Two of my most notable incidents:
1) One evening, we went to see a friend. I hit 60 on a national speed limit road, in the soaking wet, despite my friend telling me I was going too fast, thinking I could make it. Then not noticing the bend, the car aquaplaned, so I braked and steered as hard as I possibly could, going down to 40mph, still too fast and flying into a ditch. I got a graze, my mate got some soreness on his neck but that was all.
Worst of all, the car was a 1980 Triumph Spitfire 1500 convertible, completely written off (bent chassis, engine and gearbox wrecked, huge dented bonnet). As the front right hand wheel got all the impact, along with the suspension turret and engine.
The only saving grace is it needed thousands of pounds of work done to it as it had far too much rust on it. It could be said the car saved my life - as I got away with so little and the car didn't even roll over.
I have never felt comfortable behind the wheel of a Spitfire and haven't bought one of them since. I also have a premium on my insurance for the next 4-5 years or so because of my stupidity.
2) Second notable incident happened a few weeks ago, at the peak of the rainy season in England (it would seem). I was stuck behind a very slow learner driver most of my way back from work. I was getting more and more annoyed and of course, I couldn't overtake safely because it was a single carriageway with two way traffic and a lot of bends.
When I *finally* got to the roundabout I got in lane, waited for clearness and went round it very fast, I think I probably got up to 25-30mph. The Escort aquaplaned and I nearly hit the curb.
Around the next corner, I thought I had maintained enough control of the vehicle, but I hadn't. Soon enough, more aquaplaning occurred and I went to the other side of the road, with opposite flowing traffic and a curb and wall to greet me. I haven't had such a heart in mouth moment in my life until then.
Thankfully, the power steering saved my skin again, there was no traffic coming the other way, I didn't hit the curb or the wall and I made a smooth stop on the correct side of the road after very heavy braking (not the best thing to do) and really thrashing the steering wheel.
The worst bit was, for me, a load of drivers seeing my awful driving so I hadn't felt so embarrassed in my life. After making a smooth stop and spending a few minutes gathering my thoughts and calming down a bit and whilst there was still a little light, I pulled into a retail park, checked over the brakes, wheels, power steering fluid, power steering body work and found not a single scratch, dent or ding on my car. I didn't have any injuries and no one else was involved thankfully.
Lesson learned... I now treat roundabouts with extra respect, especially in the wet... let slower drivers be (unless it is safe for me to overtake) and generally being a lot more careful.
So that's one write off and one near-crash involved in since in the 8 months since I passed my driving test. What a great start! /sarcasm.
Hopefully the end to any near misses and near-crashes now.
David
