I was driving home yesterday after visiting my girlfriends parents along a dangerous 'A' road with my girlfriend in the passenger seat. The road is two lanes, quite narrow, very twisty and hilly, it's renowned around here as a very dangerous road. To give you an idea of how narrow it is, if two lorries were passing each other there wouldn't be much space seperating their wing-mirrors.

Background to my driving experience: I only passed my driving test 6 months ago, but hadn't driven until the end of October when I bought my first car, so I wasn't taking any risks and driving within my limits.

It was about 5.30pm and had just turned dark. I'd just slowed to turn a corner, as I turned it I started to accelerate away (national speed limit - 60mph), going up towards the brow of a hill. As I was approaching it I saw the orange lights you get on the top of a lorry's rigging coming up the other side.

Next thing I know I've spotted 2 sets of headlights.
'That doesn't seem right', I think. '****!!! Someone's overtaking that lorry!'

I was just passing 50mph. Staring down the headlights of a car, in my lane, who must've been hitting 60mph. This is a head-on collision in the making.

My instincts take over. Luckily there's a small layby, about a meter in width, on the outside of my lane. It's not very long, but I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Still doing 50mph, I slam on the breaks and somehow swerve into the layby to find some extra space. My tyres screech, but I manage to control the skid. Tyres screech as the oncoming car just manages to get ahead of the lorry and swerve back into his lane, missing us by a meter at most and the front of the lorry by a similar margin. The end of the layby is approaching but I've slowed to a crawl, so we're safe. I look in my rear view mirror. Another pair of headlights are hurtling towards us.

'This guy's going to go into the back of us now.' Thinks I.

I see his back end do that side-to-side wobble you see when someone skids. He just manages to stop...

Whew! I gather my senses and check we're both okay before continuing the journey home.

That was a very close shave.

Since then I've been thinking. It's amazing the way instincts and reaction takes over. My memory of it is still clear enough to recount it here. I can't remember exactly what I did, although I remember what happened.

The what ifs... What if I'd been a fraction of a second further ahead?, etc... It's in the past now so it's not that important... Was I unlucky to have met that idiot, obviously without a clue about how to drive responsibly? Or lucky to have met him when I did, with the layby there? It felt like there was someone watching over us the way I reacted and the speed it happened at...

**** man ! good to hear your okay but i hate bad drivers ! and drunk drivers they both piss me of .. its hard to say .. but fate has a funny way of working

yeah some people just don't look properly before they act ... and think they can pull it off :kader:

I almost ran over this huge dog last night !! it was sitting on the pavement when I noticed him ... and he decided to start cross the street when I was only like 30 meters from him... :kader: what a silly dog had to hit the breaks as the dog was so fat that it took him forever to run across the street
at least my life wasn't in danger like yours.... it just makes you freak out when you know you come close to what could've been an accident

Originally posted by ShearerM4
yeah some people just don't look properly before they act ... and think they can pull it off :kader:
Yeah. This bloke obviously couldn't see me over the top of the hill, so why he'd decide to go for it when he can't see that far ahead is beyond me. :nape:

You can defenitely count yerself very lucky, thank goodness there was a layby. There really are some mad drivers on the road these days but it's funny how decent drivers always get caught for doing 5mph over the speed limit.

Yeah, man, you were very lucky, make no mistakes about it. I know exactly what you felt, because I get that kind of feeling at least once a month, in this country plagued with morons who let their egos drive, a country in which most U25 drivers, every time they get a couple friends on the passenger seats, feel they have to do the macho routine and prove they are the new Ayrton Sennas, a country that has 1 million alcoholics who are responsible for Portugal being ranked 2nd in world alcohol comsumption (!!!!) and see no problem in driving from the pubs to their homes, a country where you can kill someone on the road and walk away.
As I say to my friends, if you, one of these days, have to kill someone, just drink a couple beers, pick up your car and ran over your victim. Then blame it on the alcohol. Three months later you'll be driving your car again as nothing ever happened.

I'm not exagerating, man, I lost count of how many times I've had cars driving in my lane. :kader:
I could write a book on all the unbelievable things I've see drivers do on the road: from cars going in reverse gear on motorways, to trucks driving at 80Km/h in my street! Hell, this last sunday morning, as I was driving to my footy game, I passed a 3-wheeled motorbicycle going at 20Km/h on the freeway! Can you imagine that!?

