 |
 |
Interesting day so far... I think I was nearly killed.
|
|
|
|
|
Professional Poster
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Switzerland
Status:
Offline
|
|
Wanted to visit my Dad's grave today as he would have been 60, so I set off on a journey from Liverpool to Cardiff in my Mothers new Mercedes as my car was having some work done. My Sister and my Mother were passengers.
1/2 way, I was driving at about 75mph on the motorway when suddenly I heard a very loud bang, scraping of metal and the car felt very very strange... managed to get to the hard shoulder to have a look...
Looked at the car, and it turns out that a side panel from an HGV (****ing huge goods vehicle for non Europeans) had come away from it's lorry (it was kind of a 6ft long metal spike/pole), gone under my car from the side where I couldn't have seen it coming, taken the whole undertray off, gone through the floor of the car (!) and ended up pretty much through the carpet in the cabin under the drivers seat 
Took me ages to get the pole from the where it was embedded in the car, and see that it has done a shed load of damage... However, the car drove fine after I had prised it free, and nothing was damaged in terms of brakes and steering alignment, so I nursed it back home and to the dealership to be fixed.
Just had a cup of tea and realised it could have been *so* much worse... it has made me appreciate just how good and solid a car Mercedes are!
Think I'll stay in my house for the rest of the day...
(
Last edited by The Placid Casual; Jun 1, 2004 at 11:16 AM.
)
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jun 2003
Status:
Offline
|
|
Where's the TaffyBan when you need them?
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posting Junkie
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Retired.
Status:
Offline
|
|
Damn the luck. I bet your Mom won't want you driving her once "new" car again...
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Occasionally Useful
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Liverpool, UK
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally posted by The Placid Casual:
Think I'll stay in my house for the rest of thhe day...
yeah, i thought that when i heard about this, the other day. my parents drove past the scene a couple of minutes later. that could've been their car. the dude was the same age as me, lived down the road, and i swear i used to see him in a pub i used to go to a lot.
|
|
"Have sharp knives. Be creative. Cook to music" ~ maxelson
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: zurich, switzerland
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally posted by The Placid Casual:
Wanted to visit my Dad's grave today as he would have been 60, so I set off on a journey from Liverpool to Cardiff in my Mothers new Mercedes as my car was having some work done. My Sister and my Mother were passengers.
1/2 way, I was driving at about 75mph on the motorway when suddenly I heard a very loud bang, scraping of metal and the car felt very very strange... managed to get to the hard shoulder to have a look...
Looked at the car, and it turns out that a side panel from an HGV (****ing huge goods vehicle for non Europeans) had come away from it's lorry (it was kind of a 6ft long metal spike/pole), gone under my car from the side where I couldn't have seen it coming, taken the whole undertray off, gone through the floor of the car (!) and ended up pretty much through the carpet in the cabin under the drivers seat
Took me ages to get the pole from the where it was embedded in the car, and see that it has done a shed load of damage... However, the car drove fine after I had prised it free, and nothing was damaged in terms of brakes and steering alignment, so I nursed it back home and to the dealership to be fixed.
Just had a cup of tea and realised it could have been *so* much worse... it has made me appreciate just how good and solid a car Mercedes are!
Think I'll stay in my house for the rest of thhe day...
I saw the movie Final Frontier 2 last week and your story reminded me a bit of a scene or two in that movie. Very disquieting, to say the least.
I'm glad for you that it wasn't worse.
|
|
weird wabbit
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mac Elite
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Up north
Status:
Offline
|
|
It's very good that you are okay The Placid Casual. That would have been a horrible way to die.
Originally posted by philzilla:
yeah, i thought that when i heard about this, the other day. my parents drove past the scene a couple of minutes later. that could've been their car. the dude was the same age as me, lived down the road, and i swear i used to see him in a pub i used to go to a lot.
I'm sorry to hear that 
What a retarded kid. At the age of 15, I think a kid that age should have been smart enough to foresee the dangers. It sucks that he'll have to live with the guilt the rest of his life. I once saw some children on a freeway type road here throwing stones from the side under a bridge at the passing cars (70 km/h limit). Well, thankfully a cop pulled up beside them just as we were passing.
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Occasionally Useful
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Liverpool, UK
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally posted by 11011001:
It sucks that he'll have to live with the guilt the rest of his life.
it sucks even more that he's probably not even going to get charged with manslaughter because he's so young. the rules need changing: if you're old enough to kill someone, you're old enough to go to jail for that crime. for life. simple. the kid's parents probably think he's a little angel too.
|
|
"Have sharp knives. Be creative. Cook to music" ~ maxelson
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Boston, MA
Status:
Offline
|
|
I just happy to hear that you, you Mom and sister are OK, The car can always be fixed.
|
"Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense." Winston Churchill
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Staten Is.
Status:
Offline
|
|
I was doing 80 in my BMW down the 101 in LA when I started to hear a flapping noise under the car. I thought a plastic bag had got caught in the axle. So I pulled over into a neighborhood and saw my tire was shredding. That's what the highway is like in LA - all bumps and grooves. Just then an Hispanic gang, all stoned and drunk, pulled over. I thought my luck couldn't get worse.
