L200, and the hedge .

Oh well, perhaps NOW we can all get some flippin, bloomin sleep please!

Or ..... not .....

5:30, we're awake again, this time things getting very close to home:

Nooooooooooooo! .....



This time a Mini Cooper had lost it, and ended up taking out one fence post, a panel, and bent his door around the next post. Wood, glass and Mini plastic everywhere:



We swapped details, and he managed to extract the Mini and was gone.

Right, perhaps I might grab an hours kip before getting ready for Alan (collecting a car). Errm, no . Skiddy, skiddy skid skid, and wumph: Nissan Micra stuck in the hedge opposite, just missing the telegraph pole. I listened to him trying to escape for a few minutes, and took pity on him. I was keen to see him safely out of the way, and was worried that someone might have seen him and braked, starting yet another accident.

He was trying to do all the right things, rocking it out etc, but had just dug himself in too deep. I went out with a spade and (watching for skidding cars) we dug a couple of channels for the tyres, and with a bit of advice and pushing, he was on his way.

Just as the Micra left. Mog (next door), popped out to survey the various areas of damage (he'd slept through the Mini / fence one, so we compared claims notes). The end of a long night .... but ..... not quite ....

Round the corner came a Ford Focus, not hugely fast, but not in control either. With a huge bang it went straight into the same telegraph pole that I was alongside not three minutes ago (where the Micra was). The pole went over, the Focus climed it as far as it could, before rolling over and crunching back down to earth.



The driver was hanging upside down by his seatbelt. We managed to free him (a passer by held him from behind, and I climbed in through the front passenger door as the driver's one had jammed). We were able to free him quite easily, as the cockpit was in perfect condition (nice and warm as well), and nothing had deformed. Airbags had gone off though, as had his seatbelt pre-tensioner.

The chap was (and happily, is) a spritely 89 year old, on his way to play a round of golf. Incredibily, other than a slightly swollen wrist, he was completely fine: here he is in the middle (left: helpful motorist with ace Hi-Vis, right, Mog from next door):



Plod were soon on scene (plus ambulance, as we had assumed that given this thing had taken a telegraph pole down, we would certainly be needing one):



Upshot of all this: phone was down for a day, but BT were excellent, and had a new pole in and wired up by three today: fantastic. One written off Focus (but happy, healthy and relieved driver), one bent Vectra with a porch and door to pay for, one bent Mini with a fence to pay for .

In all, we think there were nine (9) various incidents throughout the night. Seemed better last night, and tonight has seen the gritter go past twice already. I suspect the police have had a word with the council, as I gather they were dealing with fifteen incidents at the same time as the Focus, just on their patch, and considered closing our (busy) road altogether.

BTW, I had thought I should have put some sort of sign up the road just after the Vauxhall landed next door. Trouble was, I couldn't think of what I could use that drivers would see, and take notice of, plus I was worried they might stamp on the brakes if I put up an 'ICE!!' sign.

Turns out I needn't have worried. I walked up the road to get a 'phone' signal later in the morning, and noticed the 'POLICE SLOW' sign was still up. Drivers either got right on top of it before noticing, and braking, or worse, just didn't brake at all . Best of all was when a little while later I wandered up again, and someone had hit the POLICE SLOW sign .

Driver Standards? What's them then .... .

I blame you and the council.

what a stupid place to put houses and telegraph poles

Bloody hell Barry .. that Mini was close

have you thought about opening an accident repair business ? ... A new job delivered to your doorstep each day

Blimey!!

Lost my 964 on Wednesday night same type of situation. Icy road with snow water running across it from the field. Just where the road kinks left. Hit it in the 964 at a reasonable pace and it suddenly got very exciting

Ian.

Yes, that was the same here: I don't think anyone was doing anything particularly ridiculous, and even when you were actually standing on the road, you couldn't see the ice.

It was only when I walked up the road later in the morning that it became clear that the run-off from a farm entrance had washed any salt away, leaving a sheet of proper ice, followed further down the hill (by us) by 'normal' black ice.

It was amazing just how far up the road these accidents had started, and how they had all ended up within 20 feet or so of us. In retrospect, and had we realised that there was an isolated initial cause of this, rather than general black ice, I'd have called the police during the night and requested a POLICE SLOW sign. As above though, I'm convinced that actually, it would have made little difference as a) most people didn't react to the one placed in the morning, and b) I suspect the action of them trying to slow would have caused accidents anyway, either that or the sign would have to have been placed so far up the road that people would have been speeding up again just as they hit the ice.

I have to say, that given the whole story, I do think the whole affair was 'one of those things':

i) This amount of run-off is highly unusual, as we had 6in + of snow melting, and virtually at the same time, one month's rainfall in 24 hours. Usually the drains cope with most heavy rain here.
ii) This caused any salt placed further up the road to be washed away, despite the gritters having been out.
iii) The run-off crosses the road just where it dips and the bend changes radius, meaning cars are changing direction.
iv) There was a very sudden, hard frost, where it went from being almost mild, to very cold indeed, probably within three of four hours.
v) There are trees overhanging this part of the road, meaning even moonlight wouldn't help show any icy 'sheen', giving little localised warning.

Oh well, I've been here for thirteen years, and it's the first time we've had anything quite like this. Just happy that none of these cars skidding down the hill have met any coming up the other way. Things would get very messy, very quickly if that happens.

Lessons learnt?

1) The first aider's golden rules of make the scene safe, and put your own safety first were certainly bourne out: had I still been pushing the Micra out, and not had an exit plan, there's no doubt I would have been killed. I had been standing in exactly the spot the car hit, which was enough to break a (perfectly solid) telegraph pole in half*.

When I went out to the Micra, I pointed to two gaps in the hedge to the driver and said which hole I would take, and which he should have in the event of a car heading for us.

2) We took the Focus driver's word for it that he was fine when we got him out. In the cold light of day, we probably should have checked him out more before moving him, although there was no damage near him, his limbs all were free and moving, and he was very much alert, and clearly not keen to be hanging upside down from his seabelt longer than necessary.

Not much else really, that I can think of, and still not sure what we should do should the sheet of ice return, other than batten down the hatches and move the cars right into the gardens (again).

*The pole in the photo had snapped about five feet up, leaving the base tilted at 45 degrees, and the top leaning back on the hedge. Amazingly, all of the 'phones still worked, that is until a numpty in a van drove through our two cables that were draped about six feet above the road, ripping them off the cottage.

God forbid it should happen to any of us........ but if it did I hope you're around to help Barry!

Barry, sounds like quite a night

But you really dont need to learn any lessons here:

Barry wrote:Lessons learnt?

2) We took the Focus driver's word for it that he was fine when we got him out. In the cold light of day, we probably should have checked him out more before moving him, although there was no damage near him, his limbs all were free and moving, and he was very much alert, and clearly not keen to be hanging upside down from his seabelt longer than necessary.

First rule of thumb as a paramedic was "look at your patient" i.e. if he's talking to you, is moving his head, limbs etc, isnt pouring with blood and isnt crushed (and then suddenly released) then you did absolutely nothing different to what the ambulance service would have done i.e. get him out of there pronto!
Well done Barry

Glad your ok Barry. I hope you get some sleep .

Thanks all!

I have to say, the whole thing has left us all a bit jittery, as being on the main road we obviously hear cars approaching all day. We've realised that if any of them sound the slightest bit different, we start to tense up.

Inevitable really, and hopefully things will stay nice and calm for now .