My advice: if you ever come here, take the train instead.

Originally posted by INFESTA
Yeah, man, you were very lucky, make no mistakes about it. I know exactly what you felt, because I get that kind of feeling at least once a month, in this country plagued with morons who let their egos drive, a country in which most U25 drivers, every time they get a couple friends on the passenger seats, feel they have to do the macho routine and prove they are the new Ayrton Sennas, a country that has 1 million alcoholics who are responsible for Portugal being ranked 2nd in world alcohol comsumption (!!!!) and see no problem in driving from the pubs to their homes, a country where you can kill someone on the road and walk away.
As I say to my friends, if you, one of these days, have to kill someone, just drink a couple beers, pick up your car and ran over your victim. Then blame it on the alcohol. Three months later you'll be driving your car again as nothing ever happened.

I'm not exagerating, man, I lost count of how many times I've had cars driving in my lane. :kader:
I could write a book on all the unbelievable things I've see drivers do on the road: from cars going in reverse gear on motorways, to trucks driving at 80Km/h in my street! Hell, this last sunday morning, as I was driving to my footy game, I passed a 3-wheeled motorbicycle going at 20Km/h on the freeway! Can you imagine that!?

My advice: if you ever come here, take the train instead.

I remember being on holiday in Spain with the school last year. Little village just outside Loret De Mar on the Costa Brava. It was a lovely little place, but anyway. The drivers were mad. The limit was 30 but I regularly saw them doing 70+ on the little coastal roads (and this was during the day). Almost got ran over more than once and I reckon some them were drunk aswell.

Well, thank god you're still ok.

I saw a number plate on sale in Australia - "TAC 005" (TAC has campaigns against drinking driving and 0.05 is the alcohol limit.

Almost everytime I have ever been near an accident I go into that Matrix time zone...

Music goes silent

Movement goes strobe

Exterior Sound amplifies

It honestly is one of the most amazing experiences to be in or nearly in a wreck.

Thank god you reacted perfectly... personally I would give credit to all the video games you play, 'cause nothing builds reaction time and hand-eye coordination like that.

Now that we are on the subject of driving let me point out Paris. That has to be the worst city as far as bad driving is concerned, especially the arc the triomphe, there are no rules, everyone drives like mad and the funny thing is that because everyone drives so extrememly bad and dangerous there are hardly any accidents...except the well behaved tourist drivers:rolleyes: :D

What about the Autobarn???

"SPEED LIMIT: ?"
(H) :mrpimp:

Originally posted by FuriousGeorge
personally I would give credit to all the video games you play, 'cause nothing builds reaction time and hand-eye coordination like that.
Oddly enough that's what I said to my girlfriend straight after it happened. :D he-he. 'I wouldn't moan about me playing video games as much any more.' :D lol

I'm glad I don't live in Portugal. Where I live there's loads of country lanes and country pubs. I've never understood why people would have pubs where you have to drive to, although they're really nice. I suppose the responsibility lies with the driver though.

In the UK the laws on drink driving are tight compared to Portugal. I think the legal limit is something like 2 pints. They should change this though, if you've had half-a-pint IMO you shouldn't be allowed to drive. That's a rule I've put on myself but you can't account for what anyone else is doing. In that sense I'm more worried about what other drivers are doing, especially young kids (under 25), than what I'm doing because I can dictate whether I drive like an asshole or not.

We have the same problem with young drivers here, who, like Infesta said, 'let their egos drive.' It's a shame that a persons responsibility can't be tested before they obtain a driving license.

Originally posted by Deutschland
What about the Autobarn???

"SPEED LIMIT: ?"
(H) :mrpimp:

Yeh, you get some fat bloke in a Mercedes doing 220km/h lol. But funny enough there aren't that many accidents and traffice does move along nicely.

Originally posted by PhiLLer
Yeh, you get some fat bloke in a Mercedes doing 220km/h lol. But funny enough there aren't that many accidents and traffice does move along nicely.

That's cos you're all going the same way at the same speed, and lorries stay out of the fast lane (unlike the M6 through Birmingham!)
:f***:

Originally posted by PhiLLer
Yeh, you get some fat bloke in a Mercedes doing 220km/h lol. But funny enough there aren't that many accidents and traffice does move along nicely.
yeah that's coz people in Germany respect others ... and respect the driving laws.
here inFrance people are rude and think they are kings when in their cars :kader: