motorway wreck
when i turned 18 i became insured under my dad's company car policy. it was a brand new car with a three.two litre engine, less than a week old, and had cost the company some £40,000. so doing about 85mph with my entire family in the car, i tried to go from the outside lane into the middle.

at the same time as a van tried to go from the inside lane into the middle.

result: my dad saw him, shouted, grabbed my arm. i spun the steering wheel to go back into the outside lane. never do this at 85mph. the result was a nasty slewing sensation and then a series of bangs and swearing. turned out we'd hit the central reservation, spun round and shot back across the motorway to hit the barrier on the hard shoulder.

somehow we hadn't hit anything else or turned over despite the rush hour traffic. poor car was a write off though. after a week. i kept saying: oh my god, your new car, i'm so sorry, i'm so sorry. eventually my dad replied: "look. we're all ok so f*ck the car" -at which point i said: "i've already done that" - and burst into tears.

so cost the nice insurance people £40,000 for the car plus contents... and christ knows how many thousands of pounds an hour to close the m56 to repair the barriers. for those of you who know manchester, it was in the exact same spot between northenden and the airport where the poor people on their way to holidays weren't so lucky when their minibus tried the same trick.

apologies for length but we all know that shorter is never really sweeter.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Sun 28 Nov 2004, 19:38, Reply)