There’s NO doubt in my mind that I should be DEAD now (AGAIN) but thankfully I’ve once again avoided the Grim Reapers best efforts to bump me off. LOL
It’s been said before that I’ve used up more lives than a cat (which is true) and as a consequence I felt I’d had my share of life threatening accidents long ago but this last incident has proved that’s not the case.
Accepting that the incident could not have been ‘entirely’ avoided, there is no doubt that the outcome (as bad as it was), was the least worst case outcome and as a consequence, both Janet and I are EXTREMELY LUCKY to have lived to tell the tale, with such RELATIVELY ‘minor’ injuries – bearing in mind that almost any injury could be considered ‘minor’ relative to being dead.
This latest incident happened as follows;
1) Janet and I were travelling down to a B&B near Gatwick airport on Friday night, to stop overnight for a midday flight to Las Vegas on Saturday.
2) Unfortunately I decided to include a minor detour which took us along the A roads of Lincolnshire.
3) This part of Lincolnshire is all low level flat farm land with single carriageway roads running alongside irrigation dykes (man made rivers), which is worked by EU immigrants.
4) I’d just driven along a long straight section of the A17 (at the speed limit – Janet wouldn’t allow anything more, plus there wasn’t any rush) and was approaching a long, open, sweeping left hand bend and I could see a row of headlights approaching me from the opposite direction.
5) Being on a bend the lights ‘looked’ like they were in a queue on the opposite side of the road (as you’d expect) but as I got further round the bend, it became apparent that one car was ‘trying’ to overtake part or all of the queue – without indicating.
6) For a SPLIT SECOND I waited for him to pull back in to the queue but he showed no sign that he’d even seen me, so I was left with no option but to steer to my near side and into the field to avoid a head on collision.
7) A split second after I’d steered to the left, the other car turned to his right (my left), totally counteracting my efforts to avoid him and putting us back on course for an ALMOST head on impact.
8) Split seconds later we were stationary and both Janet and I were in a great deal of pain.
9) Thanks to the slight misalignment of the impact, some of the destructive force was used turning the Volvo through 90 degrees beached on the road/field side and the VW through 180 degrees, rather than all being directed at Janet and I. We later discovered that this SHORT section of road is the ONLY part for miles and miles that doesn’t have a dyke running alongside it and the Police Officer who attended the scene, said that had that not been the case, we would almost certainly have drowned, as others have done before us elsewhere on the road.
10) The combination of this and the Volvo’s impact resistant design, saved us both from terminal damage to our organs but it wasn’t enough to save us from the serious injuries we did suffer.
11) Both of us suffered a fractured sternum and bruising of our internal organs. In addition to those injuries I also suffered a fractured rib and worst of all (due to already being minus my right leg), I fractured/smashed a number of bones in my left foot, as a consequence of braking at the point of impact.
12) My chest damage was so bad that I had to lay flat on my back for 48 hours, unable to move a muscle without being in extreme pain and even now, both of us find it very hard to move from either a laid down or sat up position.
13) Getting about with one good leg and the other artificial, has been hard enough for the past 36 years but having my good foot smashed and being told I can’t put any weight on it even in a pot, is beyond impossible.
14) No doubt our chest injuries will heal sooner or later but I’m EXTREMELY concerned about how my foot will end up.
15) For now every minute (whether we move or not) is painful to some degree and even tapping the keys for this post has been very painful and as a consequence has taken me most of the day to do, so I won’t be able to do any work for a good while. I’d therefore be very grateful to any and all of you who have and/or will, provide answers to posts on the forum while I recover.
A few other details; i) The Latvian had only been in the UK THREE days, before ‘thinking’ he was experienced enough in driving on the opposite side of the road and capable enough to make such an insane manoeuvre, ii) He escaped without injury but one of his passengers was in intensive care for a week and had his spleen removed, iii) a 2 yr old child passenger who wasn’t in a child seat or a belt, suffered a fractured skull.
For the record, the cause of this incident was the same as the one that took my leg off, some IDIOT trying to overtake without correctly assessing their ability to do so SAFELY.
Until meeting Janet (approx 15 years ago), I’d have carried out millions of high speed over taking manoeuvres SAFELY, so there’s no need for speed or overtaking to lead to injuries in the right hands. It’s therefore my hope that everyone reading this post will act on the following advice; Unless you are CERTAIN you can complete an over taking manoeuvre SAFELY – DON’T TAKE THE RISK!!!
The other guys car.
all the very best for a good recovery..
