Have you ever witnessed a car crash?

[zipgun]

Easy way to tell if that paint is lead based.. taste it
What more could an old dog want ?




Hey, that wood burner.. i want one ,if i smash out my 30's concrete fire place,to make room, does that steel flue then connect to a flexi to the top of the chimney, or is it exiting into the unlined original flue ?

[tractorman]

The fire was installed by a HETAS "engineer" (though I suspect he is just time-served builder who specialises in fires). Like most things nowadays, you need the right paperwork if you want to sell the house (or let it).

The stove (Aarrow ecoburn 4S to be exact) was bought cheaply as it was ex-showroom and had been lit once - not that you'd notice, but a new one is about £600. The lad charged £1450 to strip the old fire out, rebuild the fireplace (the old fire had a back boiler, but the builders didn't use very good cement and the bricks were loose), put a flue liner and "witch's hat" on the chimney and lay my slate on the hearth. I think it should have taken five days, but it ended up a marathon as the lad chipped a bone in his foot, so was off for three days with that, then the weather was against him when the liner was supposed to go in, the flue wasn't the size he thought it was and plaster that he hadn't intended to touch fell off the wall!

My "heating engineer" friend (who is self-taught!) came and sat in front of the fire the other day and is really pi$$ed off. He's getting the same lad to put a stove in his second "front room" and is going to buy a "Clearview" stove that's slightly more powerful than my 4KW one. His fire will be £1200 - £1400 (I can't remember which) and he reckons mine is probably more suited to his needs! His room is slightly smaller than mine and my fire can overheat the room all too easily!

My bedroom is above the sitting room and I haven't needed a heater in it since the fire was installed - I'm hoping the stove and the Rayburn can keep the house warm enough in all but the coldest weather!

[zipgun]

cheers . John Bull printing kit should make a certificate

[Ian]

she was wearing her Police uniform

Pictures please!

Top man! he says what we are all thinking

[rich.]

taking daughter to school this morning there was a car on its roof in the ditch at the end of our lane.. i got out to check, thankfully it was empty..

[TerryG]

When I was 17 I put a car on it's roof, does that count as witnessing a crash?
On the drive home tonight there was a bus with a fairly serious engine fire on the side of the a38

[zipgun]

At 16 i wanted a Suzuki ap50, parents refused.. bought me a 1959 Morris.. and a bike . At 18, passed test the Morris still wasn't ready . I borrowed my sisters Herald 12/50.. she hadn't passed her test. 3 days.. rolled it .All very slowmotion ,( i got the blame, but now i know it was the Heralds fault !) Coming in the opposite direction, my boss..Not best pleased..A week or 2 back cycling Got a Austin 1100..crashed it . Morris 1300..crashed it , works viva van , crashed it Now short of vans at work , 2 brand spanking Bedford CF's appear , (one's the hot one, 2.3 litre ) , went like greased lightning I'm not allowed to drive them... Old Viva van allocated to me breaks down , "Be careful take the new CF " ( the 2.3!! i'm 18 !) Two miles, yep ,I crashed it .Met a lorry on a blind bend ,threw it in the hedge ..only a telephone pole is in the hedge too.I smash the nearside , lorry takes of the offside..write off .And this continued till i was 22 ,7 write offs !! Then i kinda grew up, and any accident since (and there's been a few) haven't been my fault .

[arceye]

At 16 i wanted a Suzuki ap50, parents refused.. bought me a 1959 Morris.. and a bike .

Ha... I had an ap50 55mph down over the bars. Still looking at the list of incidents you describe perhaps your parents were right

If we are discussing our own mishaps mine start with

ap50.. travelling slowly down outside of stationary traffic in Deepdale in Preston when a "local" decided to jump the que by turning right down a side street with no warning and without looking, trouble is I was just to the offside of his door when he made the manouvre and took me with him

BSA Starfire 250 .. a lass on the back already with her arm in a cast, dark night, wind and rain swept in Leyland just outside the Eagle and Child biker pub, me rounding bend over a large metal manhole type cover when a car pulls out, touch brakes, slide on said manhole type cover thing, drop bike watch every fragment of headlamp glass break. Luckily we were alright. Famous words, "Sorry Mate, I didn't see ya". Thats what one of the jobs of the big yellow shiny thing on the front was for before it broke alright it was only one light but in the dark...

