I've just come back from my holiday in Cornwall. The weather wasn't very good.
On the way there, I had an accident. It was definitely an accident, because I didn't mean to do it. I ran into the car in front. After 25 miles of M25 stop-start, I suffered a "momentary lapse of concentration". Couldn't tell you exactly what happened, because I don't know.
The car in front went into the back of the one in front of him.
There was very little apparent damage to the front of my car, but it had become stuck on the towing hook of my victim. There was no apparent damage to the front car, an SUV, as the middle car's bonnet had come into contact with the spare wheel cover. Said bonnet was a complete mess. And talking of mess, there was a lot of liquid on the road under my car.
I called the police. A couple of gentlemen from the Highways Agency turned up after a few minutes, executing a clever little wiggle in their vehicle aimed at stopping the traffic, which had been speeding past at anything up to 4mph. They assessed the situation. Despite suggestions from all the drivers and the recovery truck driver who turned up shortly after they did, that we make some attempt to separate the vehicles by bouncing or lifting, the Highways Agency gentlemen order the middle car driver to just drive forward until the cars were separated. Result: the nearside of my bumper was pulled off. My car was deemed undriveable, because of the bumper and the fluid on the road. We were transported to a recovery area just off the M25. Don't know what happened to the other two cars - they were driveable.
A cursory inspection of my car by myself and the recovery truck driver failed to establish where the leak had come from. The towing hook had penetrated the front nearside foglight, and there was a whole bunch of pipework behind there, any part of which may have been damaged.
I spent the next 3 hours on the phone to my insurance company, who were ever so friendly and helpful, but were completely unable to find any way of extricating me, my wife and a carful of holiday baggage from the recovery area. It was Friday afternoon, and they couldn’t get a replacement car delivered to me. Good grief – we were only 20 miles from Heathrow, and they couldn’t find a car hire company! In the end, I gave up, and tried to get a taxi to the airport so I could rent a car myself.
Then things got a little better. I hadn’t actually known where we were, but while trying to explain to a taxi company where to come, I realised that I had a cousin who lived somewhere near there. About a mile away, it turned out. And she was home. So she came and rescued me. At the same time as she turned up, another recovery driver, a very friendly Liverpudlian, came along. He asked if he could have a look. So I opened the bonnet.
Now you all know what’s coming next, so I could make a competition of it, but I won’t.
We noticed that the yellow cap of the screenwasher reservoir was standing proud of the radiator cover. So I hadn’t lost the engine coolant, or the aircon fluid, and the engine proved to be fully functional. Just the washer bottle. The helpful Scouser disappeared and then came back with a big roll of gaffer tape and some cable ties, and were on the road again.
I will have a few words to say tomorrow to the Liverpool Victoria Insurance company. And I’m not best pleased with the Highways Agency either, although I do appreciate that their priority is to get the road clear.
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Topic: Sad story (Read 1387 times)