It just so happened I pulled into some real Training Day type neighborhood. So I did what I do best and that is to adjust my personality to the situation. I asked the gang if they had some tools to help me change my tire. And would you believe it, they all changed my tire for me, we smoked and joked and then I went happily on my way.
Good thing they were stoned out their heads.
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Addicted to MacNN
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Far above Cayuga's waters.
Status:
Offline
|
|
if it would have hit you where i think it would of hit you, you are a most lucky man. tell your mother that her mercedes saved the possibility of grandkids� hell, she might buy you one.
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: Hanging on the wall at Jabba's Palace
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally posted by The Placid Casual:
it has made me appreciate just how good and solid a car Mercedes are!
Then why did it fall apart in the first place?
|
"Laugh it up, fuzz ball!"
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Oct 2002
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally posted by Will McGoonigle:
I was doing 80 in my BMW down the 101 in LA when I started to hear a flapping noise under the car. I thought a plastic bag had got caught in the axle. So I pulled over into a neighborhood and saw my tire was shredding. That's what the highway is like in LA - all bumps and grooves. Just then an Hispanic gang, all stoned and drunk, pulled over. I thought my luck couldn't get worse.
It just so happened I pulled into some real Training Day type neighborhood. So I did what I do best and that is to adjust my personality to the situation. I asked the gang if they had some tools to help me change my tire. And would you believe it, they all changed my tire for me, we smoked and joked and then I went happily on my way.
Good thing they were stoned out their heads.
spoken like a true paranoid suburbanite.
the kids were probably stopping to help you.
man..
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Professional Poster
Join Date: Jun 2003
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally posted by Socially Awkward Solo:
Then why did it fall apart in the first place?
It didn't. Re-read.
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: 46 & 2
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally posted by The Placid Casual:
Wanted to visit my Dad's grave today as he would have been 60, so I set off on a journey from Liverpool to Cardiff in my Mothers new Mercedes as my car was having some work done. My Sister and my Mother were passengers.
1/2 way, I was driving at about 75mph on the motorway when suddenly I heard a very loud bang, scraping of metal and the car felt very very strange... managed to get to the hard shoulder to have a look...
Looked at the car, and it turns out that a side panel from an HGV (****ing huge goods vehicle for non Europeans) had come away from it's lorry (it was kind of a 6ft long metal spike/pole), gone under my car from the side where I couldn't have seen it coming, taken the whole undertray off, gone through the floor of the car (!) and ended up pretty much through the carpet in the cabin under the drivers seat
Took me ages to get the pole from the where it was embedded in the car, and see that it has done a shed load of damage... However, the car drove fine after I had prised it free, and nothing was damaged in terms of brakes and steering alignment, so I nursed it back home and to the dealership to be fixed.
Just had a cup of tea and realised it could have been *so* much worse... it has made me appreciate just how good and solid a car Mercedes are!
Think I'll stay in my house for the rest of the day...
If you'd been a Focus or similar, you'd probably be dead.  Sobering thought.
|
|
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
- Thomas Paine
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Clinically Insane
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: 46 & 2
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally posted by freakboy2:
spoken like a true paranoid suburbanite.
the kids were probably stopping to help you.
man..
My thought too. 
|
|
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
- Thomas Paine
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Oct 2002
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally posted by MacNStein:
If you'd been a Focus or similar, you'd probably be dead. Sobering thought.
if he were in a ford focus he'd barely be able to go 75 
seriously though, mercedes are so solid it hurts. all cars should be that safe.
fb2
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Professional Poster
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: USA at the moment
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally posted by Socially Awkward Solo:
Then why did it fall apart in the first place?
Your cynicism has been officially rejected in this thread.
Glad to hear you guys are all ok, could have been nasty.
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mac Elite
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Edinburgh
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally posted by freakboy2:
if he were in a ford focus he'd barely be able to go 75
seriously though, mercedes are so solid it hurts. all cars should be that safe.
fb2
A guy I used to work with was the worst driver I've ever known. It was extremely frightening to get in his car as he drove fast and had absolutely no awareness of what was going on around him. He drove some quite old, tiny little Mazda tinbox, with about as much impact protection as a wet towel.
Anyway, one Monday he came in and told us that he'd had a crash at the weekend. Turned out he was driving with his wife and young baby and had written off the car. But it just so happened that he'd borrowed his father-in-law's Mercedes that day. I'm quite positive him and his family wouldn't be around today if it weren't for that bit of luck.
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Professional Poster
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: Nashville, TN
Status:
Offline
|
|
that could have been painful
ye be a lucky man
|
Don't try to outweird me, I get stranger things than you free with my breakfast cereal.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Oct 2002
Status:
Offline
|
|
Originally posted by talisker:
A guy I used to work with was the worst driver I've ever known. It was extremely frightening to get in his car as he drove fast and had absolutely no awareness of what was going on around him. He drove some quite old, tiny little Mazda tinbox, with about as much impact protection as a wet towel.
Anyway, one Monday he came in and told us that he'd had a crash at the weekend. Turned out he was driving with his wife and young baby and had written off the car. But it just so happened that he'd borrowed his father-in-law's Mercedes that day. I'm quite positive him and his family wouldn't be around today if it weren't for that bit of luck.
yeah either that or he really hated his father in-law.
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 
|
|
|
Forum Rules
|
|
|
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
|
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Top