Superdream 250.. Midge Hall in Leyland, overtake two learners in cars doing 30 on a long straight in a 60mph zone, pull back in line using most of my brakes... my mistake as the car in front was a Granada driven by a farmer who decided in an instant to stop in the middle of the road to peer into his field of cabbages. Little braking left, over the Rickman Fairing onto Granada boot, bike in hedge, me in road bleeding quite heavily from snout and with a bruised but intact body my fault technically I suppose.

Mk 1 astra van, bought on finance and just a couple of years old, "1300" engine that somehow could project this van at speeds of up to 118 mph, on way to work near Ribchester, 60 zone, doing 60, round bend, massive Daimler Jag coming out of garage forecourt, Jag in hedge across road, me suddenly on the forecourt. Dead van, Jag drove off after exchanging details.

Mk 2 astra van, somewhere near Stafford / Shropshire border? boss driving having been to look at the weekends cushy handsignalling job, turns right at crossroads, oncoming pickup in my side of van and back up the road about twenty yards. That one bloody hurt, door wrapped round leg, trip to Stafford General in an ambulance but amazingly just muscle damage / bruising etc but I still suffer pains from that one today. Insult to injury, after any accident BR would book you off so no pay and cushy weekend job now off due to injury.. Probably lucky that the pickup hit the front wheel and engine bay which stopped him coming all the way in.

Seen too many, some bad, on my travels to list them, but two most recent (last couple of months)...

Newly qualified direct access test motorcyclist, Suzuki 1000, dark night, thinks he's on a race track, comes part way round bend on the top road, bike and rider into dyke wall, suzi back in road while rider stays at the wall. Unconscious at first, but amazingly nothing broken in the end other than his bike.

and to bring us back on topic... as this was a statement job for the bobbies etc..

On the top road again (nearest main road to our house but not really much wider than a single track) car coming from side road simply doesn't stop and goes straight across road and through the dyke into field. I called the bobbies for that one rather than an ambulance as the bugger could barely stand or speak but only cos he'd been at the golf club tournament. He won't be driving for a year or so despite failing to provide a sample..

Dodgy business this driving lark really isn't it

[JPB]

Quite o/t I know but I once borrowed a mate's Father's nearly new (under 4k on the odo) MK1 Astra L 1300S 5 door hatch to take the Mrs from Horsforth across to Blackpool one autumn night back in the '80s so that she could have a look at the illuminations, on the M55 I achieved an indicated 135mph and judging by the way in which we didn't come close to being overtaken on either leg of that trip, the actual speed must have been well over 110. Cracking good engine that was, though matey's Dad did, coincidentally, observe a previously absent oil consumption & smoking habit in his pride and joy shortly after I'd been in about at the car. Jammy bugger only proffed for a new engine under warranty!

Yesterday - and here the original reason for my posting here - I was driving through the one way system in Galashiels (Selkirkshire) on my way home from a visit to a facility that my work has across there. It's as simple a one way system as it's possible to get with traffic being sent round the town centre in clearly marked lanes however there's a bus stop in lane one which is used by buses that then need into lane two to head off in the direction they need to be. 99.9% of the time this isn't a problem as most of the locals have common sense but the young lad in the lowered Polo, having flashed his headlamps at his friend who was walking towards the traffic on the footpath, didn't see that the bus driver had assumed the flash was for his benefit so over he came into lane two, mounting the bonnet of the Polo as he did so. Oh how we all chuckled as the rest of us sat there for the forty five minutes it took to separate the vehicles involved and clear the route. (All parties were out and walking immediately so it was ok to find this amusing, such are the rules ).

[Dave3066]

Seen a few incidents in front of me over the years. The most bizarre involving no other vehicles at all.

I was driving to work across the Tay road bridge years ago before they removed the observation platforms that used to be at either end of the bridge. These concrete platforms were just above double decker bus height and sat across the full width of the bridge. There was a large tipper lorry in front of me and I could see his bucket starting to elevate as he got closer to the concrete platform. The driver was clearly oblivious as the bucket slammed into the platform bringing the lorry to a rather sudden stop! The driver was catapulted out the windscreen and suffered fairly major injuries, but survived.

Another time I was following a car along a wide country road when the driver lost control and spun off into a tree in front of me. I reckon he must've clipped the verge. I stopped to give assistance and called 999. The couple were okay but had clearly suffered whiplash injuries.

Finally, I was again following a couple of cars ahead of me on a cold frosty morning along a 30mph stretch of wide city road. The guy in front decides to overtake the car in front of him but as he turns in he must've hit a patch of ice causing the car to pirouette off the nearside of the road. The guy who was now in front of me just kept driving on, completely uninterested in the car that had spun off in front of him.

Dave