Re: WTF
had just 3 minor accidents
Total of :
1. On the 125cc bike - following a woman away from a roundabout and she decided to slam her brakes on as she suddenly wanted to turn right. My fault, I was too close.
2. In the pre-disastered Cortina, pulled out onto a roundabout only to discover that the van that had been indicating that it was turning off had decided not to. My fault and the last time I trusted anyone elses' indicators.
3. Again in the Cortina - rear-ended my dads car as he was towing me - to be fair, not my fault. He'd got his hazards on while towing me (at about 20 MPH). Woman was wating to pull out of the station, saw his indicators were on and assumed that he was turning into the station so pulled out in front of him. He hit her, I hit him.. (the Cortina brakes were, at the best of times, pretty ineffective and even more so with no servo assist due to a dead engine).
4. Again the Cortina - after fixing the dead engine issue in (3) above (distributor shaft split pin had sheared so no drive to the rotor..), pulled out of my parents driveway only to find that a woman was pulling out of the driveway about 50 feet down the road on the opposite side. I *almost* managed to stop in time. She claimed that "I was speeding and hit her". My response was "how fast do you think a 1.6l Cortina can be going with only 50 feet run-up, especially when about 20 of it is me doing a 90 degree right turn?". She also claimed for a whole front-end rebuild when the collision speed was about 5mph. Not my fault.
5. Our first car that we bought together after we got married (a Peugeot 309). Was driving on Wootten Bassett in the rain. Saw a bunch of stopped vehicles and hazard lights ahead so put my foot on the brake. Then noticed the big deisel slick that I was currently sliding though. Ended up hitting the pile and then having two cars behind joining us. Not my fault. The woman behind tried to claim that she'd stopped and I bounced back into her. Physics doesn't work like that..
6. Last one, on the Honda Fireblade 900. Deep winter, very icy. Had been go-karting out in a place in the country. Afterwards, got onto the bike thinking "take it easy, adrenalin is still flowing". Took it easy and cautious, right up until I rode over some black ice just after a bend. Bike went sliding off down the road with me sliding along after it. My main thought was "this is going to get expensive.." Fortunately, other than a scuffed right-hand engine cover and a destroyed hand grip, the bike was fine.