Colourful car crash stories

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Pale Rider

Legendary Member
The thread elsewhere in cafe about tractors reminds me of the time my brother and I smashed into the wall of Harry Ferguson's house.

It was the early 70s, and we were returning late at night from a trip to London.

The journey involved crossing the Cotswolds.

As we left Stow-on-the-Wold my brother lost control of the car on ice.

It was downhill and we smacked head first into a long stone wall, demolishing about 30ft of it - the car came to rest facing backwards.

I was in the front passenger seat and smacked by head against the windscreen, but didn't go through it.

A couple in a Rover stopped to offer assistance.

No mobile phones, so they took us to their house nearby to phone the police and an ambulance.

The car was blocking the road, it wouldn't go forwards, but I managed to reverse it onto the verge, accompanied by much scraping and horrid mechanical noises.

At the nice couple's house, I recall my brother's hand was shaking so much he couldn't drink a cup of tea without spilling it.

They gave him a straw.

It was they who told us we had managed to smack into Harry Ferguson's wall.

The next day we returned with a recovery vehicle to get the car, and to confess to the owner of the house.

First person we spoke to was at a gatehouse, which we managed to find a little way down the road.

He told us 'sir' would see us, but warned us he would not be happy - we were not the first drivers to hit this ruddy wall.

I recall driving through magnificent formal gardens to the Big House, I had never seen anything like it before.

Another flunky showed us into a drawing room to await sir's arrival.

As we waited, I had a nose at a card on the mantelpiece.

It was from Lady someone-or-other inviting the owner to a ball - how the other half live.

Sir duly arrived, and as predicted, was not happy, bordering on angry.

He ticked my brother off as to the manner of his driving.

Brother, quite reasonably, pointed out accidents in icy conditions happen, the car was fully insured, and we had got there as soon as we could to discharge our responsibilities.

The meeting didn't last long, and off we went with a very poorly car on the back of the recovery truck.

We had the last laugh, to a point.

The insurance company later contacted my brother, and the feedback he got was they were holding sir responsible for the accident.

Their inquiries found he had not been maintaining his drains properly, so the insurer's view was it was his fault the water/ice was on the road.

If only we'd known that in the drawing room.

To be fair to the Ferguson family, I'm not certain if the owner we spoke to was one of them, they might have sold the house by then.

I see it was put on the market last year for a little matter of £30m:

http://www.cotswoldjournal.co.uk/news/11300607.Cotswold_estate_goes_on_the_market/?ref=rss

Any other colourful car crash stories?
 

Levo-Lon

Guru
Who's harry Ferguson? Nice house..
I wrote off my nissan200sx in 95 in a high speed crash "I was still doing about 70 when I started hitting things", but I only damaged trees crash barriers and a ford escort.
I was rather pleased to have no injuries bar a stff neck for a coupe of days after climbing out of a very twisted wrecked car," think you get 2 grand for that now" f you go to the Dr and play on it ....
Insurance paid out 5k for the car and I got banned for nearly 2 yrs 550 fine. Ive had a imaculate licence since march97 not even a sp30 and still got my paper licence, that incident changed my life for the better.
Moment of madness that could have been so much worse.

few motorcycle off's but thats biking
 

400bhp

Guru
The insurance company later contacted my brother, and the feedback he got was they were holding sir responsible for the accident.

Their inquiries found he had not been maintaining his drains properly, so the insurer's view was it was his fault the water/ice was on the road.

Now, can we apply that principle to farmers and muddy roads ;-)
 

Turbo Rider

Just can't reMember
Who's harry Ferguson? Nice house..

He was a bit of an engineering wizard. Tractor, aeroplane and formula 1 innovator extraordinaire...probably how he got such a lovely house!

A guy went into the back of me once and got out of his car, only to introduce himself as "Barry the crash," so the omens weren't good from that moment. Both his wing mirrors were hanging off his car, which had nothing to do with him ramming me. Cost of repair was under the insurance excess amount as well and he was too much of a twat to answer his phone when I tried to call him for the money. Needless to say, avoid going near cars with dents, or other signs of damage...there's a reason why the damage got there and it probably isn't a good one.
 

Kestevan

Last of the Summer Winos
Location
Holmfirth.
I once managed to put a mates brand new Lotus Carlton on it's side in a ditch........I didn't realise just how quickly it would accelerate, and the 90 degree left hander got much closer, much faster than I expected. On the upside, once the local farmer had pulled us out of the ditch the only damage was a scratch on the drivers door and a bust wing mirror.

Much cheaper than the incident with the 106GTI, the icy road and my first introduction to lift-off oversteer...... now that was an interesting conversation with the fleet manager the following day...
 

swee'pea99

Legendary Member
Mate of mine 'borrowed' his old man's beloved, cherished and immaculate Austin Cambridge the day after passing his test. An hour later it was on its roof on Hammersmith Broadway. If you know the Austin Cambridge and Hammersmith Broadway, you will appreciate just what an achievement this was. Dad was not a happy bunny.
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
A pal of mine once reversed his dad's brand new Jaguar up the driveway of the old manse where they lived, holding open the door and looking out backwads for a good view. Unfortunately he failed to notice the tree, which removed the door.
 

PK99

Legendary Member
Location
SW19
article-2519779-19ED0A4B00000578-849_634x434.jpg
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
Now, can we apply that principle to farmers and muddy roads ;-)
The bunch ahead of me went down hard on a RH bend next to a farm on the Manchester 100 one year. The road surface immediately on the exit from the bend was covered in mud and slurry. At least one of the riders ended up in hospital, badly smashed up, his injuries including a broken bone in a leg.

I recognised the bend the following year and warned the riders behind me before we got to it. It was like a skating rink with slurry again ...
 

Kestevan

Last of the Summer Winos
Location
Holmfirth.
Not strictly speaking a crash, but a fair few years ago a mate at work was getting a new motor. He'd been on the waiting list for ages for some hi performance Japanese coupe, and it was now being delivered.

He was in the carpark watching the transporter driver unload his shiny new motor..... or more correctly watching the car roll off the transporter and fall a good 3 or 4 feet onto it's nose. Queue horrible crunching noise and not so shiny motor being re-loaded onto transporter.... The driver may have said some very naughty words......
 

shouldbeinbed

Rollin' along
Location
Manchester way
I was in a Fiat Panda that ended up in a river once. Dirt road on quite an uphill gradient, my mate driving decided he'd gone the wrong way so reversed down the hill at speed, stuck the brakes on at the bottom, locked the wheels on the loose screed, skidded straight back through a fence, down 6 foot of embankment and came to rest quite happily upright in 18 inches of river.
 

Gravity Aided

Legendary Member
Location
Land of Lincoln
We once had a steeplejack painting the 80 foot steeple of my old parish church. I had gone down to see the progress, as I was churchwarden at that time, and parked my father's rather new Oldsmobile on the street quite aways away, beyond our parish hall. When I came out, a wind had sprung up. The steeplejack, who had been painting with a sprayer, had covered the street, and all the cars on it, with a goodly coat of gray paint. Including my father's Oldsmobile, a local car dealers AMC, and a Lincoln Continental. I used my quarter-deck voice to alert the steeplejack to the situation, and he the noticed the great swath of gray. Colorful language was then heard from on high. I then went to my garage and got my now repaired Renault, and took my father to see the results of that mornings painting. The steeplejack knew a fellow who could get the paint off the cars, and did a fine job of doing so, I must say.
 
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