My friend managed to reverse her car into the front of her house. Yes she put it in reverse instead of first! No, it wasn't an automatic!!
However, the (even) crazier thing is when she did this, she went to get out the car and the door swung back on her. She kicked it so hard that, that it broke the hinge straps and bent the edge of the door!
Result - insurance company is logging it as 2 different claims!
Ouch!
Also reminds me of the time I saw a minor bump where an old gentleman had failed to do a hill start properly and rolled into the car behind him, bumper to bumper. Both drivers got out, checked that there was no damage. Car behind then reversed back a bit to give the old gentleman chance to do his hil start. But he hadn't put his hand brake on and this time rolled back again but managed to smash the headlights!
Any other examples of accidents made worse?
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This isn't really an accident made worse, just a big accident from a small beginning.
A colleague's partner managed to do thousands of pounds worth of damage to her BMW simply by leaving the door open a fraction as she reversed out of her garage.
The car door swung open, hit the garage doorpost, bent the door back and it fell off.
Result:
New car door with all accessories, doorpost, front wing, wiring loom, windscreen, repairs to cill. And a new garage door.
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Cliff - on this topic, many years ago our neighbour reversed his Maxi into his garage forgetting that the tailgate was still up. Not sure how he missed the sound of the exhaust, but ..
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....or the spouse of an American friend of mine in Florida who reached up to press the auto garage door opener as she swung into the driveway at a fair old lick in her Expedition as she'd done a thousand times before, turned to look at a frantic husband flailing his arms, wondered what the devil he wanted and drove smack into the steel door. Realising what she'd done, she immediately reversed, went too far and clobbered a passing taxi.
Cause: power outage and failure to stop and listen to hubby.
Effect: new grille, both headlamps, lots of front end body work. new garage door, side impact taxi damage, police all over and snickering from neioghbours etc etc.
Not long before that on a Sunday she was expecting friends for lunch and, realising she'd run out of gas for the BBQ, was about to rush to the local gas station for a refill and backed straight into her guests' new Nissan Frontier, which had arrived rather earlier than invited.
Cause: ahem, ahem,
Result: strained atmosphere over lunch, rear end damage to Expedition and nasty front end resculpting of the new Nissan from the towball.
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Quite a few years ago, I was driving my Aunt's (then brand new) Volvo 440 along the A3 near Richmond. Came to a roundabout and mis-judged the speed ... anyway ended up very gently nudging the rear of the white VW transporter van in front of me.
Van stops and out gets King Kong or at least builder with the same build, comes round the back of the van and inspects the damage - nothing other than a(nother) scratch on his towball. I'm still in the car having a brown trousers moment. Anyway, I thought it would be best to get out and at least have a look and apologise etc. So I release the clutch - but forget that the car was still in gear and this time it lunges forward and hits the rear of the van even harder.
I've now changed my mind about getting out and decide to stay in the car. Builder bloke does a double take at me and the back of his van, shakes his head and gets back in and drives off.
Me, well I went home changed my trousers and bought my Aunt a new front number plate.
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Slightly off topic but Bobby G lists the double wammmy from rolling backwards twice from the hill starts.
It could have been worse as they could claim that you drove into the back of them as happened with me once. It would be difficult to prove without witnesses. Fortunatley there was no damage done in my case.
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An ex work colleage misjudged the exit to a roundabout whilst driving his mother's Fiat 500 and nudged a taxi.
This threw the taxi off course and into a lamp post which fell on the taxi, writing it off.
The only damage to the Fiat was a dent and scrape on the wing.
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My aunt and uncle are very accident prone when it comes to cars. Their record includes:
1. Mark 2 Cortina Automatic. Parked in their garage. Always leave it in park so one notch down for reverse. This time left in neutral, one notch down was drive (so the story goes). Uncle looks over his shoulder to reverse out and goes straight out the back of the wooden garage! The whole end panel fell down and they were able just to nail it back together again!
2. Same car - Uncle parked it in George Square in Glasgow with Krooklock on between steering wheel and brake pedal. He is 6'2" and managed to climb in, lift his leg over the krooklock and, yes, you guessed the rest. The taxi at the first set of traffic lights didn't have a chance!
3. Same car, kids very young. Where better to keep the Xmas presents out of their way than in the boot of the car. Car was stolen and boot emptied...
4. Peugeot 504 Family Estate (Chocolate Brown in colour), going along M8 in Glasgow, round the sweeping bend just after Barlinnie, and the steering wheel comes off in his hands! Car runs along the crash barrier and comes to a halt. Car wrecked but all safe!
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