I drove down to Le Mans last Wednesday with a few friends in my Elise, another Elise and a Westfield. All was going very well until half way down the M11 when it started raining and even a double hard get like myself was forced to put my roof on. My friend in his Westfield wasn't so lucky as he doesn't have a roof or a windscreen for that matter so it was on with the water proofs. The rain continued when we hit France and despite the posted limit in the wet being 110kph we often struggled to top 50kph as the roads (French equivelent to motorways roads) just didn't seem to clear the water the same way that UK roads do. I was running up front looking for standing water (cheers guys, I'll be the sacraficial lamb then). Around Rouen we lost the 2nd Elise as he followed his Tom Tom so we were down to a 2 car convoy (are 2 cars a convoy?).
We made it all the way down to Le Mans and were driving through it in rush hour about 5 miles from our campsite when disaster struck......
The rain has lightened and was down to a drizzle and we were heading down a busy dual carrageway, we'd got mixed up with a few other Caterfields so I was checking my mirrors constantly to keep an eye on my friend. I had a Caterfield in front and behind me and my friend was another car back. The car in front put his foot down and went barrelling down the road as did the car behind, I checked my mirror only to see the back end of my friends car start to come round, he hit one barrier which pushed the car back into the road and into the central reservation. I pulled over immediately (as you'd expect), checked my sister was OK and got her out the car and over the crash barrier, I then ran the 50 meters or so back to the crash where my friends were already out of the car and quite a few people had stopped to check they were OK. One really nice chap on a bike phoned the emergency services for us so I got my friends over the crash barrier, got the warning triangle out and set it up and then ran back to grab my water proof from my car to give to my friend who was driving as his was already soaked through. I brought my sister back up to where my friends were waiting and did the only thing we could do, had a ciggy whilst waiting for the emergency services to arrive.
Half an hour later and it had started to really rain again, my friends car was blocking one lane of a busy dual carrageway and there was no sign of the emergency services. I tried putting my friends water proof on but it was so wet I was better off not wearing it. I was about to phone the emergency services and have a practical test of my long forgotten GCSE level French when an Ambulance arrived. Within 5 minutes there were 2 Police vans, 4 Ambulances and a Fire Engine on the scene. My friends were checked out and taken to the Ambulance to be checked over whilst my sister and I stood in heavy rain (anyone who saw qualifying will know what I mean) getting rather wet (at least she had a water proof
).
After about 45 minutes the Police told us to continue on our journey and took my friends down the local station to get their statements and then onto the chap who'd towed the car. They got a taxi from there to the campsite and somehow managed to arrive there only 45 minutes after I did
The crash can only really be blamed on driver error as there were no other cars involved but I ask that OcUKers are kind. My friend has told me that he just added a tiny bit of throttle to close the gap on me when the other Caterfields booted it and "it just went". Guess it's another example of why light weight cars with semi slick tyres and wet roads don't mix.
Eight Paramedics for two people. God knows what the people passing thought had happened to them. At the time I found it rather amusing for some know unknown reason.
Both my friends in the car are absolutely fine despite punting the central reservation at around 40mph but I can't say as much for the car. I only had a quick look but I saw a bent chasse, an unhappy looking engine, broken bodywork and totalled suspension.
The day did end well as we were all in the pub out of the rain and enjoying a beer by midnight.
We made it all the way down to Le Mans and were driving through it in rush hour about 5 miles from our campsite when disaster struck......
The rain has lightened and was down to a drizzle and we were heading down a busy dual carrageway, we'd got mixed up with a few other Caterfields so I was checking my mirrors constantly to keep an eye on my friend. I had a Caterfield in front and behind me and my friend was another car back. The car in front put his foot down and went barrelling down the road as did the car behind, I checked my mirror only to see the back end of my friends car start to come round, he hit one barrier which pushed the car back into the road and into the central reservation. I pulled over immediately (as you'd expect), checked my sister was OK and got her out the car and over the crash barrier, I then ran the 50 meters or so back to the crash where my friends were already out of the car and quite a few people had stopped to check they were OK. One really nice chap on a bike phoned the emergency services for us so I got my friends over the crash barrier, got the warning triangle out and set it up and then ran back to grab my water proof from my car to give to my friend who was driving as his was already soaked through. I brought my sister back up to where my friends were waiting and did the only thing we could do, had a ciggy whilst waiting for the emergency services to arrive.
Half an hour later and it had started to really rain again, my friends car was blocking one lane of a busy dual carrageway and there was no sign of the emergency services. I tried putting my friends water proof on but it was so wet I was better off not wearing it. I was about to phone the emergency services and have a practical test of my long forgotten GCSE level French when an Ambulance arrived. Within 5 minutes there were 2 Police vans, 4 Ambulances and a Fire Engine on the scene. My friends were checked out and taken to the Ambulance to be checked over whilst my sister and I stood in heavy rain (anyone who saw qualifying will know what I mean) getting rather wet (at least she had a water proof
).After about 45 minutes the Police told us to continue on our journey and took my friends down the local station to get their statements and then onto the chap who'd towed the car. They got a taxi from there to the campsite and somehow managed to arrive there only 45 minutes after I did
The crash can only really be blamed on driver error as there were no other cars involved but I ask that OcUKers are kind. My friend has told me that he just added a tiny bit of throttle to close the gap on me when the other Caterfields booted it and "it just went". Guess it's another example of why light weight cars with semi slick tyres and wet roads don't mix.
Eight Paramedics for two people. God knows what the people passing thought had happened to them. At the time I found it rather amusing for some know unknown reason.
Both my friends in the car are absolutely fine despite punting the central reservation at around 40mph but I can't say as much for the car. I only had a quick look but I saw a bent chasse, an unhappy looking engine, broken bodywork and totalled suspension.
The day did end well as we were all in the pub out of the rain and enjoying a beer by midnight.
