Tree fell on me whilst driving. Think my Clio is for the scrap heap. (with footage)

Associate
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Wow. You were lucky to leaf the scene unharmed.
Car is probably scrap due to the A pillar damage. It will be worth looking up the value of cars in similar condition to present to the insurance company when they come back with a low ball offer.
 
Soldato
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I was reminded of an incident back in 2002 when 2 young people were killed near me when a large section of tree fell onto their car, trapping them and the car then caught fire. Horrific.
So "only" having a written off car is a blessing.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2560881.stm


Yes. I keep having to remind myself of this when I start to get angry about being deprived of my car
 
Soldato
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Cropped in and slow motion from the onlookers dashcam is the best....


That tree was dead and dried out by the way it shattered. If it had been alive and full of water, it would have taken the top off your car. Having said that, if it was alive, it probably wouldn't have fallen over like that. Whoever owns the verge obvious hasn't been checking the state of the trees there.
 
Soldato
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That tree was dead and dried out by the way it shattered. If it had been alive and full of water, it would have taken the top off your car. Having said that, if it was alive, it probably wouldn't have fallen over like that. Whoever owns the verge obvious hasn't been checking the state of the trees there.

Yeah. "rotten as a pear" as Mike Brewer would say. When it hit me a section about 8 feet broke off and flew forward. When that hit the ground it broke up again.

As people keep telling me, I was "lucky".
 
Soldato
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I saw this after reading the OP's post in MM here - you're very lucky to be alive. If you had been travelling any faster, it might have landed on the roof of your car and possibly you. :eek:

I would be tempted to buy a few lottery tickets if I were you. ;):D
On the flip side, had he been speeding he'd have avoided it:p. One in a million chance of it happening though, although maybe just the wind of the car infront was just enough to tip it over the edge (I'm thingthingking of when waiting to turn right and a car goes by and shakes yours, possibly something similar?
 
Soldato
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how fast were you travelling then ? with slow-mo on 3rd party, you can't tell from car lengths ... did you make a speed-up or brake decision ?
 
Man of Honour
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Think you can hear it cracking in the video, although presumably it'll have all happened way too fast to do much about it.

how fast were you travelling then ? with slow-mo on 3rd party, you can't tell from car lengths ... did you make a speed-up or brake decision ?

Heh, I seriously don't think any normal driver would be expected to do anything at all in this situation, it's not like people are used to dodging falling trees and assuming given the rainy weather conditions the driver is concentrating on the road ahead you've have no idea which of the numerous trees is falling down towards you in the highly unlikely event you were able to realise a tree was falling before it was halfway there, how far in front of you it is, what the angle it is falling at is, whether braking / swerving or (highly unlikely) accelerating would make things better or worse. From the driver footage it just (literally) comes out of left field and cleans him out. Remember the angle of the tree means it is unlike any normal road hazard because it only actually obstructing the car and the absolute last fraction of a second; you've got less chance to react that if you were doing 70mph on an motorway and unexpectedly came across another car doing 100mph in the opposite direction head on. Absolutely best case scenario is someone with ninja reactions slams on the brakes at the last moment when it is already too late.
 
Soldato
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^^^^^^ this.

If you think where I'd be sitting in the car it only appears fractions of a second before impact.

In reality I knew nothing about it at all until my windscreen exploded. You can still see through the section of windscreen where the webcam is mounted but on the driver's side it was obliterated.
 

Deleted member 651465

D

Deleted member 651465

Dashcam ftw

Not that the insurance would question it, but if they did then I feel the footage is clear cut and would highlight the root of the problem.
 
Soldato
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would you have expected it to trigger air-bags ? if not why not.

[ Around Thetford at night time, you do have to habitually scan surrounding roadside more, to identify any deer/monkjack eyes that might be on collision course;
but agree the speed tree fell is dramatic ]
 
Don
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Glad you're ok, for what it's worth, your video had everything a viewer could want.. two angles, slow motion replay, images of car afterwards.. 10/10!

Must have crapped yourself when it happened!
 
Soldato
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would you have expected it to trigger air-bags ? if not why not.

No. If you watch the video the tree doesn't slow me down very much at all. Steering wheel airbags are to cushion a person in the event of a dramatic loss of forward motion where the body gets slammed into the wheel.

Glad you're ok, for what it's worth, your video had everything a viewer could want.. two angles, slow motion replay, images of car afterwards.. 10/10!

Must have crapped yourself when it happened!

Thanks. Happened too quickly to get really bothered but the exploding windscreen drew an expletive out of me that's for sure.

Car confirmed as a total loss today.
 
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