Survival with aplomb
Coming back from a horrible school ski holiday (bastard bindings had been too tight, nasty resort, scary icy slopes, chairlift bloody difficult to get off, etc), our coach back to the French port was happily trundling along the Austrian autobahn (yes, we had to drive through Germany and France... nowt like a 23-hour coach journey to make you appreciate motorway service stations) in the cold and the darkness.

One moment, fine, next: coach at 45-degree angle. At least, that was my point of view. Most other people had noticed that something was awry and that the coach was no longer parallel to the road's white lines, and had terrifiedly realised what was going to happen. The front of the coach was totally smashed (drivers were alright, though), and I was completely unaware of this also. So, I thought it was all a ripping lark, and I started an impromptu B-movie narration of it ("O calamity! How will our intrepid explorers extricate themselves from this predicament?" or something like that). As one, everyone around me said, "shut up, Anna!" in between panicked sobs.

I was one of few people who had no injuries whatsoever. This I attribute to the fact that I was also one of the few people who'd bothered to wear the seatbelts. Buckle up, kids.
The girl next to me hadn't been wearing her seatbelt, and was only saved from head injury by the fact that she collided with anchored me instead of falling into the aisle.

Huddled together in the cold dawn hours in a German service station, we were nevertheless very excited to see our mangled coach on the German news. It was only then that I realised what a nasty situation we'd been in.
( Bob Todd whee, Fri 26 Nov 2004, 9:39, Reply)