4x4 driver caught out by ice

[ColinJ]

Sometimes even a 4x4 won't save you! I went out for a walk on Monday and spotted this in the Rochdale canal...

I wondered if the driver had got out in one piece - apparently she did.



Let's be careful out there!

 

[wafflycat]

Ye gods! That must have been terrifying!

 

[ColinJ]

Horrific. Is it shallow water there Colin, or would it have gone further in if the ice wasn't as thick?

I think it is about 6 feet deep in the middle of the canal. Certainly enough to drown in if you were trapped in the vehicle. It's not very clear on the photographs, but the top and sides of the car were caved in so I think it rolled over at least once on the way down the embankment!

 

[Globalti]

Canals are much shallower than people realise because they are no longer needed by really deep-drafted boats.

 

[RedBike]

Another one of those "roads / Bridleways" around your area?

 

[ColinJ]

Another one of those "roads / Bridleways" around your area?

Not this time! The driver lives in a big house accessed by a private road situated above the canal. I assume that the car went out of control on ice, went through the dry stone wall and then tumbled down the embankment.

It was just along the canal from Callis Bridge where we met up for our Mary Towneley Loop ride in September.

 

[Globalti]

I expect the driver panicked, hit the brakes and locked up instead of allowing the car to find its own way down on the hill descent control system.

 

[Crankarm]

If there is a God, he or she moves in mysterious ways

Just a small matter. The driver wasn't caught out by ice but by the lack of their driving ability.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Canals are much shallower than people realise because they are no longer needed by really deep-drafted boats.

The Llangollen canal, which I did a few years back on my narrowboat, is very shallow indeed in places. My boat drew about 2'6" and we spent a good deal of the journey running aground, usually right in the middle of the "navigable" channel.

 

[upsidedown]

Everything changes in a second doesn't it ? Glad he got out ok.

 

[ColinJ]

Everything changes in a second doesn't it ? Glad he got out ok.

The driver was actually a woman, and I think she was very lucky to be able to scramble back up the hillside after that incident.

 

[on the road]

The driver was actually a woman

That explains it


*taxi*

 

[Cubist]

I expect the driver panicked, hit the brakes and locked up instead of allowing the car to find its own way down on the hill descent control system.

Yep, pretty easy to do. Discos weigh the best part of 3t, and for whatever reason people expect to be able to stick it into "snow mode" and just drive as if nothing else had changed. What they don't realise is that with road tyres and so on they are anything but infallible.

We have a steep driveway, and I leave mine a hundred yards or so from the house and walk rather than drive it down the driveway. It can get up no problem, but going down is a very different matter. There's a hairpin turn and what must be a 1:3 gradient at the worst point. An old disco of mine once broke away at that point and I nearly ended up in my own lounge 20 feet below!

 

[Cubist]

Yer gotta larf! As I type an eejit in a Lexus 4x4 has just tried to drive down our driveway to park (a bit irritating as it's private), but he's found the steep bit, and the point where we stopped digging last week to rescue the neighbour's Alpha. He's got well and truly shafted, has slipped much further down than he should have, and is now breached across the driveway, completely bolloxed.

I'll let him sweat it out, then I'll dig out the towrope. (not before I take a piccy and gloat though!)

 

[Crankarm]

Yer gotta larf! As I type an eejit in a Lexus 4x4 has just tried to drive down our driveway to park (a bit irritating as it's private), but he's found the steep bit, and the point where we stopped digging last week to rescue the neighbour's Alpha. He's got well and truly shafted, has slipped much further down than he should have, and is now breached across the driveway, completely bolloxed.

I'll let him sweat it out, then I'll dig out the towrope. (not before I take a piccy and gloat though!)

Oh please post here! Nice one Cubist. This could be a good gloat .